MONDAY, 25th SEPTEMBER : SARDINIA to PERTH
There is some catching up to do with the blog as it's several days behind, so I will try to remember the sequence of events since Tuesday 19th, our last day in Cagliari, Sardinia.
We left our hotel at 8.30am on WEDNESDAY, 20th to walk to the railway station to find a taxi to take us to the airport.
Taxis are not permitted in our street, which didn't cause a problem for us as it was an easy walk, with just carry-on luggage and although there was another cruise ship in port, it had only recently arrived and its passengers had not yet been released into the town.
While waiting at the airport for the 10.30am flight to Frankfurt-Hahn, we had coffee and a bite to eat, in lieu of breakfast, and on arrival at around 12.40pm, we had a filled roll and a cup of coffee each while waiting for Carlo, our hotel owner, to collect us for the 3.7km drive to Sohren where we stayed the night. After a snooze in the afternoon, we sorted out our luggage, (we'd left a large bag at the hotel the previous week, which contained another large fold-up bag in which we carried the bike gear) in readiness for the next flight. Carlo and his wife Angela run the hotel, and the next door restaurant and in the evening we strolled to the restaurant for an excellent meal accompanied by wine and beer, followed by a short walk around the block. The restaurant was almost full with locals out enjoying good food and socialising with family and friends. The atmosphere was loud and convivial, it's good to see people having a good time!
On THURSDAY, 21st SEPTEMBER : After breakfast in the restaurant and another walk, we packed up the remainder of our belongings and were driven by Carlo to the airport to wait for the coach which would take us back to Frankfurt am Main. We had a little over an hour to wait so had the inevitable bite to eat and coffee (there was a pattern emerging here!). The coach was a double decker but with not a lot of room and Mike couldn't stand upright upstairs, we both hit our heads on the shelf above the seats, which was not a lot of fun. The journey was more than 2 hours long, along now familiar territory as we'd travelled the same route the previous week, once by bus and once in the motorhome. It's lovely scenery all the way so we didn't mind.
On our arrival at the bus station in Frankfurt, we collected our 2 large bags (now containing the bike gear and our two folding carry-on bags) from the coach's baggage hold and walked to the nearby railway station, stored the bags in lockers, and went walkabout to fill in the time until our 10.00pm departure for Singapore. First stop was at a cafe where we sat and had a glass each of refreshing, freshly made lemonade, then we walked to the Main Tower where for 6 euros each (pensioner price) and after going through a security check, we rode in the lift to the 54th floor, then climbed a couple of flights of stairs to the viewing platform.
Markets had been held in a closed off section of the street and were being dismantled when we arrived.
Frankfurt is home to some lovely old buildings
and attractive parks with interesting sculptures, which we passed on the walk to the tower
Frankfurt is large city with many modern buildings successfully mingling with the old
one of which is the green roofed Old Opera House
We decided to walk the couple of blocks from the tower to the Main River and noticed along the way, several members of the police force (some we saw at the railway station were wearing riot gear) and as we reached the river, two police vehicles blocked off one of the streets where we could see in the distance, what appeared to be an exceedingly large group of people, predominantly wearing red clothing, marching along and chanting though we couldn't make out what they were chanting. We wondered if there was a protest or a soccer match about to happen and discovered a little later that a game was to break out in Frankfurt at 6.45pm between Frankfurt and Aberdeen. Many Scottish accents were heard as we wandered along so I'd hazard a guess that their owners had journeyed across to Frankfurt to watch the game.
After the police vehicles drove off and the traffic started moving again, we walked down the steps to the river path and strolled slowly along to the old town
enjoying the view as were these ducks
We found an unoccupied bench and claimed it as our own for half ann hour or so, to sit and wath the passers by pass by, on the river and on the land
and when mounted police arrived
we, and a few others, followed to see what, if anything, was happening. They were obviously off duty and about to be transported back home, but we're still in the dark about the heavy police presence.
Leaving the riverside then, we wandered into the old town, taking care not to step in the evidence of the horses' recent presence, bought ice creams and sat on a bench to eat them, wondering all the while why so much rubbish was lying about. A newly wed couple emerged from the church in the square and were serenaded by Scottish football fans who were drinking in a pub opposite. I don't know if the fans were responsible for the rubbish and of course, don't know how the newlyweds felt when confronted with the broken bottles, broken glasses and all the accumulated rubbish.
At an outdoor cafe with cold drinks, we discussed what our next move would be and decided to take a tram ride back to the railway station, collect the bags and take the train to the airport to wait, which is what we did. By this time, I'm happy to say, a team of expert cleaners had been to the square and cleaned up all the garbage.
