Sunday, 1 March 2015

Day 36 Paris to Frankfurt to Singapore

Luckily I set my alarm as I was sleeping soundly, but didn't want to waste our last hours in Paris. Nick came to our hotel with pastries from our favourite bakery & we had nice coffee from the Nespresso machine on our room.
Then we checked out leaving our bags to collect later.
Nick suggested going to the Jewish area as he had been told it was a cool place on a Sunday & we hadn't really looked properly at this area. We got off the metro at Hotel de Ville and admired the building as well as the ice skaters in front of the building.
There was also a stunning carousel that I wished we weren't too grown up for.

We then walked a few blocks to the passedJewish area where the streets were blocked off from traffic. There were plenty of people wandering the streets & alleys where most, but not all, of the shops were open. The shops were predominately food related though there was also a scattering of fashion, jewellery & shoe stores.
Eclairs....
 I managed to sneak into the odd shop & found myself a small cream leather handbag  made in France & reduced enough that I could justify buying it.  In another shop I got a blue top that I liked....it may be a bit clingy but if I stop eating french food should look ok on me. It was only €34 & I'm certain I would have bought more if I had the time to try them on.
The choice of eating places was going to make it difficult.  One of the specialties in one street was fallafel
- but this was fairly cheap & Nick would likely come back another day for that. We wanted something more french for our last meal....but couldn't handle another big meal like last night.
We came upon a trendy creperie that seemed fairly busy & decided galette (savoury crepes) would do the trick. I still had fond memories of the cheese crepe we shared on the street many weeks ago.  I ordered a ham, cheese & egg galette,
Cam a potato, cream, bacon & cheese galette,
& Nick salmon, cream, lemon & salad.
All were very nice but no better than what we had tried on the street for a fraction of the price. We decided we could manage a sweet crepe each to finish. Mine with caramel,
Cam's with chestnut cream
& Nick honey & walnut.
These were yum but I thought my caramel superb.
We had a leisurely stroll towards St. Paul's metro stopping to buy a selection of macaroons, as we hadn't really tried these here & they seem to be tempting us everywhere we go.
Then back to our hotel.
Nick helped with our bags to the bus stop & we had about a 25 minute wait for the next bus where we tasted a raspberry & a vanilla macaroon & left the rest as treats for Nick...it will help him cope with missing us!  I was desperately trying not to think about saying goodbye to Nick & we all put on brave faces chatting about what a wonderful time we'd had & especially how pleased we are that he chose to study in Paris.
The bus arrived & I got a nice hug while Cam was obviously too distraught to show his emotion, so he gave a wave to Nick & we were off on our way to the airport. There seemed to be something in my eye as we drove away....will miss not seeing Nick for a while, but he is under strict orders to ensure at least weekly communication from now on.
The traffic was great this time & we were at the airport in 20 minutes (1 hour is the expected). You need to be in plenty of time at these big airports as getting to our gate involved a very long moving passageway underground taking us to another large terminal area where the gates in our section were.
The time went relatively quickly with a few things to look at. Our flight to Frankfurt was only in the air for 55 minutes, but getting to the gate, boarding, a long ride on the runway, etc meant it all took considerably more time. Frankfurt airport was enormous - every direction we looked seemed to go on forever. It was another very long walk to our gate
involving immigration & security scanning along the way. I also managed to fit in a duty free bag purchase - the same brand as the dresses I bought on my birthday.  
We were a bit surprised by all the smoking rooms at the airport- they were packed full of smokers & looked ghastly to us non-smokers.
Our flight to Singapore left at 10pm & was 12 hours - not especially enjoyable. Cam had a window seat & I was next to a chubby Singaporean man who smelt a bit & was prone to periodic snorting of his nose. I tried to ignore him & looked out Cam's window or at my screen. It was a pain knowing you couldn't easily get out to the toilet, so I drank very little. There was a good selection of new movies to watch, but once again there were gaps in my viewing when I obviously dozed a little. Did see all the Stephen Hawking movie which was pretty good.  We both felt we hardly slept while everyone around us seemed to sleep soundly - how do they do it?  The seats were especially hard & uncomfortable but I was lucky to have nobody in the seat in front of me, so nobody to recline. The last 2 or 3 hours our legs were aching from sitting too long & we couldn't wait to land. Throughout the flight you could chose to watch live cameras outside the plane - one from the front, one camera on the tail & one underneath looking below.
This was really cool to watch as we came in to land. Just an hour before landing we had breakfast & then gained 7 hours on landing in Singapore, so felt a bit weird with it suddenly being 5pm. This was really 2 days blended into one.
We originally intended to catch the MRT trains to our hotel but decided this was unwise over rush hour with our suitcases. We went to buy tickets for a shuttle bus instead but there was a 45 minute wait, so we decided to splash out & use the first taxi of our trip. This was a smart move as we were delivered quickly to the door of our hotel & it only cost a few dollars more than the shuttle would have.
Our hotel is very close to Orchard Road & the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station which is very central. The hotel isn't flash but has all we need & we will be out most of the day tomorrow.
After a short rest we headed out to explore Orchard Road.
Everything is so clean, big & bright. Lots of new modern buildings added since I was last here & some very trendy architecture.  
Everything lit up at night made it even more impressive.
We had a quick look in a couple of malls & at the extensive food courts. Had a browse in a supermarket out of interest & then stopped at a hawker centre to have dinner. Cam thought it all looked pretty good & it was incredibly cheap.  The crabs & lobsters were very fresh!

He chose a hainanese chicken rice meal (a local specialty) with bean sprouts & bok choy while I had roast chicken rice.
Everything had great flavour & went well with a large shared tiger beer between us.
We walked a few more blocks & then back to our hotel. Cam's first impression of Singapore is very favourable & we will sleep well tonight!



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