Leah & Julian in The World

Home at last!

It was a massive trip.  Epic almost!  We arrived home on Monday, jet-lagged but excited  and struggled to stay awake until a reasonable hour!  Fortunately Singapore is only two hours behind, but unfortunately we got almost no sleep on the flight home.

We thought we should put this trip into some numbers for you: 16 weeks, 18 countries, 46 places to stay, 9GB or 3,700 photos, $150/day, 13 airports, 46 train stations, 31 (major) train trips, 865km in a Mercedes, 2000 miles in a campervan, seven languages and approximately 10kg of gelato!

We also feel we should make some broad conclusions about our trip:

1. Four months is a long time!  Yet there was so much more we could have done and would like to go back and do.
2. Every country is different – different food, different view, different weather and different experiences.  Therefore, it’s difficult to narrow down our favourites and least favourites.
3. Living out of a suitcase gets really old.  I heart my wardrobe!
4. Write everything down!  No matter how long you’re going for, keep a travel diary.  I have already forgotten so much, but fortunately I was pretty strict about keeping my journal up to date.
5. The value of a home cooked meal is vastly underrated… until you have to eat at restaurants for three meals a day, for four months…

Looking forward to seeing you all and hearing about your past four months!  Of course, we’ve got more stories too – like the morning we almost got hypochlorite poisoning in Belfast, easy ways to master the ‘stupid American tourist’ stereotype, a real Irish joke, where to go sunbaking in central Geneva if you’re a nudist and finally the many, many creative ways some Europeans will lighten your pockets (none of which happened to us (we think), thankfully).

Paddington makes it home!

We’ll leave you with a photo of our $5 suckerfish ‘massage’ in Chinatown in Singapore.

Now off to Trip Advisor to write some reviews and return the favour to those who helped us find some fantastic places to stay…

Treating our feet to a tickly suckerfish massage.

Looking out over the river

That’s pretty much what you do in Singapore.  It’s quite hot but the thing we’re really not accustomed to is the humidity.  Walk outside and you melt.

Our hotel is quite close to Little India so we ventured to the very different part of town.  The Mustafa Centre here is massive and sells everything from mangoes to microwaves and more.  We were a little disappointed with the prices – expecting them to be quite cheap, when really it is only the currently favourable exchange rate that saves you a dollar.  We hoped to have lunch at the Tekka Centre, which is loaded with Hawker stalls, but alas, it was completely closed for renovations.

After a disappointing start, we decided to hit the shops as it is currently The Great Singapore Sale.  Although Leah was succesful almost straight away, it did take me a while to find some decent mens shopping.  Orchard Road is like one big shopping mall, with massive buildings housing many a shop on either side of the road.

Along the river at Clarke Quay

For dinner we headed to Coriander Leaf at Clarke Quay on the river.  Singapore lights up at night and it was particularly busy as it was river festival time.  Dinner at Coriander Leaf was excellent.  So much so that we talked our way into the full cooking class the following day!

South East Asian Sampler @ Coriander Leaf

After about four hours sleep (this jetlag thing is real), we grabbed breakfast then headed back to Coriander Leaf for our ‘Singapore Street Food’ cooking class.  The class was taken by the owner and chef, Samia Ahad.   It was an observation class, so we watched (and ate) while Samia explained and prepared… lamb satay skewers with peanut sauce, Hiananese chicken rice, Singapore chilli crab, Singapore fried noodles (they were pretty good, Dad), fried tofu with spicy sauce and mango mousse with tapioca pearls.  Lets just say no dinner required for us tonight.

Samia adds the crabs to the chilli sauce

For the other photos from the cooking school, head to the Singaporean food gallery.

And so to Europe we say au revoir, auf wiedersehen,  ciao, adiós, dag!  It has certainly been an adventure, a reconnaissance mission of sorts – we know we’d like to go back!

