Yarn Bombing and More Street art worldwide - bollards, pillars, rejuvenating streets

 

Where can you see free street art?

An open top bus tour anywhere, any city. A walking gtour of murals. London's East End. 

USA, Philodelphia.

What else? Statues of people sitting on benches. In London, England. Spain and Portugal.  

Banksy murals worldwide. Wroclaw dwarfs or gnoes, about 600 ankle height miniature sculptures in Poland.

English: Democrat (Demokracja) dwarf from KOD located on Plac Solny Polski: Demokracja wrocławski krasnal ufundowany przed KOD znajdujący na placu Solnym 20 autorstwa kongijskiego rzeźbiarza Jeana Louisa Kotagomby.
Date	27 October 2018, 16:24:33
Source	Own work

You can find more amusing pictures of the ankle height sculptures in Wroclaw, Poland. I chose this one because it shows you the size of the sculpture.

Angela with mural at London Cru winery, London, England. Photo by Trevor Sharot. Copyright.

Railway mural, Rayners Lane, London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

In Philadelphis you can do a self-guided tour, following a map guide.

You can see street art in countries you hope to visit, and countries you cannot currently visit. Decorative and permanent street art, controversial banned, damaged, painted over by mistake (UK) or lost street art. I recently saw street art in New Zealand, even in small suburban corners of Auckland. Street art online in Wikipedia is from Australia, Israel, European countries and many other countries. 

To sum up

Past - to see online

Sculpture exhibitions

UK

Elephants, London and Waddesdon

Permanent - to visit

UK

England

London

East End walking tours - murals

Paintings for sale along Piccadilly some weekends

Sculptures of famous royalty and characters such as Oscar Wilde and Amy Winehouse animals and sculptures and monuments Trafalgar Square

Public fountains

USA

Philadelphia - murals

Poland

Wroclaw - ankle height sculptures

Sculpture parks

For free entertainment in any city, look online for murals, street sculpture, markets.

Useful Websites

London, England, walking tour

https://www.walks.com/our-walks/the-street-art-walk-bombing-with-banksy-co/

Philadelphia, USA, tour

https://muralarts.org/tours/

Armchair travelling from your desk

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/rejuvenatedstreets

https://www.facebook.com/guerilla.knitting/photos

https://www.instagram.com/streetartfestival.ch

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Street_art_by_country

https://www.instagram.com/streetartfestival.ch

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Seeing London By Open Top Bus

Big bus near Victorisa station, London, UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Take your umbrella. Enjoy the top deck when you can.

Useful Websites

bigbus.com

tootbus.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Christmas is over, decorations down? Not yet! Niet, niet.

Russia

The Russian Orthodox church celebrates on Jan 7th, using a different calendar. 

Ukraine

This year a Ukrainian city near the border decided to celebrate instead on Dec 25th (in alignment with other parts of the world) instead of with Russia.

Spain and UK

 I remember as a child that we would go to my parents' one bedroom flat in Marbella, Spain. On Christmas day, instead of spending more for meals, we could have sardines on toast by the beach. 

Marbella had many ex-pat families from London, England, and Jews from North West London could be elsewhere for Christmas without the children noticing that they were not getting expensive presents but instead having a holiday swimming and sunbathing in the sun escaping the risk of snow in England.  If we extended our holiday to January 7th, on the evening of the 5ht or 6th, I forget which, we would read in the local free newspapers about the Magi on horseback parading through Estepona, and throwing sweets to the children in the crowd. One year we went along to see them. 

UK

In the UK many people keep up their decorations until the end of their break from work and school, at least until the new year when decorations change from red, green and white to silver, gold, white and black or blue. Increasingly with longer breaks, the decorations are staying up and the shops and attractions are attracting customers with ice rinks and events staying open. 

France

With energy expensive, economies are being made in the UK, France and Europe. In France some lights are turned off at a quarter to midnight (11.45 pm or 23.45). Others are turned off at 10 pm. So if you are taking a trip to see the lights, go early.

