travel – Page 20 – trippingdifferently

August 15, 2012August 15, 2012

4 Weeks In SG…

… No, not St Gallen, Switzerland, which is shorten to SG in Switzerland.

SG = Singapore, for me.

Yep, it is time once again for a pictorial summary of our annual trip back to SG. We left exactly one week ago (myself and Tobias that is, Walter came home 10 days before us). This time we spent 4 weeks there – 28 days to be exact.

This year we flew Lufthansa again. They are not a bad airline to fly with and this time i felt that the service was a little better than last year. Maybe because this year we flew in their new A380, non-stop from Frankfurt to Singapore.

Remember my Gush! post? Well, the penguins went on their very first outing 😉 Aren’t they just adorable?!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — On the way to SG…

We landed in the afternoon, unpacked, got a bit of rest and then the next day, we hit to the town! 😀

We did some touristy stuff, such as visit the new Gardens By the Bay. It was nice – the outside was not quite finished and the flowers/plants didn’t seem to be in full bloom yet. But we really liked the 2 indoor conservatories – the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. The plants/flowers were really quite interesting in these cooled areas but my little guy got bored after one conservatory. His interest perked up again at the indoor waterfall and when we were at the video presentation near the end of the visit. The whole place is built to conserve power, it even produces its own solar power which is enough to power the whole attraction. The solar panels are actually mounted on top of these huge “metal trees” – i call them the “Avatar Trees”. There is a skywalk which links a few of these trees – it has quite a nice view. We were told the whole gardens look prettier at night but we chose not to stay into the evening as we already had a whole day out.

Of course, we also did the usual things – mainly eat all the foods we miss ;p And the one thing we always do is our morning walk by the beach, followed by breakfast at MacDonald’s 🙂

Spending time with family and friends is the other main reason we go back each year.

This year we were also faced with a rather unexpected sad event – the passing of a friend from church, Ronald. Our thoughts are with his family.

Tobias had his first taste of seawater – his reaction? “Pah, Ptooie” and a sour expression on his face. Ok i stand corrected, this is not his very first taste of seawater but the first one which he reacted to. His very first exposure to seawater was when he was quite small so he doesn’t remember it. He got over it pretty quickly and was soon having a ball of a time.

We also went to the Jurong Bird Park. Again it was one of the places we had brought him to before but he was too small to remember. He really quite enjoyed this trip.

Universal Studios Singapore was another stop we made. After this second time there (now it has more attractions than our first time there), my advice is to go early and plan to stay till closing to get on as many rides as possible, make it a 2-day event if you can afford it. There are a couple of kiddy rides but most would be entertaining for both adults and children. Do note: the Battlestar ride has size restrictions. Oh, another thing – bring a fan and an umbrella. It was very hot the day we went but towards the early evening it rained for a short while.

Last year we went to a restaurant to celebrate my grandmother’s (Tobias’ great-grandmother) birthday. This year it was a quiet affair at home with just immediate family. i love that i can still celebrate my grandmother’s 98th birthday!

We went, we laughed together with, ate with and spent time with family and friends, we enjoyed. 😉

syc

April 12, 2012

Day Trip: Food Museum in Vevey, Switzerland

It’s the Spring School Holidays now. So i thought i would highlight another little kid-friendly excursion we took. We went to the Alimentarium (Food Museum) in Vevey last October, during our Autumn School Holidays. It was a lovely autumn day, the sun was shining and the air was fresh; we could not have asked for a better day 🙂

i decided that we would really make it a full day out. So instead of just taking the train directly to Vevey and then a bus to the museum, we went the long way – we took the train to Lausanne and then the Metro to Ouchy. From there, a luxurious boat ride to Vevey.

foodmuseumA20120412 — Here's us on the boat from Ouchy to Vevey.

i packed a light lunch and we ate on the deck of the boat, enjoying the beautiful scenery. My photos hardly do justice to the real thing.

foodmuseumB20120412 — Above: View of Ouchy from the boat, you can see the Olympic Museum along the shoreline. Below: Passing hills covered with vineyards.

Tobias loved the boat ride!

foodmuseumC20120412 — Isn't this just the life? Lakeside teatime.

We got off at the Vevey jetty and stopped at the Kiosk there for “walk-along” ice cream. We took a lovely walk along the shore and came across this relaxing lakeside cafe.

Just a couple of minutes walk from this cafe is the Alimentarium. I love how museums in Switzerland are housed in buildings which deserve to be in museums themselves. This building was simple and regal, surrounded by a herb and vegetable garden; all part of the museum’s efforts to be an all-rounded education point.

foodmuseumD20120412 — Looks like a palace, doesn't it?

