What To See Christmas and New Year One Week in Singapore or London

Singapore Flag.

Public and private places are selling their tickets for the Xmas period from November 1st.
To be sure of getting a place in a restaurant or on a tour you need to start planning now.

For my relatives travelling to Singapore I am putting together a one week plan.
You will want to see Christmas lights in Orchard Road but you can see them on the way to other sights.


Xmas tree and decorations outside Tanglin Mall. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

My plan for the perfect one week stay is work in progress and looks like this.

Tuesday Dec 24th 7 p arrive See Waterfall at Jewel
Wednesday Dec 25 - Day 1 Gardens By The Bay - or Botanic Gardens
Thursday Dec 26 -2 Sentosa cable car and Trickeye museum
Friday Dec 27 -3 Gardens by the bay - or Botanic Gardens
Saturday Dec 28 - 4 Night safari, and or zoo combined ticket and bird park
Sunday Dec 29 - 5 Singapore flyer lunch at Tanglin
Monday Dec 30 - 6 Duck tour
Tuesday Dec 31 - 7 National Museum and Art Museum and Clarke Quay and Fullerton hotel and statues
Wednesday Jan 1st 2020 - 8 Butterfly Garden at Changi Airport, Coffee bar local dish Kaya toast
Check in 21.45 hours
23.45 hour departure Singapore Airlines evening flight

Evening of arrival:
Jewel waterfall:

Waterfall, Jewel Mall, Changi Airport, above Changi MRT. Singapore

1 GARDENS BY THE BAY


Look for a combined Gardens by the Bay and

Singapore Flyer (big wheel) package.
Singapore Flyer alone cost per adult about $33, - that was November 1 2019, by Xmas the fares may have changed.
MRT Promenade.

Duck tour

Open top bus tour

NATIONAL MUSEUM OPEN HOUSE

RAFFLES HOTEL.
Dinner at a club if you know anybody who belongs to one. The American Club is in the centre of the city and opposite it is the Tanglin Club.

Angela at the Tanglin Club. Napkin with buttonhole. Copyright.

If not, Raffles Hotel.


Singapore Sling or Millionaire's Cocktail.


I had a free Singapore Sling on Singapore Airlines. But the one at Raffles hotel is better.

1 FORD FACTORY MUSEUM (Morning)
A look at WWII. The Battlebox Museum on Fort Canning shows Singapore's surrender. This is more cheering, a happy end for Singapore with the surrender of the Japanese.






Swim?
Little India lunch on banana leaf.

2 NIGHT SAFARI

3 BOTANIC GARDENS

Botanic Gardens Symphony Canopy.


Chopin Statue near symphony Canopy in Botanic Gardens, Singapore.

4 JEWEL
Lights at Jewel on central waterfall - free Coffee Museum at back of coffee cafe

5 SENTOSA

6 MALAYSIA J B nearby not interesting? / Malacca  - pink city, means renting a car or going by bus. KL too far? Try Peranakan Museum.
Admire the mosque by Pending LRT station near Cashew MRT.


7 INDONESIA BATAM AND BINTAN day trip by ferry

8 MARINA BAY SANDS - Observation deck.






BUTTERFLY PARK in Changi Airport.

Butterfly Park, Changi Airport.

For those not leaving London, or going there from Europe or the USA, from November 1st 2019 tickets are on sale for Christmas the Dickens Museum in central London.

USEFUL WEBSITES
SINGAPORE
https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-programmes/programmes-list/12-days-of-christmas-open-house



UK Flag

In London it's traditional to see the lights in Oxford Street (and the front facade and windows of Selfridges Department store), Regent Street (and Hamleys toy store), and Harrods department store in Knightsbridge.

As for visits, Charles Dickens wrote the short novel The Christmas Carol. You can visit his home in London. Tickets for Xmas have just become available from November and will probably sell out quickly.

What else to do at Christmas in London? Outdoor ice skating. Pantomime.

