Munich, Singapore, Home

We’re back!! Following on from our last blog, we had a very pleasant rail trip from Vienna to Munich with some magnificent scenery along the way. Photo of river crossed over en-route.

Our hotel was located near the airport so we spent some time at the station scanning railway timetables printed in German to find where to go to connect with the airport train. Janice accosted two policemen who were extremely helpful and escorted us all the way down to our platform. We then realised we had no ticket so they directed me back up to the ticket machines leaving Janice on the platform with the entire luggage. Whilst watching other people I attempted to enter the details. After 3 tries I got it right only to find it would not take 50 Euro notes and I did not have sufficient in smaller currency. A trip up to the shopping precinct to buy a small bottle of orange juice and back down to try again. This time with success. At last returned to Janice who had wondered where on earth I had gone to.

The airport is quite a long way out of the city. The rail journey was 45 minutes. We then picked up a shuttle bus which travels between the hotels and airport terminals. A very nice hotel with extremely pleasant staff.

The following day we were going to explore Munich which involved shuttle bus to the airport and train again into the city. The day was very foggy and didn't improve much as the day went on. The tour buses were directly opposite the station which was very convenient. There were two tours on offer, a quick city centre tour and a longer, more extensive tour. We elected to do both. It seems that Monday is not a good day to see things in Munich. Many of the tourist attractions including museums are all closed which was a bit disappointing. Photo of character building.Don't know what it was though.

I was particularly disappointed that the BMW museum was closed. Anyway we had an enjoyable day. One rather strange thing we found was city centre surfing. They have built a canal joining two parts of the river and the water is very fast flowing. Under the water they built a small wall which creates a back wave effect and local surfers take advantage of this.

The following morning it was packing (again) and shuttle off to the airport. We left Munich at 1.30pm local time and arrived in Singapore 7.10am local time the following day but in fact by our internal time clock it was only about midnight. Needless to say we weren’t very tired and didn’t get much sleep.

We arrived at our hotel just after 8am and luckily they let us have our room early. After a quick change we walked to China town only to discover that most of China town does not open until 11am or later. Anyway, we found some shops open and Janice bought what she was looking for. Back to the hotel for lunch and a siesta. Relaxed, had dinner and an early night. Lift system in Singapore hotel.

The following day we were not flying out until midnight so we met Jon Potter for lunch. (Jon and Kirsty were meeting in Singapore on the way to Vietnam and Cambodia for a holiday and Jon had arrived a couple of days earlier to stay with his brother. Kirsty was not arriving from Australia until the Saturday so we unfortunately did not meet up with her.)

Our flight to Melbourne was not condusive to sleep. The 6.5 hour flight was interrupted by dinner after 2 hours and breakfast 2 hours later. We arrived in Melbourne at 10.15am but our flight to Hobart was not until 4.30pm so Peter and Paula Murphy (friends from Hobart who are now living in Melbourne) picked us up and took us to their house for lunch which was great.

We were met at Hobart by Tammy, Adele, Xavier and Eamon. On arrival back at our house we opened the door to see a big “Welcome home” sign made by Xavier and Eamon. Jamey joined us all for dinner prepared by Adele and Tammy and all had lots to talk about.

We had a fabulous 4.5 months away but now glad to be home.

Last 10 days in UK and Vienna

That Yorkshire cold was no ordinary cold. Had me out of action for 4 days on antibiotics. Fine now.

Our first trip out was to Derby. Janice had wanted to visit an auction since we have been over here but we had not been in the right place at the right time. The Bamfords auction rooms in Derby feature on Bargain Hunt on TV quite regularly so we drove over for the day. A very interesting experience and just as well we are not driving a semi-trailer back to Aus because Janice would have had it full to overflowing. We were amazed at the prices solid mahogany, walnut and rosewood furniture were selling for. Full Denbigh, Royal Worcester, and Crown Derby dinner services were selling for about 20 pounds. Fortunately Janice’s options were limited to jewellery but she still managed to come away with 2 diamond rings to add to the three she has already bought.

Janice’s cousin David and his wife Jean travelled up to Chester and spent two days with us looking around the city. On the Saturday evening we met Geoff and Jill Osborne at Shrewsbury where we had a delightful meal.

The following day was Dad’s 90^th birthday celebration held at the Red Lion in Doddleston, near Chester. Twenty four of us sat down to lunch and he had a fabulous time. One of his school mates was there and they have been friends for over 80 years. Photo of dad and mum with dad’s school friend in the background.

The following day was his actual birthday so we Skyped Tammy, Jamey and the boys and also Kirsty in the morning. After lunch we went out for a drive to visit some of mum and dad’s old stomping grounds calling in to see mum’s sister and husband in Mold and a cousin in Loggerheads.

The following day we visited some cousins in Northop before I drove down to Birmingham to catch up with some of my ex-venturer scouts for a re-union. Of the 9 scouts I took on a trip around Europe in an old army truck in 1969, I have been able to locate 7 of them. One is Paul who lives on a Scottish island (we visited him in July) and the other six I got together with for a very enjoyable evening. We have agreed to maintain regular contact.

An early start next morning to drive back to Chester for my sister’s birthday lunch. My great niece had come up from Uckfield to join in the celebrations and had a great time. Photo below.

 While I had been in Birmingham, Janice had done a test pack and it is obvious we will need another bag. A quick trip into Chester to purchase a cheap holdall.

The next morning we were up early and packing. A quick trip down to say goodbye to mum and dad which was very difficult after such a long stay, and then off to the airport. The trip to London was uneventful but our connection to Vienna was delayed due to the late arrival of the aircraft. Anyway we were soon on our way, or so we thought. At the end of the runway apparently a warning light came on in the cockpit and we had to return to the terminal. We sat on the plane while engineers tried to rectify the problem but it was decided the job was too big so British Airways had to find another plane for us. This took some time so we eventually changed planes and were on our way 4 hours late, arriving in Vienna at 1am and booking into our hotel after 2am.

GOODBYE ENGLAND, SCOTLAND & WALES

Vienna is decidedly colder than Chester. It is only mid autumn but everyone here is walking around in heavy coats with hats, scarves and gloves. The daytime temperatures have been about 11 or 12 degrees but the wind has been icy. (so much so that I had to borrow Brian’s hoody as I was getting a headache from the cold wind). Luckily both days have been clear blue skies and sunshine as we have toured places of interest around the centre of Vienna and today we had a trip into the Vienna Woods visiting an old abbey where nuns of a silent order still practise their religion, plus a  monastery and an underground lake which was fascinating.

Photo below of Austrian Parliament building

Tourist transport

Underground lake

Tomorrow we are off by train to Munich where we spend a couple of days before  boarding our Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore.