Book Ended

Today was a day that was nicely book ended.

We left Mannheim this morning heading further south to Baden-Baden however as we left Mannheim we were closely followed by a Mannheimer who didn’t like the fact that we were keeping to the speed limit on a single lane road. He showed his frustration by literally sitting on his horn until he was able to get passed us!

Thankfully he didn’t give our Peugeot 308 a nudge.

En route to B-B we detoured to Heidelberg, got the car safely tucked in a parking building and went sightseeing.

Having found the main street (Hauptstraße) we started walking down it looking at the many shops. It is a very attractive shopping area and it became apparent as we went along that this street was not going to end anytime soon, in fact it went on for 1.8 kms until the Heidelberg Castle which sat above the town came into view.

Having got to the end then there was only one thing to do and that was to walk back again! One shop that did catch our fancy was one selling Schneeballs (Snowball) which is a sweet short crust pastry which originated in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in the early 1700s.

The shop assistant gave us a in-depth description of how they first came into being

Also there were numerous shops selling pretzels most with a good number waiting patiently to be served.

There are many sayings that one sees on t-shirts but this one really caught my fancy

Don’t like me?

Fuck off

Problem solved

If only I had one I could have waved  it at that Mannheimer!

Into the afternoon we left Heidelberg to drive through to B-B but finding our accommodation was a challenge. The difficulty was that the GPS kept directing us through Zentrum (the very centre of the city) however this Zentrum is a car free zone so imagine the locals surprise when 2 oldies arrive into the pedestrian zone not once but in two occasions & they most certainly weren’t on foot!

On the second occasion we had had enough so I rolled down the window and started talking to a local who luckily could speak quite good English and asked how do we get to where we were wanting to go. He soon realised that giving us directions was not going to work so he jumped in the car with us and directed us to the accommodation.

Now that is what I call giving your city a good name and this Baden-Badener book ended the day in a rather more pleasant way than the aggressive Mannheimer started it for us.

We haven’t seen too much of B-B yet but it gives an impression of being a wealthy area if the quality of the housing in the area we are staying is any indication 

Kms driven in total: 217

Kms walked since arrival: 32.3

Mannheim

Mannheim which is located in southwestern Germany, is basically a university city and today we had a good stroll around most of the recommended sights.

It is a very walkable city being almost flat and is bordered by two rivers, The Rhine and Neckar

The Mannheim Water Tower, or Wasserturm, is an iconic landmark and is regarded as an architectural gem. This historic tower stands tall in Friedrichsplatz and features a striking Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) design. The surrounding area includes beautiful gardens, a fountain, and a lively square with cafes and shops.

The Mannheim Palace, or Mannheimer Schloss, is an exceptionally large Baroque palace that serves as a symbol of the city. The palace now houses the University of Mannheim. The names of the city streets start at the Schloss so that the street directly in front of the Schloss is A and the next street over is B and ….

Excuse the formatting today as hit some technical issues

A pleasant experience

Last night we went to a fish restaurant run by a very nice ethnic gentleman (Muslim we assume from the attire of a lady who was filming a “marketing” video while we were there).

Having enjoyed a very nice meal of Dorade and also Sea Bass we went to pay only to find that it was a cash only establishment and we only had a credit card with us.

Witnessing our predicament the owner said “it’s ok, next time” and handed me the bill. With him being closed the next day (Sunday) and us leaving Mannheim on Monday I explained that there would be no next time and he implied that the meal was complimentary. We told him we would go back to the hotel and get some cash & return.

On the way to the hotel I looked at the bill and noticed that he had failed to include the side dish we had ordered so when we returned to pay pointed it out to him - he was grateful for that, as well I guess as the fact that we had returned.

Not sure that there would be many restaurant owners that would allow guests to walk out without paying!

Note to self: Ensure that we always carry cash

A long …

…day or more correct to say couple of days.

Travel is enjoyable but only once you get to your destination as a flight of 10 hours followed by another of 12.5 hours after a transit stop of 2 hours is tiring no matter how many hours one gets to sleep on the plane.

The flight from Singapore to Frankfurt which left Singapore just after midnight Friday Singapore time was a little like the first sector with head winds giving the plane some decent shakes for extended periods.

We crossed over numerous cities or towns that I had never heard of, or if I had they were long blanked out of the memory

but there were some good sights no more so than the city of Baku which stood out like a beacon

and also the sunrise which commenced around 4.30 am local time

We landed around 6.30 am and had a quick trip through Customs etc. getting to stand outside the terminal by 7.15 and then the fun started.

On the plane I had loaded a European sim card into my phone so that I could ring MDS who supply the car. Numerous failed attempts followed before I replaced that sim with my ONE.nz sim which worked a treat and arrangements were made to be picked up in 15 minutes.

The pickup service duly arrived and took us back to their depot where our new car waited for us. Having been this way before I knew that we required an Umweltplakette which is a green sticker that goes on the car to show that it is environmentally friendly and so you can take that vehicle into any of the German cities that have mandated areas where only low emission vehicles can access and those areas tend to be the city centres.

