Austalia 1 - There and back again.....

It's only been two weeks (OK so a busy- around World Book Day events- 2 weeks) but already it seems as if we've been back for ages!

 Our trip to Australia and New Zealand began as such things often do, with a series of fairly long flights.

We usually like to fly through Singapore, and even if, as this time we don't get out of the airport, it is in my opinion the best airport in the world - not that I've seen quite that many but it would take something to beat Changi Airport.  Last time we were there a chap was playing a grand piano in the middle of a seating area and this time there were these amazing flower displays

 and places where large goldfish swim in tranquil waters. there is even a butterfly enclosure.

 This was a very GREEN leaning tower of Pisa!

The airport also has an outdoor swimming pool on the roof of one of the terminals.

But if you get the chance it is also well worth getting out of the airport and taking a trip into Singapore.



We stopped in Adelaide, South Australia,  first but in what has become a bit of a habit we arrived jsut as they were about to experience their hottest weather for 100 years!!  (We'd had a similar experience last time we visited Melbourne a few years ago!)

Adelaide (what we saw of it when not trying to avoid the heat) was lovely. Wide open streets, some thankfully had overhanging shelter so you can walk about even when ti is so very hot!I loved this small park area with its sculptures.

And the giant cockroach seemed to be quite happy with the temperature, or was that the easy reach of the shops and arcades around it, perhaps?

There are a lot of parks and green areas, and this is the view at dusk,(or was it dawn?) from our cool air-conditioned hotel room. (oops forgot to put it in!!  (Updated now!) 

We met up with the lovely 'catdownunder' a blogger and writer who lives in Adelaide and sweetly kept on apologising for the uncomfortable weather, as if she could have done something to change it!! We had a lovely afternoon chatting under a very large tree in the botanical gardens and on another day she took us to visit the migration Museum and discovered what life was like for the early migrants to South Australia

 We found a lovely little coffee shop where everything was home made and the morning coffee was very good,


 and enjoyed wandering around the old style arcades, too.

I am often amazed by the juxtaposition of the old and the new, the traditional and the modern. Is this sacrilege or beauty? I can't decide!