Singapore

We said goodbye to Paris at mid-day and arrived in Singapore at 7am. Couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm so headed out and about around Singapore with our stopover vouchers. Went to Sentosa Island on the cable car and found a great little beach to lie back on then enjoyed a lovely swim. 

It's so hot and humid here as it usually is. Then spent the afternoon at the amazing new Gardens by the Bay opened in 2012 they were incredible we spent all afternoon there.

Feeling rather jaded now so an early night. Fly out of Singapore at 7.45pm tomorrow.

Monets Garden

An early start so as we could beat the crowds to Monets Garden. We took the Metro to link up with the train to Vernon. However by the time we arrived at the railway station there was another queue to buy our train tickets. We missed the 8.30 train so had to wait 2hrs for the next one. Luckily the station is like a huge shopping mall so we filled our time cruising the mall. Finally we were on our way a 40min trip to Vernon, shuttle to Giverny then another queue to buy tickets into the garden. However once we were in the garden it was heaven with the sound of the bird life, mixed fragrances wafting from the garden and beautiful water lillies flowering in the ponds. 

All so tranquil after life on the streets in Paris.

Monets house and garden.

We wondered about the little Giverny village then late afternoon took the shuttle, train then Metro back to our hotel.

Our last night in Paris.....then it's homeward bound. 

2nd Day in Paris

This morning we caught the Metro to Montmartre and visited the artists corner and Sacre-Coeur. The weather was a bit drizzly on and off but we managed to avoid most of it. We then tried to visit Musee du Louvre but had the wrong tickets, another story. The queue was a mile  long so the guy on the gate advised us to go get them elsewhere to save time well that was another 1hr queue so we flagged that and visited Musse d'Orsay which we had the correct tickets for. By the time we had finished there we had had enough of thousands of people. So we hopped back on our open air bus to rest our wary legs and breath some city air. We stood at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower and viewed it from there as the queue was 3hrs long and tours booked out. There was quite a presence of armed army personnel & police at all these tourist places and police in the streets on roller blades. By now our day was over and our batteries are running down. This place is making French Farm look like paradise rain hail or snow.

Paris

Our day started late morning after the hectic day we had in the Somme. We found the yellow hop on/off open double decker bus and made our way through Paris hopping off here and there and getting to see what was where. It was a great way to view this huge city with its magnificent old buildings and huge statues everywhere. We were merrily travelling along on our bus not realising how late it was when they announced the bus was finished for the day. So here we were in the middle of Paris and needed to find our way back to our hotel. Luckily we had the hotel address but no idea how to use their underground at that stage or which station to travel to. To make it worse the Info people at the station had all closed. Cut a long story short we finally found our way back and by then had mastered the Metro. It's easy once you know.

Outside the Opera House one of my favourite buildings here in Paris.

The Somme

Today was a big day from 8am to 8pm visiting the Somme WW1 battlefields with Salient Tours. It was a great trip and was also Canada Day so we had some lovely Canadians with us. Visited Vimy Ridge, Beaumont Hamel where they were having a Canadian memorial service, Lochnagar Crater which was huge. Our driver had discovered a paddock full of poppies prior to our trip so he took us there for a visit, they were just gorgeous.

He then drove us to a potato crop that had a bit of bare ground around the edges to do our own archeological digs. Farmers are forever finding WW1 relics when they work the ground. I won the competition by finding a German WW1 live Mauser bullet, others found shrapnel and bits of old shell. We emptied the gun powder out by breaking the end off the bullet so hopefully we will get it home. 

My bullet shell.

Then we were privileged to be taken to Laboisselle where archeologists are working on a WW1 site opening up old tunnels finding old tools etc. They chatted to us about their findings and the story of the site then showed us the original tunnels they are in the midst of opening up. Everything else we had seen on the tour had been reconstructed so it was great to see the real thing. This particular sight is not open to the public so we were lucky. Our last visit was the Thiepval Memorial the largest for the missing of the Somme all 73,000 of them. By the time we arrived in Arras it was 8pm. Our driver left us at the Arras railway station where a helpful Frenchman worked the ticket machine for our ticket to Paris. The next train was 9.50pm so we had a meal over the road then it was time to hit the track and by 10.20pm we were in Paris. We were pleased to arrive at our hotel for a good nights sleep.

Ypres

This morning we left our little Brugge hotel and caught the 7.30pm train to Ypres arriving in Ypres at 9.30am. We had booked ourselves on the 10am Salient Tour for the day exploring a number of First World War sites including  Passchendaele, a German war cemetery and their trenches,travelled along the Ypres high ground,Tyne Cot Cemetery the  Messine church, Essex Farm Cemetery and bunkers (for the wounded) where the poem In Flanders Field was written. We also crossed into France to a cemetery so as a kiwi couple could bury some replica medals in the ground for 2 Uncles that were buried there. It was a great tour, small with only 8 people.

Tony in a restored German trench.

We arrived back in Ypres about 6pm then checked in at The Albion Hotel. It was then time to walk to Menin Gate. This memorial displays the names of 54,896 soldiers of the British Empire who went missing in action.

Menin Gate.

The last Post is played at 8pm every day of the year here at Menin Gate

More than 150 military cemeteries were built in and around the city.

A senseless war.

Out and about in Brugge

We were out and about by 9am before the crowds of English that come across for the weekend and many others.The buildings here are like fairyland it's just beautiful with the sound of the horse and carts clip clopping along the old cobbled streets.

We took a tour through a Belgium brewery called De Halve Maan (the Half Moon) the only one left here in Brugge with over 1000 different beers and bottle over 4million litres a year.

We continued on our walk then took a boat ride on the canal through the centre of Brugge which was great.

It was now time to try a hot chocolate with real Belgium chocolate but I was disappointed with that then later a waffle which wasn't great either. So now we have been through the Belgium specialties.

We took a walk around the outer area of the centre where we saw people's homes all with their lovely old push bikes parked at their doors, leather seats and handlebars ~ Tony likens their houses to dolls houses.

Apparently the more steps you have on your roof the wealthier you are.

It was time to rest our weary legs, then found a tasty very cheap restaurant called The Chicken House.