Our vehicle supplier said no problem , he can supply the sticker so I handed over my credit card but it was no go as only cash and as (bad) luck would have it we hadn’t brought any cash. Again no problem just drive down to the nearest shell service station and you can draw some cash out from there, so off we hopped in the 308 and very gingerly drove the 1 or so kms to the service station and after overcoming the language challenges, drew out some Euros and returned to the car yard.

Having paid the €10 we then started our trip to Mannheim about 73 kms south of Frankfurt. Leaving the car yard we pulled to the side of the road and tried to put the address of our hotel in Mannheim into the GPS. Now one would think that that is an easy task but this GPS is not very intuitive so after wasting 10 or so minutes it was back to the car yard with a request that we get some instructions.

Again, no problem our man says and he jumped in the car and started “playing” with the GPS until he realised that this GPS System is unlike others that he has been familiar with. Nevertheless after playing around for a little while he got it programmed and off we went, even more gingerly as most of the drive was on one of the unrestricted speed limit autobahns and I needed quite a few kilometres to get used to the vehicle and also driving on the other side of the road.

Arrived in Mannheim around 9.30 am and then had to negotiate, with the assistance of the GPS a road system that was somewhat foreign as blocks are designated by Letters and then a number - our hotel’s address is F4, 4-11, Mannheim. It was so confusing we ended parking the car and asking a local to point us in the right direction.

Long story short we got the car into the hotel garage and then had a walk around the city centre, doing no more than passing the time before we got access to our room at 3.00pm.

Being a Saturday not unsurprisingly there was a wedding group in the centre of the city

A long time since we last slept properly, the eyes are on the ends of matchsticks however our European holiday is underway.

Kms travelled to date 76

We are on our way

We pushed back from Auckland almost on the scheduled time and as I write this part of the blog we are approximately 1/2 way to Singapore with another 5 hours to go.

We are crossing over the top of Australia in buffeting winds on the nose of the plane, (the headwinds have been up to 225kmph) so it is a slightly uncomfortable ride at the moment.

Have been following the Crusaders v Blues semifinal and that hasn’t made the trip any more pleasant!!

Our holiday is well planned out, so I thought I would record in this blog some of the expected numbers and at the end it will be interesting to see how the reality matches with the expected - we take ownership of a Peugeot 308 S/W in Frankfurt and drop it off 71 days later in Rome:

Kms driven                                 5200

Spend on diesel                          €479

Tolls paid.                                   €103

Arrived in Singapore 1.30am NZT and made our way through Terminal 3 to find out which gate our connection to Frankfurt departs from and as luck would have it, it is a fair walk through this behemoth of a terminal.

With 2.5 hours to kill we spent sometime in the Silverkris lounge before heading back out into the mass of humanity in the terminal and heading for gate A11

Only another 12h50m flight before we get to Europe! Tiring but no complaints.

Once again

Just before Covid struck in early 2020 we were planning our 2021 European holiday but it quickly became obvious that travel was not a sensible option until the pandemic had if not passed, at least had the worse behind us. A few months ago we got our draft itinerary out of the drawer and started to get serious so much so flights are now booked, accommodation sorted and the final piece of the puzzle (availability of lease vehicle) needs to fall into place and we will be totally committed. 70 odd days in Germany and Italy is the plan and we now wait until lift off in June 2023.

Update - lease car secured

The only thing that will stop us now is bad health, Putin or a Covid lockdown 

The Eagles have landed...

...home!

Checkout 2pm, flight departure 10.45pm required a bit of filling in today so this morning we went by Metro to Gardens by the Bay, another example of what this country/city is capable of developing when money is no object.

We had visited here before, approximately 6-8 years ago when it was in its infancy but now that it has matured it is really a delightful area to wander around in as it has been planned to perfection.

There are various gardens all linked by wide walkways and each garden area is themed differently 

From the gardens there is a very nice view of the Marina Sands where we had our meal last night.A tree in the gardens that intrigued us was the Cannonball Tree with its perfectly formed fruit growing not from the branches but from the trunk itself.
After a couple of hours we returned back to the hotel to have another shower as the humidity had caused the body to overheat before we packed the suitcases for one last time and around 2pm took the taxi out to the airport - a rather cheap taxi it has to be said being half the cost that we were charged on the way in, which we have some difficulty figuring out!

Luckily there is facility to have an early check in so we got rid of the suitcases and found a cafe for a late lunch. The problem was now how to fill in 8 hours before lift off and again Singapore has the solution as a new facility adjacent to the airport was opened in June, The Jewels consisting of (sigh) 240 odd shops and eating places, but more interestingly a central 5? level waterfall and various other areas such as the Canopy Walk which we did.

