My first attempt at a trip report: Germany via Singapore, direct out of Canberra

[Colin 2905]

Thank you so far for the wonderful photos. It's rather ironic that since Europe suffered so much damage during the last war that they have such beautiful buildings. Haven't seen any photos of light rail ?? have you no time for light rail ??? :mrgreen:

cheers

Yes, there's certainly been a lot of reconstruction, and it's still going. There's a series of black and white photos outside the Cologne Cathedral which shows just how much the place had the cough bombed out of it during WWII. I was going to take photos of them, but those damned tourists kept getting in the way.

I saw light rail / trams in Berlin and Nuremberg, but I didn't have a need to catch one. Nor did I take any photos of them, sorry. As you may have heard, ACT Labor won today's ACT election, so they'll push ahead with their light rail plans. But I'm a south sider, so I'm probably more likely to ride on light rail the next time I visit Germany than I am to stray to the far-flung north of the ACT to ride one.

 

[Colin 2905]

Back at SIN, nearing the home stretch. This time I thought to stop and take a photo of the plane.....



Kind of knackered (again), and by this stage I had also come down with a cold, so I sought out a transit hotel (again). We'd arrived at T2, so I started with the transit hotel there. They had nothing until 12pm (I think it was about 8.30am at this stage), so I wandered over to T3. The transit hotel had a vacancy at 10.30am. Still a couple of hours away, but I took it. Then went off in search of a chemist, bought something to try to relieve the symptoms, grabbed a bite to eat, and found somewhere quiet to sit until the room was ready. This time around I managed to sleep for a fair chunk of the six hours, and felt more like I'd got my SGD$90 worth.

Oh, prior to crashing at the transit hotel I also booked a spot on one of the free Singapore tours for that evening. Here's a few photos from that little tour.....









The next time that I go through SIN and have plenty of time to kill, I'm going to head back to Gardens By The Bay for a much longer look around.

Anyway, the tour bus duly dropped us back at the airport and I made my back to the SATS Premier lounge in T3 to freshen up again, have another free feed and chill out until it was time to head to the gate. This time around there was quite a queue at the security check and I had to wait a little while. Nothing major though. I'd hoped to be able to pick up an exit row or bulkhead row seat for the final leg, but it wasn't to be and I had to make do with a bog-standard aisle seat. I checked out the IFE on the 777-200ER this time, and compared to the IFE on the A350-900, it was rather ordinary. But hey, at least we had running water in the toilets. Towards the end of the flight I was handed a survey form to complete, and I took the opportunity to tell them that the IFE needs updating.

From memory, we landed in CBR slightly ahead of schedule and the exit was pretty plain sailing, other than it took quite a while for my luggage to appear.

And that's pretty much it.

 

[drron]

An enjoyable read.Thanks for taking the time.

 

[love_the_life]

Thanks for the TR Colin; it was great to hear the experience of someone on the CBR - SIN direct flight seeing as it has only just started. The only thing that puts me off it is the overnight flights, not my favourite way to travel. Great photos too. I had to look up Schiller but that's an age thing
You never know with the light rail - Stage 2 is planned to link Woden and then who knows?

 

[Colin 2905]

Thanks everyone for the likes and feedback. Like love_the_life, I'm not a huge fan of overnight flights either but these are currently the timings on offer. In any case it was novel flying directly in and out of CBR rather than via MEL, SYD or BNE as I've done in the past. Flying SQ was also a first for me, as was SIN.

It'd be nice to do it again one day, but in J instead where I might hopefully get some sleep. But first I need to find another job.

 

[love_the_life]

And next time in SIN Colin2905, Gardens by the Bay are worth spending quite a bit of time at, although I do really like the Botanic Gardens for a wander. Maybe next time MrsColin2905 will be able to join you (I take it you don't take the dogs with you to the doggy shows?).
My brother and his wife moved to Ireland in the early 2000s and relocated their entire racing and non-racing kennel (50 greyhounds). He built special cages three high and they travelled with them on a SQ cargo plane.

 

[kermatu]

Great TR Colin2905. Liked reading about the Canberra Singapore Airlines experience too.

Best of luck in the job hunt and hope you and MrsColin2905 get to take those J flights soon.

 

[Colin 2905]

(I take it you don't take the dogs with you to the doggy shows?)

Mrs 2905 (aka Karen) is a dog (and cat) groomer / stylist, so her main interest in the shows is from a grooming perspective; to watch, learn and spend a tonne of money on grooming products and accessories. :shock:

 

[ABC1]

Great trip report, and I hope you find a new job soon.

I'd be interested to know what the loads CBR-SIN and SIN-CBR were? It's great to have the flight, but it doesn't really connect with all that much at SIN apart from LHR. I've heard a few people say now long wait-connect times in SIN.

 

[Colin 2905]

I'd be interested to know what the loads CBR-SIN and SIN-CBR were? It's great to have the flight, but it doesn't really connect with all that much at SIN apart from LHR. I've heard a few people say now long wait-connect times in SIN.

CBR - SIN and SIN - CBR were both pretty full (in Y anyway, I don't know about J). The lady sitting next to me coming back from SIN was from Wellington, and was giving WLG - CBR - SIN - LHR and return a try. She usually flies internationally via AKL, and it sounded as though she was going to go back to doing that. From what she told me, and I've read it elsewhere too, the loads (in Y at least) from CBR to WLG and back have been on the light side.

Yep, I had long layovers in SIN in both directions but given that I scored what I think was a pretty good price I was prepared to wear it.

 

[Franky]

Now that's what I call a castle!

On our recent visit there, probably only a few days apart from Colin, we were told this castle was used as the model by Disney at the beginning of many of their films.