London

In London, England, new energy saving light bulbs are now the norm and it is hard to find bulbs for your old fittings or if one light bulb of a set of six needs replacing and you don't want one odd one.

Half Open Top Bus

You can take a tour of the lights in an open top bus. Actually, some of the buses are half open at the top. Depending on the weather, early boarders can get the seat open top with a better view and opportunity for unobstructed photos, or inside out of the chill and risk of rain.

Walking Tours Of The East End

If you are avoiding traffic and taking a walking tour of London, such as the East End of London, which I did one year, seeing Jack the Ripper sites and the Old Jewish East End. There you can sometimes see outside or inside a synagogue, learn about Disraeli, and pass another former synagogue which changed to another religion.  You can still buy bagels, at one of the two shops during the night for taxi drivers and night owl workers and tourists

Now the mosques and their Muslim congregations have taken over.. But the Asian sweets are an extra attraction.

Singapore

Over in Singapore, where parts of my family have lived, on and off, since the nineteen nineties, the department stores took down the Xmas decorations. But they kept up decorations for the anticipation of the next holiday, which was Chinese New Year, which falls variably, sometimes earlier than other years.

We are now looking forward to New Year. Celebrated in the UK, Gibraltar, and first over in Australia in New Zealand. Although the Chinese have a different New Year, increasingly around the world you can see magnificent displays of lights and fireworks in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and around the world, one after another.

Lastly, there's the ice hotels, in Sweden and other northern countries. Over in the USA, you can find one in the Americas, in Canada.

Useful Websites

Ukraine

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20221226-tearing-ourselves-away-ukrainians-break-with-russian-orthodox-christmas-tradition 

Fifteen Fun Ways Tourists Can Travel in Singapore or London and Cities Around The World

Singapore Flag.

Problem
What to do - where to go? How to get around? In Korea in the snow I was scared to walk to the nearby station. I ended up taking two expensive tours with an English language guide who picked me up from the hotel in the bus. Singapore is one of the easiest countries to get around. But all over the world you will find most of these options, such as hired bicycles you ride yourself, and the trishaws (three wheeled tourist vehicles with a guide in front pedalling), and hop on hop off bus tours.

APPS for your phone
googlemaps (go to google and look for google maps). Download ad from google store or on an iphone from the apple store. Install for free. Click on install.

my transport SG

Singapore MRT

1 BICYCLE

hellobicycle.co.sg

Other bicycles can be picked up and dropped off.


2 BUS (SG) (See app above)

Night buses in Singapore:
SMRT Night Rider
SBS Nite Owl Service
London, England, also has night buses.

3 CAR
Hire cars for use in the island to tour around or drive across the bridge to Malaysia.
If you want to fly-drive, you can also hire bicycles with helmets over in Indonesia. Remember to take your driving license as well as your passport and credit card. You might want to take your own helmet, driving gloves, goggles, suitable footwear, jacket, rainwear, waterbottles etc.

4 E-scooter
goscoot.com.sg
https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/e-scooter-laws-singapore

Scooter at Clarke Quay, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

5 Grab
www.grab.com/sg
Instead of a meter, find out the fare fixed in advance. Once I took a grab on a rainy day and one road was closed because of an accident. The journey took longer than expected but I did not have to pay any extra for the additional mileage.

6 LTR (See MRT)
Pass by the skyscraper housing blocks and the LRT carriage windows go dark to protect the privacy of the occupants. I met somebody who lives in one of the blocks. He says, residents can't see the trains or be seen, but can hear the trains passing.

7 Open top bus with commentary and map
(Free if you are on a stopover with Singapore airlines in daytime and have a few hours to spare.)
Several companies include:
Duck+Hippo
Charter tel: 6338 6877

8 MRT underground train
Must see the modern trains with the glass doors keeping passengers and their belongings off the tracks.

MRT Train map including LRT from the rack in any ticket office on the concourse level; also online.
Options include:
One trip ticket.
Multi-day tourist pass.
Ex-pasts who are senior citizens and PR permanent residents, can pply for a ticket which gives reductions on all journeys.