Not only did it pass a few hours it was also an enjoyable and colourful environment to be in, though some may well say that it is an extravagance however it is a strategy of Singapore to develop Changi Airport so that it is the stopover choice in this part of the world for tourists. I read that they have planned a new Terminal which will be completed by 2030 and will be bigger than Terminals 1,2,3&4 combined and if you have ever walked through Terminal 3 where we were today and marvelled at the size of that terminal then the new one is going to be something colossal.

A few more hours spent either in the lounge or wandering up and down the Terminal (we walked slightly over 6 kms after arriving at the airport) and it was onto the big bird and a relatively quick flight home (9 hours instead of 10.5).

So ends our 2019 holiday - new sights, new sounds, new smells but above all thoroughly enjoyable!

Cheers

The haze has lifted...

... at least partially today. We are told that the cause is a burn off in Indonesia (must be some burn off) and is an annual event.

We had a meal last night in the heart of the Muslim area almost adjacent to the mosque. The streets looked very inviting once the lights took effect.
Sleep didn’t come easy as the body seemed stuck on European time, though for the character below he has no difficulty at anytime of the day. We have seen him on all recent visits to Singapore as he rests under a covered area of our hotel - whether he makes a living taking tourists around is problematic 

While Sherry was at the hairdressers I had a walk around the mall and took photos of two McLarens - 750S & 570S - as well as a Ferrari 


After lunch we took the metro to Marina South Pier thinking that there was a broad walk there that we had strolled along on a previous visit but either they have moved it or it is somewhere else in the area. We were able to get a glimpse of the Marina Sands where we had dinner in the rooftop restaurant Ce La Vi, tonight.

Mid afternoon we wandered through the very stately Raffles Hotel which in recent years has undergone extensive renovations and which is a hotel of extreme beauty and not inexpensive - cheapest room SGD1049/night breakfast not included, dearest suite SGD10079/night and I assume plus 10% service charge and 7% GST which are applied in hotels and restaurants. It’s one of those places where if you have to ask the price you probably can’t afford to stay there!


The car below had the most mirror like paint job on any car we have seenThe view from the restaurant was very impressive particularly the darker it got - the F1 track made a good sight as did a golf course (all lit up) and of course the city itself.

After we check out tomorrow (late checkout requested) it will be out to the airport for a 10.15 pm departure for home but we will have time to have a few hours wandering around the Jewels which is the new addition to Changi Airport.

Perhaps one more blog in a day or two.

Is 110% Humidity Possible?

Not sure that it is but today the humidity in Singapore was right up there and sweat dripped from the body profusely whenever we were out in the open!

In bed last night by 6pm and slept through to around 7am this morning which cleared all the fuzz from the head.

After breakfast we left the hotel and walked into Orchard Rd, a street that you either love because of the  many shopping malls that are prolific there or hate because of the many shopping malls....

We looked for a restaurant for lunch that we had been to last trip and which sold New York style Reuben sandwiches but in the two years since has permanently closed however in the same centre found another that was suitable.

After lunch we took on the Metro (far easier and more modern than Paris) and went out to the Botanic Gardens which were Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage site (inscribed in 2015) and which in the orchid gardens has over 60,000 plants.

The gardens are approximately 74 hectares in area and from the gate we entered to the one we exited was a walk of 2.3kms and we barely scratched the surface of it.

The layout and the different plants and trees made for an enjoyable (if a little sweaty) afternoon 

There were also a couple of interesting creatures we sighted

We came out the “Tanglin Gate” exit hoping to find a close metro station but had to walk into and down part of Orchard Rd before we were able to jump on the metro to get us back to the hotel.

Shortly we will be back out there to get to the Italian restaurant we have booked for dinner.

Bumpy bumpy

During our driving in France we must have gone over literally a hundred road humps designed to slow traffic down and today’s flight felt very much the same. There was a constant shudder (not significant but enough flexing of the plane to get ones attention) of the A380 from the time we climbed out of Paris until we landed here in Singapore, which made sleeping only something we could dream about and as a consequence the heads have been very foggy/glazed over all day much like the city here which has had a haze over it all day.

Touch down was 40 minutes early, a relatively quick movement through the airport and into a taxi arriving at the hotel around 7.30am - luckily for us our room was available so we were able to get in and unpack etc. and then spend a few hours waiting for Singapore to wake up before we ventured out.

As both heads of hair need some attention the first thing we did was find the salon Sherry used two years ago when we last stayed here on the way back from Europe to make an appointment and having done that I frequented a barber shop and had a trim - the cutter was somewhere on the LGBT scale however he/she did a reasonable job, thankfully.

With the F1 being this weekend there are a lot of road closures in force so making our way to the mall where we remembered it to be was an exercise - through the Suntec mall and across the “air bridge”  to the next mall - Singapore is a city of large shopping centres and monstrous hotels including the stately old lady, Raffles.

By this time I was in need of some shut eye so it was back to the hotel while Sherry went to another shopping centre. After a very early meal in a Korean restaurant in Raffles City it was to be lights out as soon as I had written our daily travel blog.

A review of the last few days of our 2017 travel diary will show a photo of statues of dogs outside Raffles City - that statue has been replaced by a new one.