We welcomed a lovely house-sitter to look after our house and our cat Twiggy, and I prepared one of the guest rooms that is usually kept closed until I have visitors from Europe.
After dinner with the house-sitter, we caught an Uber to the airport and got there early to avoid delays. We were lucky to be one of the first ones at the Singapore Airlines counter and the we had plenty of time to relax and catch up on some reading before boarding our 01,10am flight to Singapore.
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| The Singapore flight crew in a meeting - me resting my legs at the airport |
I had chosen a long stop-over to check out the Changi Singapore airport which is meant to be one of the prettiest in the world, but it might have been a wrong choice because after a 5.30 hours overnight flight when we hardly slept we were quite tired by the time we landed at 6,30am (Perth/Singapore time).
We first refreshed ourselves, had breakfast and then walked around discovering parts of the airport. We didn't get to see the main area, but at some stage we had enough of walking around and just went and sat close to our boarding gate trying hard not to fall asleep.
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| The outdoor Cactus garden was beautiful but at the early hour already hot and humid |
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| The butterfly garden was a wonderful discovery |
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| Signs at Frankfurt airport |
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| Top Statues: Wings of Mexico by George Marin, Lempuyang Temple (gate of Heaven) in Mount Agung, Bali |
Our Singapore to Frankfurt flight departed at 11.55am and we landed in Frankfurt at 18,40h (minus 7 hours from Perth - a flight of 12,45 hours). A delay with the luggage meant we waited about 1h to get our bags.
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| Our plane on the tarmac, welcome to Frankfurt, the city from the ar, "Ja zu Fra", and a welcome poster in Portuguese |
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| Luggage delays at Frankfurt airport |
Our daughter Karina was waiting for us, and then we had a two hour ride to Bruhl, the town where she lives, just outside Cologne. We drove into the city centre and Thomas joined us for dinner.
Karina had bought us tickets for the public transport - Germany had a transport special for the months of June/July/August - for the amount of Euro 9 you could travel on any public transport (long distance trains excluded) for the whole month!
She also bought us a Sim card which Jose used in his mobile, so we could have internet and contact her.
The following day we had breakfast at a French cafe in Bruhl, then took the train to Cologne (30min) and spent the day sightseeing - photos coming in the next post.
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| Bruhl sign and meeting up again after 30 months! |
What a great journal of the beginning of a trip, which means I'll be looking at the next chapters eagerly!
ReplyDeleteThank you Barbara :)
DeleteNice photo mementos
ReplyDeleteThanks Cloudia :)
DeleteBeautiful pics
ReplyDeleteThanks Rupam
DeleteSingapura e Frankfurt já foram roteiros muitas vezes.
ReplyDeleteE nunca desiludiram.
Nunca visitei a cidade de Singapura, mas ja passei varias vezes pelo aeroporto. Tera que ser numa proxima. Obrigada Pedro
DeleteThat guest room is really beautifully made!!! You did a great job!
ReplyDeleteOh, I would love to explore that airport. We always have but one hour, but you are right, maybe too tired anyways?
Oh, you even found Jamie!!! Angel, you :-)
Oh. Hubby got another job now? ;-)
Looking forward to more!
Thanks Iris. We had breakfast at Jamie's at the airport.
DeleteWhat a great tour you are making,. All the airports in Europe seem to have the same problem, Too many peole and not enough staff to lead the people and luggage in the right direction. It is the same case in Amsterdam., people have to wait for hours to get by the plane or have lost their luggage in the chaos.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marianne. We were lucky nothing was lost, my younger sister had two wait 2 days for her bag in Lisbon!
DeleteThat's a long journey.
ReplyDeleteWe are at the end of the world, far from everything! Thanks William
DeleteSo exciting to see Australians travel and family reunions. We have be able to catch up with three sets of Aussie friends currently travelling in the UK and I have loved it. I have been through Changi Airport myself in May so knew exactly where you were. Have a wonderful rest of your trip
ReplyDeleteWren x
Thanks Wren. It's nice to be able to travel again :)
DeleteI'm glad you finally got off! It does look like a beautiful airport even if the connections and such weren't the best. How exciting to spend that time in Frankfort and beyond and be together again. You know we'll all want a full report!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeanie, full report coming :)
DeleteGostei de ver estas fotos de viagem.
ReplyDeleteUm abraço e bom fim-de-semana.
Andarilhar
Dedais de Francisco e Idalisa
Livros-Autografados
Obrigada Francisco, bom fim de semana.
DeleteI have NO idea how I missed this, Sami. So glad you had a good holiday. It was a nice long one, at least. And I know how you love to pack 100 things into each day you are gone. Those tickets your daughter got for you two were a godsend.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elizabeth, it was a wonderful albeit tiring holiday. The transport tickets were wonderful, we made good use of them in Berlin for sure!
DeleteDearest Sami,
ReplyDeleteWelcome back home!
Oh, Singapore used to be heaven and we've been there some twenty times during our work and travel to and from Indonesia.
Happy to see the Singapore Airline flight attendants still wear the beautiful exotic Pierre Balmain outfits!
https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2013/09/1968-design-classic-by-pierre-balmain.html
You have been really in my/our footsteps, including Brühl and Cologne in Germany. No doubt you've visited the Castle of Brühl and its gardens.
Travel is NO fun anymore with the world–wide shortage on personnel. I've experienced that on my solo flight to Amsterdam for getting finally some of Mom & Dad's estate pieces after all the Covid nonsense.
Even when flying Delta Pemium Select (using Pieter's air miles) where you ought to expect some courtesy, it did not work out like that.
But happy for you that you got to visit with Karina and Thomas!
It was my 67th trip to Europe... and my FINAL one due to health issues.
Still catching up after my 11–day road trip with Pieter to the West. A long–time dream always pushed back due to entertaining, and tour–guiding friends and family.
So happy I've accomplished that and with perfect sunny weather!
Hugs,
Mariette