The first level of the museum is filled with stations where you can learn all about the different types of food we eat, the food pyramid, as well as food through the centuries. It was really interesting to learn about the different types of food people ate long ago, then click a switch, the panel turns and you have food from today. The stations were not boring information dumps but are fairly good interactive activities. See how engrossed my little guy was, learning the food pyramid. There was also a big card game you could play after you are done with computer activity (in the foreground of the photo below).

foodmuseumE20120412 — Headphones on and eyes glued to the animation about the food pyramid.

That was just half of the first floor. Then we went up to the second floor and this went further into what happens when food enters our bodies and how we view food, treat food and even about food shopping culture. There were real product boxes on shelves and in between there were again informative stations with great little animations.

foodmuseumF20120412 — Shopping Carts showing how food shopping has changed through the years.

There were also some stations which talked about transportation of food. But Tobias loved the one which showed him what happened to the food in his stomach; how bacteria broke down the food and the different enzymes.

foodmuseumG20120412 — Absorbed in learning about food absorption in our stomachs.

The second half of the second floor showed the link between exercise and food. There is even a big human-sized hamster wheel which you can try running in and know how much fat you burnt. There are also tasting stations which dispensed little tablets to test if you know can tell the difference between sweet and salty. We didn’t do too well – heheheee 😉

That floor also had a little quiz corner which allowed you to find out what type of eater you were, whether you were a gourmet or just your everyday omnivore.

By this time, my 7-year-old was ready to call it a day. i don’t blame him. It was a lot to take in, especially for a little guy. i mean it was interesting, very hands-on and all but a little boy can only last that long and absorb that much information. So we gave the third floor a miss. The third floor housed a special exhibition about food in different countries. Singapore was mentioned for that one and i really wanted to see it but i settled for the special newspaper published just for the exhibition. This special exhibition changes all the time, currently the new exhibit is under construction and looks to be really interesting.

Anyhow, we decided a snack was in order. So we went to the little cafe in the museum, at the back of the first floor. They serve very simple pastries and sandwiches and were already half-shut for the day but the lady was so very nice and warmed a cheese sandwich for us, and we got tea and fruit juice to wash it down before we headed for home; the direct train route this time.

foodmuseumH20120412 — Cooking Class in French, anyone?

On the way out, we walked through an industrial sized kitchen and the bunch of students who were running around the museum with their class questionnaire before, were all standing around the bench, listening to a chef tell them about food preparation and cooking. It was all in French so i did not understand anything at all. i asked the information desk and was told that schools often bring kids here to learn about food and digestion which i think is a fantastic thing. However, the cooking class was only in french.

It was a lovely day out for us. So i hope this will help you plan another little outing with your kids. Just remember little ones do get tired to don’t expect too much from them 🙂

syc

February 11, 2012July 6, 2012

Hot Air Balloons Galore!

So on the last Saturday of January, while Husband was off helping a colleague move, Son and i went to see the International Ballooning Festival in Château-d’Oex, Switzerland.

i had heard about this festival a couple of years ago and always wanted to go but we either had something else to do or were not here for it. So this year, i decided we just had to go. And we went.

The day started out lovely, cold but nice enough. We took the train from Montreux up to Château-d’Oex. The scenry went from this…

ballooningA20120211 — View from the train on the way up the mountain.

…to this in a space of 30 minutes!

ballooningB20120211 — About 2 or 3 stations before ours

It was lovely to be up in this winter wonderland. We haven’t had much snow at our level.

However, all that snowfall (it kept on falling in big fat flakes while we were there) means that it is bad weather and poor visibility for ballooning, the balloons were not going to take off. But they did inflate them so that the people who did come to see them will have something to see.

Here they are inflating the famous Scotsman. i was taken aback at how huge the balloons were.

ballooningC20120211 — See how that man could easily fit into the Balloon Scotsman’s mouth!

Here’s the Scotsman, fully inflated.

ballooningD20120211 — Here’s the Scotsman at full size, see the other balloons around it… lots of different colours and design.

So we stayed till they started to deflate some of the balloons and we went inside the big ‘warehouse’ and had some lunch. (Tobias got his first taste of cotton candy – he had fun but i don’t think he will be asking for one too soon.)

The whole village takes this ballooning thing very serious. They have a special display or it could be called a museum just for the sport of ballooning. We did not see this because i don’t read french and had thought it was only meant for organisers and information only. i realised too late that it was opened to public.

Here’s a little display in a bakery window which i like very much – just to show you how much they are into this ballooning thing.

ballooningE20120211 — Don’t you just love an edible display? :p

Tobias really enjoyed himself, even though it was cold and mummy was a little grumpy about it. So all in all it was a good day out.

ballooningF20120211 — Here we are, happy and smiling, glad that we braved the weather and came and saw.

i would recommend it to families with kids who are fancinated with flight and flying. Oh, people brought their little sleds with them, there was a little hill next to the launch site where kids could sled. Next time we’re bringing ours.

syc