9 SINGAPORE FLYER
Book online for a daytime or evening ride with commentary.

Get a discount for a ride with another attraction.


Transit Link Hotline
1800 - 2255 663
www.transitlink.com.sg

SBS Transit Hotline
1800 - 287 2727
www.sbstransitlink.com.sg

SMRT Hotline
1800 - 336 8900
www.smrt.com.sg

10 Duck boat

11 River Boat/ Cruise
Singapore River Cruise Traditional Bumboat
riverboat.com.sg
rivercruise.com.sg

12 Taxi
Comfort (+65) 6552 1111

Premier Taxi (+65) 6363 6888

SMRT (+65) 6555 8888

Trans Cab
(+65) 6555 3333

13 Trishaw
Tour Little India for about 30 minutes with commentary, for  about S$39 adult and 29 for a child.
Got more time and money? Slightly longer, approx 45 minute tour of Chinatown or Kampong Glam for 49 adult and 39 child. Their leaflet has a handy map which enables you to identify your photos of streets and buildings such as mosques and temples afterwards.
www.trishawuncle.com.sg

14 Walk Alone / With your family and friends
a) Walk under the malls when it rains, from Orchard MRT to Ngee Ann City, basement one or basement two.

WALK UNDERGROUND
b) Ngee Ann City on the major shopping street, Orchard Road, illuminated for Christmas and Chinese New Year and other festivals. If it rains, walk along underground between the underground shops and eating places.


 c) Botanical Gardens And Parks

Botanical Gardens. Free. Singapore.

Free in Singapore. In most other cities you pay for Botanical Gardens, eg Indonesia and Madeira. In England, London's free parks include central Green Park, and Regents Park; in South London on a good day there's a view from and Horniman Museum Gardens (see my post).

d) Gardens By The Bay
Walking around the gardens admiring the plants and reading the plaques is free.
You can also pay to walk along the overhead walkway, about S$8 per adult. Some tickets for the two attractions of Gardens by the Bay include the walkway. (See my posts on Gardens By The Bay.)

15 Walk With Guide
www.singaporewalks.com

MORE INFORMATION FROM
BIKES
https://mobike.com/sg/faq
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBike (Countries covered include Austria, Australia, France, Germany and more.)

Singapore Bike price comparison
https://www.shape.com.sg/lifestyle/bike-sharing-singapore-which-cheapest-option/

BUSES
Singapore
https://www.mytransport.sg/content/mytransport/home.html
London, England
https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

MULTI-TICKETS FOR TRAINS AND ATTRACTIONS OR BOTH
You can buy tickets for multiple journeys on underground trains in most cities of the world.
Multi-attraction passes are also available. Last summer leaflets on London's UK mainline stations offered discounts on attractions combined with railway tickets.
New York was offering a multi-pass to attractions.
London's multi-attraction pass included the Coca-Cola London Eye (big wheel) and other attractions.

TOURIST BOARDS
Singapore & UK and Other Tourist Boards
visitsingapore.com
https://www.visitsingapore.com/travel-guide-tips/getting-around/
visitbritain.com

AIRLINES
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com

TRAVEL SITES
tripadvisor.com

HIRE CAR
Note that if you speak German or other languages you will find translations of most of the English language websites. However, you might find lower prices or more choice on other websites set up by speakers of other languages, aimed at people whose point of departure is in those countries. The advertising is in their language and the bookings are at hotels where their language is spoken by staff and guided tours are in their language or available in their language. We discovered this on a trip to Madeira, organized by the Germans who we had met in Indonesia. They were booking hire cars at different rates and at different companies from those offered to us on our English language websites much cheaper than the hire care from the casino hotel reception which was delivered to the hotel. Our German friends paid for a taxi to the hire car firm office where they collected the car. That saved them a lot of money.

wikitravel
https://wikitravel.org/en/Singapore
https://wikitravel.org/ (Many other cities and countries with ads for tours.)

wikivoyage
Free travel guide that anybody can edit
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.