Inside the Frankfurt Railway Station
And so we waited and eventually boarded our flight to Singapore, and as the plane was not completely full, were lucky enough to have an extra seat so were able to spread out a little. It was still a long flight though and we arrived in Singapore at 5.15pm on FRIDAY, 22nd. We were informed before landing that Singapore now requires an electronic immigration card to replace the old paper/cardboard one. Being extremely tired, just a little emotional and both feeling unwell, we had difficulty accessing the information needed to carry out this request. In the arrival hall, there are monitors available and people to assist in filling in these forms but some of the information required is not easily attained. For instance, when filling in a home address, it's not possible to type in Perth, Australia, you have to scroll through the whole of the country to find your city of residence and it's the same for your city of departure. Then, you have to take a photo of the document with your mobile phone, take it to the immigration officer where your passport must be presented, your photograph will be taken again, as well as your thumbprints. By the time we were allowed into the country and had found our carousel, our two bags were sitting forlornly beside it as all others had gone. We took a taxi ride into the city, it was raining heavily most of the way but we could still appreciate the drive in, it is the prettiest airport drive we've seen anywhere.
After checking into our hotel, we found a cafe nearby where we had a meal, then went back to the hotel, showered and fell into bed.
On SATURDAY, 23rd SEPTEMBER : After a night interrupted by a couple of bouts of intense coughing, we somehow managed to sleep until late morning. Feeling almost human, we ventured out into the steamy heat, first to find breakfast/brunch/lunch and then to the MRT where we were informed that it is not possible to buy a single ticket, a credit card must be used to tap on and off through the turnstiles. I don't know how a visitor could get on without a credit card. A day ticket can be purchased for 22 Singapore dollars but we weren't intending to make enough trips to warrant buying two of those. Our first train ride was to the Marina Bay area and we spent the afternoon walking about, trying to recognize the Singapore we last visited. It's been a while, much has changed and many new buildings have been added to the landscape, softened by the beautiful gardens throughout.
The Customs House
where staff were preparing for a very large wedding
Old Fullerton Bldg - Westin Stamford Hotel (now Swissotel the Stamford) - One Fullerton Bldg
Merlion - F1 Grand Prix seating - Singapore Flyer
We left the Bay, crossed this section of the road used for the Grand Prix held a week ago
to walk through the air conditioned Marina Square shopping centre to find the MRT station
Train Entrance/Exit doors on an MRT station
Saturday Night at Newton's Circus
where we've had several excellent meals on previous visits, tonights's meal was not one of them!! Finding a vacant table was difficult as the place was packed but we managed to secure a couple of seats near Kiosk #78, ordered meals from the menu the woman in the photo brought over to us, but when they finally arrived they did not resemble the photos shown on the menu. They were only just warm, were tasteless and overpriced. Unfortunately there was a language problem, otherwise we would have complained bitterly and demanded replacement meals or a refund but the best we can do is to warn others.....do not buy meals from Kiosk 78 in Newton's Circus!!!!
SUNDAY, 24th SEPTEMBER : Our last day and it was raining. We went out for a brief walk then decided to return to the hotel, finish packing in order to check out at midday, leaving our bags in storage until the early evening and spend some time in the fresh, though steamy, air. A very good bakery/patisserie a few doors up from the hotel was the first port of all and we ordered coffee and a pastry each. The air conditioning was turned down rather low so we didn't linger. It was a short walk to Bugis Street from there
which was crowded, we didn't find anything we fancied so walked to the MRT station where we boarded a train to Chinatown, also crowded
but we enjoyed shuffling around with the crowds....for a little while
and admired the superb murals painted on the otherwise drab walls
The use of lots of colour we found rather cheerful on a wet, grey day and shuffled around a little more
until finding a nice, quiet Vietnamese cafe which served excellent noodles
We then decided to visit Little India, but only briefly. It was raining, there was little shelter and didn't feel very inviting so,
up the escalator to the train back into the city and to a shopping mall where we had coffee. We agreed
that we'd had enough wandering, went back to the hotel, collected our bags, rang for a taxi and drove out to the airport, thinking that we might as well wait there as anywhere else.
We'd already checked in on-line and took the bags to the kiosk for the baggage labels, scanning our passports as required, then took them to the bag drop, once again showing our passports and having unburdened ourselves of baggage, walked to Terminal 1 to "The Jewel". Luckily, there are several travellators on the way as it is quite a walk. There is a train between terminals 1 and 3 but I think it's only for transit passengers. Our first visit to the Jewel was about a week after it opened so we were interested to see what changes had been made since then. The waterfall and the gardens remain though it is now mostly a large shopping centre with a few cafes and many rather expensive looking shops...and large crowds.
We stayed a while and watched the waterfall change colours, then walked back to Terminal 3, showing our passports again before going through security, then found seats near our departure gate and waited for the call. When it came, we showed our passports yet again, went through another security check, again showing passports and soon after, boarded the plane bound for home.
There were a few hiccups along the way, there always are, but none that couldn't be overcome (except for colds which we have still). Although 4 of the last 5 days were mostly spent travelling, or waiting to travel, it was a most enjoyable holiday. The bike ride was great fun, the motorhome itself was not the best but the times we had and the places we visited were fantastic and Sardinia was just awesome.
We love to go travelling but are always glad to come home...there is simply no place like it!!!