What, you ask, has been the best?  That’s quite a difficult question – we have seen so much and had so many different experiences that it is impossible to choose just one.  But here’s our shortlist (in no particular order):

Awesome Accommodation:

• Bruges: Royal Stewart B&B
• Venice: Al Gallion B&B
• Santorini:  Villa Maria Damigou
• Rothenburg ob der Tauber: Haus Karin
• Paris: An Apartment in Paris
• Marrakech: Riad de l’Orientale

Cool Cities:

• London
• Berlin
• Paris
• Venice
• Rome

Perfect Places:

• The Swiss Alps
• Firostefani at sunset
• Geneva on a perfect spring day
• Cambridge on the River Cam
• Prague at twilight

Favourite Food:

• Macaroons (Paris)
• Scampi spaghetti (Venice)
• Prosciutto (Parma)
• Tagine (Marrakech)
• Greek salad (Santorini)

Recommended Restaurants:

• Benares, London
• David Bann’s, Edinburgh
• Kantjil and Tijger, Amsterdam
• Aktaion, Firostefani
• Lehká Hlava, Prague
• Au Brin de Thym, Arles
• Kosybar, Marrakech
• Restaurante Integral Artemisa, Madrid (whoops, we couldn’t stop at five)

Best Beer:

• Bruges Zot Blonde (Belgium)
• Tripel Karmeliet (Belgium)
• Pilsner Urquell (Czech Rep)
• Efes (Turkey)
• Moritz (Spain)

Great Guides:

• Tori, London
• Kate & Dennis, St Andrews
• Tante Margreet, Rotterdam
• Andy, Andrea, Maira, Salome & Samira, Landau in der Pfalz
• Amy & Lis, Ferney Voltaire

Don’t go away just yet, we’ve got a few days in Singapore…

Skulls in the Catacombs

Six million in fact -  neatly stacked and arranged in the Catacombs of Paris.

From 1785, skeletons were moved from Paris’ overcrowded cemetaries into an old limestone quarry beneath the streets of the city.

The large stacks of bones fill a labyrinth of underground tunnels about a kilometre in total length.  The bones look like they have been arranged by type, so I don’t think you were kept together when you were moved from the cemetary!

It’s a macabre museum to say the least!

Catacombs of Paris

When we weren’t disturbing the dead, we were eating garlic-butter snails with newfangled utensils…

Les douze escargots de bourgogne

La Tour Eiffel

Although we arrived early to the Tour Eiffel, the people waiting had already formed a snaking line beneath the tower they desired to ascend.

Fortunately the ‘I’m fit enough to not need an elevator’ line was very short and we were soon scaling the steel stairs to the second level of the tower.

668 steps later we arrived, slightly short of breath and in need of the water we brought, but confident we’d beaten all those who lined up for the elevator below.

The views of Paris from the tower were pretty amazing, smog aside.  From every side of the tower there were several Parisian icons to spot.

Back down the steps, now with time to read the signs along the way that inform you on various tower trivia like it’s weight in elephant equivalents or that it is coated with 60 tonnes of paint.

Palais de Chaillot and Trocadéro Garden from La Tour Eiffel

We then headed for the Arc de Triomphe.  Commissioned by Napoleon (like a few things around here…) the massive arch sits in the middle of a 12-street intersection.  If driving, it seems you shut your eyes, pull out and hope someone else actually has their eyes open to see you and let you through the world’s craziest round-a-bout.

Arc de Triomphe

One of the 12 streets leading away from the arch is Champs-Elysées – a wide, tree lined boulevard that took us to the Tuileries Garden and home.

Champs-Elysées

Gardens at Palace of Versailles. This is just the orangerie (orange orchard).

A trip to Versailles makes one thing clear – the French probably had a point when they revolted.  The palace is a study in excess.  I’m pretty sure you could run a marathon in the grounds without retracing your route.  It felt like we walked 40km trying to get to Domaine de Marie Antoinette.   When we arrived at the Summer House, it was like we’d stepped back in time; there appeared to be some kind of period piece being filmed.

Filming at Domaine de Marie Antoinette

In the evening we took advantage of the Louvre’s free entry for under 26s.  We mainly focused on the Italian and French paintings found in the Denon wing.  Of course we saw the Mona Lisa, but in my unsophisticated opinion the Eiffel Tower is cooler.

There she is, behind bullet-proof glass