March 7, 2019 - Singapore- Thursday, Day 60

March 7, 2019 - Singapore- Thursday, Day 60

We were up early and had breakfast finished by 7:30. We left the ship at 8:00. We were presently surprised to get to immigration with no waiting line. On our 2 other arrivals it took over half an hour to get through.

We walked through the terminal to the subway station and joined the locals on their way to work. We were going to the City Hall stop. We arrived there at 8:40. 

We started walking to St. Andrew’s Cathedral. This is a lovely church. An organist was playing when we arrived, but no service was in progress. We made our way around the church, taking pictures and admiring the excellent condition. As we neared the altar, the organist came over to us and invited us to stay for their 9:30 communion service. Unfortunately we had not planned for this, and were unable to attend. On our way out of the cathedral another lady approached us. She, too, invited us to stay. She pointed out a few features to us and bid us good day.

We went outside for some pictures and then went across the grounds to the cafe and bookstore. When I asked about a certain book, the clerk said “Oh. Are you Catholic?” She then explained that this was the Anglican cathedral and told us how to get to the Catholic cathedral. It was not far away. We accepted the free water they offered and went on our way.

As we followed her directions to the other cathedral we recognized the neighborhood where we had stayed for our first visit 3 years ago. We got comfortable again. Soon we were at the Cathedral of the Good Shepard. We made our way inside. 3 others were worshiping there. We quietly made our way around taking pictures as we went. We deliberately avoided the others, not wanting to disturb them. Suddenly a voice called “Pat and Alice.” It was Father Brian. He had left the ship this morning with the other couple. They were touring until the afternoon when they would travel to the airport. We parted after a short chat.

Father Brian and 2 cruisers

What a small world!

Alice and I made our way past the Chijmes complex where we had eaten dinner at one of the many restaurants. This was a former convent. The church building is now used for wedding receptions, and the grounds have become a sort of restaurant mall. Next we passed the Fairmont Hotel where we had stayed. It looked the same, but the doorman in the fancy formal uniform was no longer present.

Now we walked to the War Memorial, the National Gallery, the Cricket Club and finally the Esplanade. There we made our way to the bridge over the river to visit the Merlion. On our last 2 visits during this voyage we had seen the Merlion from a distance. Now we were getting up close and personal. There it was. Completely Covered in Scaffolding and Screening!! Argh! We could not believe it. 20 days ago it was looking beautiful. Now it was getting a facelift.

National Gallery

Bowling Green

Cricket Club

Saucer is Top of Supreme Court Building

Under the Esplanade

Expo Hall

Marina Bay Sands Hotel 

Just another Tourist

Merlon

Up Close - Not Personal

A little farther along we visited the Fullerton Hotel. Boy is this nice. We did not even heck the rates, but we did enjoy touring the great lobby. This was originally the Post Office. What a great job of redevelopment.

Next was the Customs House and the Que office complex. Each was impressive in its own rite. That led us to the subway and our return home to Maasdam.

We exited the subway at HarbourFront and entered the mall. We were planning to use up our Singapore dollars here. Alice was looking for new sandals. She found them. Still some dollars left. We started looking for a bookstore. A your lady directed us to Popular on the second floor. As soon as we entered we were in the electronics section. Alice needed some additional storage for picture archives. We found a 64GB USB stick. This coupled with a bottle of Magnolia Tea left just 10 cents in our pocket. Bravo, mission accomplished.

Returning to the ship went smoothly. We cleaned up quickly, and went to the Mariners reception in the Crows Nest. Mat a nice couple from Yorkshire and had a nice time.

At 3:30 our 4th emergency drill started. It was over by 4:00. We were in the room for 5:00 Mass at 4:50. At 5:10 there was no priest. He had missed the ship’s 4:30 departure. They were not sure when he would catch up. It won’t be tomorrow. that is a sea day.

At dinner we learned that our servers had again been changed. Sudika and Hendy had only been with us since Hong Kong 5 days ago. Dolly, our wine attendant had been with us for all 20 days of the last cruise. Her transfer was not a surprise. 

The biggest surprise was that Sinar was our waiter. He was our waiter on the first cruise, and he has served us many times for breakfast or lunch in the dining room. His assistant, Renato, is from the Philippines. This is something new. In the past all of the dining room stewards were from Indonesia. We will see how this is working out. Our new wine attendant is from The Philippines. This is customary for beverage stewards. He is new to the job. We will be patient.

Dinner went well. As always it was very good. We skipped the entertainment in order to get to bed early. We had walked over 7 miles in addition to being busy onboard.