Charles Dickens Museum
48-49 Doughty Street,
London, WC1N 2LX

T: +44(0)20 7405 2127

E: info@dickensmuseum.com

https://dickensmuseum.com/pages/christmas-at-the-charles-dickens-museum

Even if you don't have the time or money or luck to get on a tour, you can see the outside of the house and read the plaque and take a selfie.

London has walking tours. If it's cold, wear a ski jacket, hat and mittens.

Plenty to do in London. British Museum, London Museum, Tate Modern Gallery, Madame Tussauds, the British Library, Sherlock Holmes Museum, The London Eye, a Beatles Tour, a Harry Potter studios tour, statues of Paddington Bear, Brunel, Buckingham Palace, and more statues such as Oscar Wilde, and homes of kings and queens and writers and painters, and poets such as Keats, playwrights such as Shakespeare, bankers such as the Rothschilds and the museum of the Bank of England, more than you can remember and count. As somebody once said, He who is tired of London is tired of life.
Grab copies of Time Out magazine, local free newspapers, free maps in hotels and look for vouchers and offers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favurite posts.

Trafalgar Square and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Christmas Tree to see in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square in London always has a Christmas tree, a Norway spruce sent to England from Norway, a custom started the Christmas after the end of WWII as thanks to Britain for supporting Norway.

Why Is the Tree In Trafalgar Square?
Why not Piccadilly, centre of London? Whilst Piccadilly with its statue of eros, god of love, stands at the start of Shaftesbury Avenue, at the lower end of Regent Street, famous for fine shops and toy store Hamlets, Trafalgar Square is an open space where you have room for pedestrians to gather and happy crowds to sing carols. You can stand under Nelson's column, near the National Portrait gallery featuring famous heroes and heroines of Britain and the world.

Even if you cannot visit Trafalgar Square at Christmas, as an armchair traveller, book reader, news reader, shopper, or TV news follower you will see Trafalgar Square in countless souvenirs and pictures and news events.

Why is Trafalgar Square Called That?
Trafalgar Square is named after the Battle of Trafalgar. Where is Trafalgar? The column supports the statue of Nelson, famous for sending the message, 'England expects every man to do his duty'.

How do I know this? I learned all about the message at a museum in Wales, and later I remind myself by checking up on the internet. This easy to remember message and its history is a reminder to keep things simple. Nelson was going to use a longer words but the man sending the message from ship to ship with flags in a hurry needed s simpler message with fewer letters.

Christmas Carols
One of the Christmas carols most useful to people learning English is the twelve days of Christmas.
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a partridge in a pear tree.

Learning and Teaching English Through Songs
Using The Twelve Days of Christmas:
You learn (or teach) both the simple cardinal or quantity numbers: one, two, three, and the ordinal or order numbers, such as first day of Christmas.

You also learn (or teach) me and my.  My true love gave to me ...

Guide to Stars:
***** Cross the world to see this. Major attraction or landmark in major city.
**** Divert to this city to see it. Major city and major attraction
*** Stop at this city if en route. Top of the list of attractions in this great/small city or town.
** Major site in this city, town, suburb.
* Quirky little thing. If you happen to be nearby, have a look.

Travel Visit Checklist
***** 1 England: Trafalgar Square, London (See Nelson's column)
*** 2 Wales : The Monmouth Museum or The Nelson Museum about Nelson
* 3 Finsbury Square fountain.

http://www.uncoverdiscover.com/facts/the-worlds-10-most-famous-christmas-trees/moscow-russia/

http://www.hellomagazine.com/travel/gallery/2013112815880/top-ten-christmas-trees-in-the-world/1/

Follow my posts of blogger, my pictures and news items on Facebook, like me on Facebook, link to me on LinkedIn, see me reading poetry or talking about restaurant etiquette on YouTube, or read about my books on Amazon and Lulu.com
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, English teacher, author, speaker.