Dreaming of a white Christmas

The journey

I recently remember saying, ‘I don’t like the journey, but I love the destination.’ Our current journey has not been without its issues, but as long and arduous, and at times, frustrating, as it has been, the reward of landing in a white, winter wonderland today has made it all worthwhile. It is surreal to be sitting here in our hotel room watching the snowflakes float gently down outside the window.

After a hectic week of preparations and packing, we travelled to Melbourne on the Bendigo Airport bus on Wednesday evening, for a night at the Park Royal Hotel. This enabled us to crawl out of bed at the civilised hour of 3:30 am to be at check-in the appointed 2 ½ hours before our 7 am flight. It also enabled us to meet up with our travelling companions and enjoy dinner together before our trip began, at least that was the plan.

Fellow travellers, Lyn, Wendy, Kim and organising agent extraordinaire, Genine, were all there when Wallsy and I arrived, despite Lyn’s train having been delayed en route and a car accident at Bulla slowing those travelling by road. Jill and Phil planned to join us later when their flight from Sydney arrived, however it soon became apparent that this was not going to be possible as the news came through that their flight was initially delayed, and then cancelled, due to extreme east coast weather conditions. This of course, was going to have a flow on effect, as they were meant to be flying out of Melbourne with us at 7am the following morning.

Genine sprang into action as this dire news arrived. She quickly commandeered a corner of the restaurant and immediately began making phone calls. It took some time, but she was eventually able to work her magic and secure a flight for Jill and Phil directly from Sydney to Singapore the following afternoon. They would meet us and our ongoing connecting flight in Singapore.

The rest of us were at the airport bright and early, checked in, through customs, breakfasted and boarded in plenty of time. Spread around the plane in our comfortable aisle seats (more of Genine’s magic), we settled in for the first 7-hour leg to Singapore. That was the easy part done. The layover in Singapore however, was long – 12 hours in total (supposedly), so we had planned to visit the famous Singapore Jewel and had also booked a nighttime city sights free tour, designed to help fill in the time.

On arrival at Changi Airport we first travelled by sky rail from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 to find the luggage storage area. This was ridiculously expensive, staffed by someone who really shouldn’t have been in the business of customer service, and it eventuated that I couldn’t leave my bag as I had my laptop in it, so I had to lug it around on my back for the whole day!

Anyway, our next stop at the butterfly enclosure was a highlight (every airport should have one), and after wandering through, snapping lots of pretty shots, we found a lunch spot. The bland meal option of pasta and reheated chicken chunks plastered in tomato paste which had been my offering on the flight had not been particularly tempting or palatable, so I was quite hungry by the time we arrived. This is the only meal option I have if I am to guarantee a non-spicy, allergen free meal, however, it does seem to be a waste of time ordering it, if it is not edible.

After lunch, we found the rooftop sunflower garden, again, a feature that every airport should have, and then wandered around the extensive shopping area, admiring the various attractions dotted around the airport, such as the orchid gardens, koi ponds and a virtual dreamscape. We couldn’t however, go to the Jewel, as although it is attached the airport by glass bridges, it involves leaving the airport terminals and immigration will only allow you to do this once per visit; as we were going off on the bus tour later, we couldn’t do both.

Eventually we reported for our tour at 5:30 (we had reached the halfway mark of our transit stop), and waited to take the sky rail from T2 to T3, before we engaged in more waiting for our tour leader to join us and take us out through immigration to the bus. There had been some heavy rain on and off during the day, but he felt confident this was going to ease and not effect our tour. He gave an interesting commentary as we drove and we eventually stopped to take in the Merlion Park, Marina Bay and the city skyline. Thunder and lightning informed us that the storms hadn’t finished with us, and the heavens opened just as we returned to the bus to travel to the Gardens By the Bay in time for the nightly sound and light spectacular. Dressed in becoming ponchos helpfully supplied to us as we exited the bus, we stood amid the towering man-made tree-scape experiencing what had become the sound, light and water show. The lightning provided a backdrop to the artificial light display, and we returned to the bus, and subsequently the airport, with soggy feet and legs.

We prepared for our ongoing flight, meeting up with Jill and Phil at last, but when we hadn’t begun boarding at 11:30pm, it soon became apparent that the weather was also wreaking havoc with the flight schedule. We were an hour late boarding and then we sat on the tarmac for another 2 ½ hours before we eventually took off (most of us had already had a nap by then). Again the meals came around and again the unappetising bland option of rice and chunks of fish held no appeal for me, so I ate the bread roll (without butter) and a strange-tasting jelly before settling in to sleep for this the longest leg of the journey; a 13-hour flight.

We were treated to some turbulence along the way thanks to the prevailing weather, but we all seemed to manage some sleep and I also finished watching the excellent 10-part Australian series, called The Twelve, that I had begun watching between Melbourne and Singapore. Finally we reached the amazing white wonderland that is Munich, at 9am. We were all in awe of the falling snow which had left a heavy coating on the landscape, surprising for the first of December. Our transfer drivers and fellow traveller Wendy, who had made her own way to Germany via Doha, had all been waiting sometime for our delayed flight, and further waiting ensued when Phil’s suitcase failed to arrive.

We eventually reached Flemings Hotel on Bayerstrasse and retired to the adjoining café for lunch and a drink while we waited for our 2pm check-in. Hot showers were the next item on the agenda and we have all spent the remainder of the afternoon either resting in our rooms (writing blogs like yours truly), or exploring the neighbourhood in the falling snow, like Wallsy. Now I am watching the fading light, again, a bizarre phenomenon at only 4:30 in the afternoon, and the falling snow is no longer visible from my window.

It was an epic 36-hour journey to get here, but the destination is full of promise.