This is a quick summary of our trip to the UK and Europe in August. A picture a day, plus a few words.
Day 0 - [13 Aug 09]
Singapore
With much eagerness, we said goodbye to Singapore and get our hectic work lives out of our systems for a good two weeks.
We took a midnight flight out of Changi. The timing was great as we were scheduled to arrive at Heathrow early the next morning, giving us one full day in London.
Day 1 - [14 Aug 09]
London & Manchester
We reached London early in the morning at met Fu Onn at his house. We then went for our first meal in Europe; Ponti's Full English Breakfast at Liverpool Street tube station.
When Fiona did get to knock off that evening, we hopped on the train to Manchester. Woohoo!
Day 2 - [15 Aug 09]
Manchester
We spent the morning walking around Manchester city centre. We could see a mix of Reds and SkyBlues in town.
After checking out of our apartment, Daisy and myself checked into a hotel room at Salford Quays, which was within the vicinity of Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium. We spent the afternoon immersing ourselves in the scenic Salford Quays area and checking out the MUFC Megastore. Fu Onn and Fiona left for York that evening.
Day 3 - [16 Aug 09]
Manchester & Edinburgh
When we woke up on Sunday morning, we could feel that the atmosphere to be distinctly different from the day before. There was more buzz and the you could see more people on the streets. Almost every other person in that part of town wore a red top!
As we made our way to the stadium, we soon became part of a massive procession of football fans heading to the Promised Land of Soccerdom. For the two of us; we finally fulfilled our own soccer pilgrimage by watching Manchester United play a Premiership match at Old Trafford. After the match, we took a flight out to Scotland.
Day 4 - [17 Aug 09]
Edinburgh & London
We had initially wanted to stay in the B&Bs of the Scottish Highlands; with a scenic loch in front of the guesthouse and a cloudy mountain at the back. But a rescheduling of Manchester United's season opening match meant we could only spend one night in Edinburgh. A single malt whiskey fueled night no less!
We even went off the beaten tourist track and ventured into the countryside to visit a whiskey distillery. In fact, that distillery turned out to be the one producing Glenkinchie, which we had just tasted the night before. The most memorable part of our trip to Edinburgh has to be our ascend to Arthur's Seat, a peak in Holyrood Park. That evening, we flew back to London.
Day 5 - [18 Aug 09]
London & Amsterdam
As Fiona had to work, Daisy, Fu Onn and myself flew off the next day to Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is a beautiful city and the people were very friendly. I must also mention that our hotel in Amsterdam was the nicest one we've stayed in during the course of the two weeks. I was banned from trying to smoke weed but we did have watch a live 'adult' show in the famous red light district.
Day 6 - [19 Aug 09]
Amsterdam & Bruges
From the land of Grolsch, we took a train to the land of Duvel!
After a quick transit at Antwerp, we arrived at the medieval city of Bruges. Now this is a city lost in time! From the narrow stone paved roads to the architecture of all the buildings around the city, you will definitely feel transported back to a time of knights on horses and maidens walking by with their laundry buckets. OK, so maybe it's just me.
Day 7 - [20 Aug 09]
Bruges
Initially, we imagined this place to be less known and hence less touristy. That proved to be wrong and you could tell that the city survives entirely on tourist money; with its many romantic canals, windmills, churches, chocolatiers and restaurants.
For a tiny city, it has numerous Michelin starred restaurants. There are also downsides to this place. The hotels are of very inferior quality, shops close very early and food is very expensive. That said, we still had a lot of chocolate, beer and mussels!
Day 8 [21 Aug 09]
Bruges, Brussels & Barcelona
We left Bruges early to spend a few hours in Brussels, for more chocolate, beer and mussels! Haha!
In the evening, we took a flight to Spain where Fiona rejoined us, and what a (heat) shock Spain turned out to be. Barcelona was hot! The greatest shock came when we found out that our apartment did not have air conditioning!
Day 9 - [22 Aug 09]
Barcelona
As hot as it was, we still managed to pack our few days with activities. Walking down La Ramblas, touring the Nou Camp, visiting Segadra Familia, enjoying the vista atop Montjuic, etc..
It's a pity really that we stayed in a place without air conditioning. That taught us a very valuable lesson in booking for hotels in the future. Overall, it was still a good trip. We also had our best meal over the two weeks in a chic local restaurant called
La Botiga. Highly recommended. It was a gem of a find for us, really. I'll probably blog about that story in another post.
Day 10 - [23 Aug 09]
Barcelona & Paris
Barcelona may be a beautiful city but the heat was really too much for us.
So, after saying goodbye to Fu Onn and Fiona, both going back to London to work, we continued on our way to Paris! Ah! The cool French weather was so welcoming. I can't understand why Cristiano Ronaldo would ever want a move to Spain so much!
Day 11 - [24 Aug 09]
Paris
Paris was amazing! All that talk about it being the most romantic city on Earth, well, it's probably mostly true.
The very simple act of strolling down Avenue des Champs-Élysées already feels so romantic. This is easily my favourite city during the course of the two weeks that we were in Europe.
Day 12 - [25 Aug 09]
Paris & London
With heavy heart, we said goodbye to Paris and took the Eurostar back to London.
That night, our hosts (Fu Onn and Fiona) brought us to a Szechuan restaurant near Liverpool Street. As a matter of fact, we had Chinese food every single night that we were in London!
Day 13 - [26 Aug 09]
London
While our hosts went to work, we took the time to do the usual touristy stuffs.
While we did not see the Queen in person, we did see her palace and a host of other London landmarks. We also watched a West End play (Les Misérables) and did some shopping over at Chinatown.
Day 14 - [27 Aug 09]
London
The whole Chinatown shopping trip was to help prepare for a steamboat dinner on our last night in London.
It will be an evening that all 4 of us will remember for a long time. We had a
yin-yang steamboat of chicken soup and
mala soup on the verandah of Fu Onn's apartment. The winds were strong and super cold. As dinner progressed, we started pulling on more clothes to counter the cold. After dinner, Fu Onn and myself went out to a nearby bar for drinks and got caught up in a karaoke mood. After 5 beers each, we went home to find Daisy and Fiona still awake and started setting up for a home karaoke session, projecting Youtube MTV on his TV. The video recording of that session will make for many a good laugh in the years to come.
Day 15 - [28 Aug 09]
LondonAfter doing some last minute shopping and taking a final good look around London, it was finally time to head home to Singapore.
We had wanted to have a good dinner at Heathrow before the flight but a mess-up of tax rebate issues meant that there wasn't any time at all for dinner.
Day 16 - [29 Aug 09]SingaporeAfter what seemed like a never ending flight, we finally touched down back in Singapore on a fine Saturday evening.
It was a most memorable 2 weeks of our lives together. What made it even more memorable was the fact that we also spent most of that time in the company of good friends.
We would definitely love to go back and spend more time in Scotland and France. Not to forget, we have yet to visit Italy, and the Vatical City in particular. Till then, there is the (very important) issue of working hard and saving up to take care of. Haha!
Thanks for reading! :-)
