Singapore to Porto

4 April

For our last day in Singapore we started with at 9am with a walking food tour.  We met our guide, Holden, at the MRT and Irene and Jim, from the bike tour the day before, were with us along with two English men, a father and son - Chris and James.  We went to the near by market and had a traditional Singaporean breakfast, very soft boiled egg (Lucy would suggest very under cooked egg!) with toast and coconut jam (Kaya).  I didn't mind it but it was quite sweet with the jam.  We also had tea and coffee - weak tea is a challenge in Singapore!  Our next stop was to try glutinous rice balls filled with shredded pork (or in my case, shredded jackfruit) - they were very tasty!  Next stop was for some dumplings filled with turnip - something I would never have tried by myself,  with chili they were quite nice.  Then  Otah - mackerel mixed with tapioca flour and wrapped in a banana leaf and BBQ'd - I quite like it, but others were not so keen.  Apparently they were also very hot?  Next stop - the VERY best curry puff I've ever had.  I'd go back just for the curry puff, they were magnificent.  Feeling very full now. we wandered to a sweet shop and tried a few Singaporean sweets, followed by a seafood laksa.  Greg, Lucy and I shared one bowl of laksa, we were absolutely bursting and couldn't eat another mouthful!  In contrast to the day before, it was hot and the sun was shining!  We went back to the hotel, and would have loved to have a nap, but unfortunately we'd had to check out before we left that day.  Instead we dozed by the pool.  We ended up having a swim - it was surprisingly  cold!  Very refreshing!  We had dinner at the local shopping centre.  My buddha bowl was lovely but Lucy and Greg were not impressed with their wok on rice.  Then the MRT out to the airport for our flight later that night!

Lucy, Greg and I met up with Simone at Changi airport.  Our flight from Singapore was delayed leaving and delayed arriving into Munich.  The extra we paid for premium economy was worth it for the comfort factor!  However, the food was disappointingly rubbish.  We were worried we'd miss our connection in Munich as the time was tight, but it turned out that our flight time had been changed by half an hour,, and then departure was delayed another 40 minutes, so we had plenty of time and met up with Dean and Esther, who had flown in on an earlier flight.  It seemed like a long 2.5 hours to Porto but after 14 hours flying into Munich, we were just sick of planes!  What a relief to finally arrive.  Dean and Esther's luggage came off promptly but not Lucy, Simone, Greg or mine...oh dear.  I had packed my toothbrush, extra undies and basic toiletries just in case this happened, but realised I should have included an extra t-shirt!  Because we had to wait so long trying to find our luggage (although checking our emails, we found Lufthansa advising us that  our luggage had not made the flight, and we'd "be informed" when it would arrive) or driver asked if we'd mind waiting for Heather, Richard, Deb and Jack, who had all just landed.  How lovely to see them!  We went into Porto and to our hotel, the Legendary Porto Hotel, well located in the centre of the old part of the city.  We went out for some lunch (and a glass of sangria!).  After lunch, Deb & Jack came with Greg & I on the adventure to work out the metro, and go to say hi to  Virginia, who had done all the organising for this part of the trip. Getting there was funny - both Greg and Jack were determined to work out the map while Deb & I asked people for help, and we found the office! It was lovely to meet her!