June 30th Gardens by the Bay

We slept so well last night – a real catch up – so it was after 9am when we wandered down to brekkie.  I had an Asian style breakfast – prawn balls and ricelike porridge with chicken and lots of little extras you could add – delicious.

We then set out to get our bearings and find a taxi to take us to the ‘Gardens by the Bay’.  These gardens are gorgeous. The plants are all in top condition and so well maintained.  We went through the ‘Flower Dome’ first.  I was busy taking a photo in the Australian part of the gardens when I heard my name – 3 ladies from our cruise had seen us and came to say hello – how amazing to find each other in this big city.  The dome has planted areas representing gardens from around the world.  It is well done and the best part - it was lovely and cool.

Time for lunch – we found a Chinese restaurant and had a lovely meal – we knew we weren’t in Russia anymore!!!!

Next we went to the ‘Cloud Forest’ dome.  So beautiful.  I took a heap of photos – of course – but so many beautiful orchids and flowers.  It would be an unbelievable sight in the full flowering season.

 Next we walked to the Giant Tree Forest – man-made structures of giant trees which have plants growing up their trunks.  Many orchids and other plants on display.  I tried admiring just the ones in the shade. We then went up by lift to the height of 18 floors within one of these trees to a viewing deck and had a wine.

Taxi and home next on the agenda.  We waited till late, when Singapore shines with all of its coloured lights, to go for a walk and dinner.  It was still hot, 32 but a very gentle breeze.

Photos June 30th Singapore Gardens by the Bay

Singapore - new and old - it's beautiful

part of the Australian display garden

what can I say ???   

an ancient Olive Tree

there was a display depicting different nursery rhymes - not sure what this one was
but it was very cute

lunch

then cloud forest

if you look very closely you can see one of the gardeners
doing some maintenance

views from the 18th floor lookout

June 28th and 29th Moscow to Singapore

goodbye Moscow

goodbye Helsinki at 11.55 pm sunset

hello Singapore - the view from our window

June 28th and 29th Moscow to Singapore

The show last night was enjoyable – mainly because we finally saw some Cossack dancing. The outfits were beautiful.

So back to the boat for a late light dinner.   By then it was 11pm.  Sandy and Stephen had the first departure time of 12.30am, so they didn’t go to bed.  We all sat and chatted.  It was sad to say good bye but we had a wonderful time and know that we will keep in touch and hopefully catch up again.

At 2pm we got a transfer bus to one of the three major airports of Moscow.  This is a huge city.  Going through pass port security was interesting – some people had to take off their glasses – so when the security woman started waving her hand near her ear I thought she meant for me to take off my glasses – neit neit – she indicated I needed to put my hair behind my ear???  These people look so grumpy you feel like a naughty child.  Oh well it was then on to stand in the xray machine hands up in the surrender pose.  My metal track down my back must have shown as she then waved another wand over me then she pushed me with the wand to say that I was ok – friendly?  We had just had two weeks of coming to conclusion that the image we had of Russians was totally wrong but I guess that happens everywhere.  We had to wait there till 7.10pm when our flight left for Helsinki.  This was only a fight of less than 2 hours then another long wait with our flight departing for Singapore at 23.55pm.  There was a beautiful sunset as we left – our last look white night.  The girl sitting next to me was born in Norway, her mother born in Bergen.  She said she loves the seasons of the white nights as you only need 3 to 4 hours sleep because you have so much sunshine and in winter, because of the snow reflecting the light you don’t notice how dark it is – probably too busy keeping warm.

We both managed to sleep quite well and woke to brekkie and the news that we would be landing in 3 hours.  We watched movies and the time soon passed.  I was standing under a clock in the ‘Arrivals’ hall that read 11.55am – exactly 12 hours after the plane had taken off – local time was 4.55pm – by six we were in our hotel – by 8pm fast asleep, re-charging the batteries to enjoy Singapore. 

Photos June 27th Kremlin St Basils Church

Buildings inside the Kremlin

Part of the Military Tattoo

the Biggest bell - that has never rung

The biggest cannon that has never fired

beautiful gardens in side the walls of the Kremlin

Russian's Big Ben

Beautifully painted ceilings of St Basil's church

on our way back to the boat we passed this Palace