Holiday 2017 - Athens to Singapore

Well an extra day in Athens and viewing the shops and the Parthenon museum proved very interesting, and worth the effort. Caught up also on the washing before our last week in Singapore.
The museum is set up with all the statues found and pulled off the wall. Reproduced and placed back where it originally was. Also copies of items other museums have which basically were stolen in the early days.Once you see this museum the whole Parthenon complex makes sense. Nice cafe too.

Wall Friezes from the Parthenon

Pathenon complex how it would have been in Lego by an australian guy.

Rocks showing the colour used on statues. Some statues had hair and dress with the colour still  there. We think of these places as all white but in actual fact lots of colours.

 In downtown Athens lots of little alley ways and lots of little shops. Anything and everything you ever wanted.

Interesting stools in a juice shop

In the bakery where we bought huge salad rolls.

Not what you expect in your shopping travels

One of many alley ways, just on opening

Glass Statue in Athens

So off to Singapore we went. It is a very nice city to enter from the airport. Clipped hedges lots of bougainvillea, trees, very neat, clean and green. Very wide roadways. Takes about an hour to get to Orchard St. where we were staying at one end. Just a 10 minute walk to the station and you buy a train pass that you top up as in Australia and away you go.

 That is if you can get past the high humidity and heat. It was also an expensive place although we are $ for $ in the exchange rate, everywhere we went you had to get past all the labeled stores. Gucci, Victoria,Tiffany, Burberry, Prada, Louis Vuitton you name it and it was there 3 floors or more usually, at every railway station. Lots of escalators and very clean. Sometimes confusing to try and find your way out. All this means lots and lots of walking which by this time I had had enough but trudge on we did.

Lots of Statues everywhere also.

Railway system was very easy to manage.

A Day at Universal Studios.

 Our visit this day was really good, both of them got me onto scary rides even a roller coaster in the dark. Although I had my eyes shut and head on Johns shoulder lol, hanging on for grim death, listening to our daughter laugh all the way.

All the usual movie things Shrek, Puss in Boots, Madagascar, Dinosaurs, but the Egyption Area I loved.

So Life Like.

Transformer 3D ride was fantastic.

Rapid water ride guaranteed to get you wet. The water came up from the bottom in the middle and sprayed everywhere.

$5 for a drying cabinet worth every penny we were saturated.

You just have to cuddle minions.

 Another day was spent at Little India. Finally here you could buy much much cheaper items like China town but different.

Flower Elephant in a Park

Banners hanging in the Main Street

Never seen shops selling hundreds of Saris before.

Market area ablaze with colour everywhere, so many alley ways easy to get lost.

Flowers for the Goddess and Buddha

Part of an Indian Temple which was very colouful.

 Following this we then spent next day at the Singapore Zoo area which consists of many attractions
 Took the bus there. First Jurong Bird Park.

First on board in the pickup

Largest waterfall in a cage full of birds.

Pink Flamingos and a lizard

We saw a little girl doing all these poses so we just had to copy.

Naughty girls get put in a cage.

 Then it was on to the River Safari. This park is set up in walkways that represent a river eg. Amazon and as you walk around notice boards everywhere explaining how the river functions. Other rivers were Ganges, Mississippi, Congo, Yangtse, and  Nile to name a few.

 Lots of Monkeys and a talk on Beavers.

Quite a few aquariums

One single Panda so cute though.

Walking across the an actual Singapore river. Unfortunately all river rides were cancelled that day.

Another aquarium.

These stores definitely cater for the masses.

 We weren't going to do the zoo but our ticket included all three parks plus a Night Safari so onto the zoo we went. The night safari was a complete waste of time but the crowd was enormous. We were shuffled on to a train in groups and driven through the park but there were low lights on different animal areas which I felt we had just seen hours before.  Poor animals still in light while it was really dark elsewhere.

 Onward next day to China Town which had a very large Temple, John wanted to see. More alleyways and little shops.

Largest Temple I have ever seen.

These hung all the way round.

Getting some luck.

Empty Train

Supermarket that had an open roof in one of the 3 story shopping centres.

Congratulations getting this far, one more long blog about Singapore and then it is back to our home life once more. This is my way of showing our 5 children our holiday as all live 1 day away or overseas.

I hope you the reader have found it interesting doing a bit or armchair traveling.

Till next time.