Guernica

We had a day before the tour began, so went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (or Reina Sofia Museum) to see Pablo Picasso's Guernica.

Guernica is a town in northern Spain. Spain was in the midst of a civil war, and Nazi Germany supported the right-wing ruler, Franco. The Nazis bombed Guernica in April 1937.  More info  here but I have also read that it gave them an opportunity to fine-tune the bombing of cities and civilians, information which was used during WWII.   

I never really got Picasso, with his mixed up faces etc.  But Guernica is in another league. It is instantly gripping.  It is a big work, all in monochrome - well greys and black and white.  Again there are mixed up faces, but this time here were mixed-up animals and objects as well - and everything was in very obvious agony. The spread of this agony was across the whole canvas.  I just stood there and took it all in, before even reaching for my camera.  

Won't look at Picasso in quite the same way. 

Some pics:

The painting

Other people looking...

And this is the entrance to the Museum.

 

Frankfurt to Madrid

In Frankfurt (FF), we had to connect to a Lufthansa flight to Madrid, and fortunately were given both our boarding passes at the Singapore check-in.

FF is busy, huge, seemingly chaotic.  We had to get to Gate A68, and the signage seemed to have gaps in it.  We would show our boarding passes to someone, who would tell us where to go, even though people were coming in the other direction.  We thought we were transit, but found ourselves heading towards luggage collection.  There is more than one Lufthansa lounge, and went into one - who told us that we were welcome to come in, but it would be a long walk to our gate.  We asked how long - and  found we had to go through the dreaded EU immigration! So we left the lounge and began the next leg of our terminal journey.

Actually, the immigration pre-registration wasn't too bad - it worked.  It is a bit like Sydney, where you got through a machine first to get a ticket, then make your way to the immigration gate.

So we did all that. Queued at immigration checkpoint for about 15 minutes - better than the media reports we had read.  Found the nearest Lufthansa lounge, was hungry for breakfast,  and waited for our flight to Madrid.

Getting to the gate was just the first stage! We had to go on a bus to the aircraft.  It was a long trip, under various buildings etc etc.  Finally got on board.

Once on board, normality prevailed!  We discovered Lufthansa is 100 years old - so that was why we saw stylised little statues around the place, including this seat-back cover.

Next time we will go through Munich or Zurich - anywhere but FF.  We can blame US foreign policy for all this hassle - we were originally to go trough Dubai!

Sngapore to Frankfurt

This was a night flight, so plenty of opportunity for sleep.

Whenever I looked out the window, it seemed there was another plane in the distance.  Again, with restrictions on flight paths, the ones available seem more crowded. Difficult to photograph though.

There was also a very long sunrise behind us!

Looking towards the end of the wing, with engine under the horizon. The two lights are reflections from the cabin.

Flying into Frankfurt, before 6am.

 

Singapore. En route to Eclipse 2026.

To get to the eclipse in Spain, we originally planned to fly through Dubai.  But 3 days before we were due to hand over our payment, the Iran-US conflict erupted.  So now we are back to flying a less direct route and to break the journey, we are spending a day in Singapore. Kin Mun went visiting, and I went to Jewel (at the airport) so some pics below.

Iconic views of the waterfall. 

 

 But more than just a waterfall.  There is a whole cliff full of greenery and stairs... and photo ops!

In Singapore, food always features:

Discovered white chendol.  But a bit too much coconut for me.

And I love burnt (or caramelised?) cha siew/roast pork.  At the wonton stall, I spotted this about to be thrown away - and asked if I could have it.  The lady double checked that I really wanted it! It was delicious - and some was really caramelised.

Now waiting for our almost midnight flight to Frankfurt, then on to Madrid.

 

 

 

 

Shep's Mound

 As a child, growing up in Smithfield, we used to run outside whenever we heard a plane.  It was a tiny silver speck going across the sky.

Plane spotting is still in my blood.  Sydney airport has several designated plane-spotting sites, the main one being Shep's Mound.  It is next to the control tower, and named after a previous aviation enthusiast.  It is built up,  grassed, has shade..  The only thing missing is a coffee cart!

On a Saturday morning, there would have been about 50 people there.

Some pics:

Blurb:

And we were next to the control tower.  There was a sign saying no tresspassing and no shooting......

It might seem too close for security, but I bet there were cameras everywhere and I would't like to be the guy who gets his RPG out.

I hadn't realised that taxi-ing planes move so fast!  

This is just one of four suggested plane-spotting sites.  Next we will try ones to the north where you can see the planes approaching.

Bruce

 

Chinese New Year meetups.

 Paternal relatives.  Older folks sit in the front row!

A separate catch-up.

Maternal relatives.

A lovely three days!

More looking at Singapore

With Kin Mun's tummy and my cold, we had to cancel two lunches, and took it easy over a couple of days.  Feeling much improved today.

But some pics...

We went for a wander around Katong.  It is not easily reached (yet) by the MRT, so we took a taxi.  It is an area of Singapore where there has traditionally been a lot of peranakans (chinese who have lived in the area for generations and absorbed many local customs)  as well as english speaking local households. 

Some Chinese New Year decorations, private and public.

It is the year of the Horse.

Today we went to Clementi, way out in the "heartland" and where Singapore's best known sewing machine company is.   To get there, we had to go through some heartland food stalls, and it is still possible to find mess in Singapore.  But I must say, it is clean mess.

And a new dish...  The tadpoles are a kind of jelly with tails.

Bits and pieces

Travel is catching up with us.  KM has a tummy upset, and I have, hopefully, hay-fever and not a cold.  Kin Mun cancelled our lunch tomorrow, and we will stay in.

But today we went to Orchard Road to Kinokuniya - KM to buy a gift for tomorrow's host, and me to get in and out without spending anything.  But I got lost in the Japanese-language craft section and managed to escape, just Sg$11 poorer, with a dress pattern.  Japanese are great with diagrams, and Google translate is a good back-up.

Pics around the traps today.

In the MRT (subway)  station - contradictory messages!

 

The surfaces are SO enticing for all these modes of transport!  But no fines involved.

Ran out of space to put the "g' in Sing?

 

Claudines

We decided to enjoy a nice meal at one of the many restaurants in Singapore.  We tried Les Amis, which has 3 Michelin stars, but they had a rigid requirement of having to eat 3 courses - which I just cannot manage.  So we opted for another french  restaurant - Claudines - instead.  They had bouillabaisse (for the fish/pulpo/prawn eaters)and  ile flottante for me!

Beo Lan kindly drove us there.  It was a lovely setting - a former RC  church, in Dempsey Hill.  Some pics...

A shared bouillabaisse - a mixed seafood casserole, from Marseille, in the south of France. There is a lot there that I don't eat, but seafood makes a beautiful looking meal!

I had Murray Cod, which was  another name for barramundi -  or is it the other way round?!

 Kin mun had lobster roll.  Sorry, no pic.

And dessert was a re-constructed ile flottante!  Ile flottante, literally floating island, is poached meringue adrift on custard, and other decorations like caramel, nuts and whatever the cook decides. 

Very unusually, it came to the table like this:  We were given careful instructions on how to deconstruct it.

Firstly, you lift the lid:

 

 And then you pierce the meringue to allow the custard to flow over the base of the plate.

All lots of fun!