Project WWWT Day 27 - Cannes, France

14th June 2017 

The original plan was to visit Forcalquier in the morning to take in the sights but there is a change in the plan after re-considering the time that we've got. We decided to set out at 7AM in the morning from Manosque to Cannes via the A51 and then towards A8 in the direction of Cannes so that the kids can have a good sleep in the car. The toll for this expressway cost us €27.40 (If I am not mistaken) which is far more than the mountain road of €0.70 but is a small price to pay for a smooth and vomit-less ride.

Project WWWT Day 26 of 72- Provence, France

13th June 2017

Booked a car today and going to pick it up from Gare de Nice. The car was booked from EasyCar and it shows that I will be getting a Mini Cooper manual transmission or something similar. Was about to give the missus a surprise as she would like to try a Mini for the longest time since the new model hits the market. Once I am done with the paperworks and procedures, the lady attendant told me that she has given me an upgrade and passed me a key for a Volkswagon Polo. I was surprised as I knew that a VW Polo is not in the same class as a Mini Cooper, which I promptly told her and she replied on the affirmative that it is not in the same class and that my booking was for a compact car CDRW. So I called the helpdesk of EasyCar and told them the problem. To cut the story short, I did not get the Mini and decided to report this instead of wasting time at the Car Rental station to argue with the attendant.

So we are off to Provence! Our itinerary was to stop by at Castellane, Moustiers Sainte Marie, Valensole and Forcalquier. We took the mountain roads and the view is truly breath-taking! The toll from Nice to the mountain road is only a mere €0.70. The journey to Castellane took a little more than 2 hours but if you stopped in between for photos, it will take longer than that. It is hard to resist. Did I mention the road is winding? The mountain road is very winding! My eldest threw up at a a local town that we passed by... Andon? Can't really remember and not many photos as we are all kinda dizzy from the winding road. Travellers with young children, please rent a more comfortable car and drive slowly.

Project WWWT Day 24-25 of 72 - Nice, France & Monte Carlo, Monaco

11th ~ 12th June 2017

Finally, we are bidding addio to Italy and saying Bon Jour to Nice, France. It is with a heavy heart as Pisa, Cinque Terre and Florence has been a wonderful place to be in, would have loved to stay and explore these location longer next time. However, since we are on the way to another beautiful location, we can only hope that there are more beautiful and exciting places to greet us.

Project WWT Day 23 of 72 - Pisa, Italy

10th June 2017

The Italian weather has been very kind to us, too kind in fact as we had got ourselves some "nice" tan. My darker tone is stark when I hold Naaman's hand, thanks to our visit to Cinque Terre. I could barely recognise my own hand! Today started early for me as I set foot to explore Pisa alone in the morning. My itinerary for Pisa is very sinple really, there are only two places that I intend to visit. First is the Orto Botanico or Orto Botanical garden and secondly, the Piazza del Duomo.

Project WWWT Day 22 of 72 Florence, Italy

9th June 2017

Let's fall in love with Florence!

We drove up to Florence and we took the expressway called Fi-Pi-Li. The journey is quite smooth and took roughly 90 minutes drive. Florence is also a ZTL zone hence we could not park inside the town so we looked for a parking space outside the town across the river. We explored Florence by our feet. The weather is milder here than Cinque Terre, likely due to the availability of shades and it being a city as compared to Manarola, a coastal fishermen's town.

Project WWWT Day 21 of 72 - Cinque Terre, Italy

8th June 2017

While we are staying in Pisa, this place is really a leaping point for us to visit other nearby location. We have Florence and Cinque Terre in our mind and my thought was to visit the latter on the 10th of June but there is a slight change of plan and we proceeded to head to the 5 fishermen town - Cinque Terre. 

Project WWWT Day 20 of 72 - Pisa, Italy

7th June 2017

Prego!

Finally, we are making our way to the land of fashion, pastas & piazzas, parma hams and parmagiano regiano! Before I go any further, I would like to record some incidents and information for our journey from London to this wonderful location - Pisa. We flew via RyanAir from London to Pisa and the flight is scheduled to depart from London Stansted Airport. We took UBER to the airport and the journey took around 90 minutes and costs £111.13. The reason why it cost that much is because we took UberVan i.e. a 6-seater vehicle to transport all 5 of us plus 8 luggages + a stroller. I know that is a lot but hey, we have 3 adults, 2 children and 72 days of travel? Besides, yours truly has some really good looking arms by now although my face remains the chubby fat me (its a gift). If you are opting for regular Uber, it will likely costs half of that and at that price, it is way cheaper option considering that you have the car all to yourself.

Project WWWT Day 19 of 72 - London, United Kingdom

6th June 2017

Today is a day for the family to be impressed and to act like arts connosieurs. We visited The National Gallery London and was truly amazed by the beautiful art collection in the gallery. The most prized piece are some painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Van Gogh and Rembrandt (To name a few) but we did not managed to see everyone of them as there are just too many paintings that caught our eyes. The children are not as interested in the paintings but the good thing is, Naaman brought his Dinosaur Lego book that we bought for him at the Natural History museum, so that book got him busy.  

Project WWWT Day 18 of 72 - London, United Kingdom

5th June 2017

I had always loved animals since I was a child and I am trying to instill the same to my boys. I brought Naaman to Antwerp Zoo when he was a little shy of one year old... or rather, I wanted to go and I made him accompany me.

Project WWWT Day 17 of 72 - London, United Kingdom

4th June 2017

Following the terror attack on the London Bridge and immediate vicinity of Borough Market, tourists is visibly avoiding crowded and popular places while flocking to less likely target site such as parks. We start our day as per normal although you can see the news reporting about the terror attach over and over again, almost similar to the 9/11 reporting. 

After my early breakfast, I ventured out to explore Hyde Park, all the way through to Kensington Garden on my own. The park is beautiful. I can only imagine for now how beautiful it will be during autumn (My favourite season!). The weather was kind with me that morning and I managed to get some saphire blue sky and beautiful clouds.

Project WWWT Day 16 of 72 - London, United Kingdom

3rd June 2017

Today is a full day for us. We visited Hyde Park, Natural History Museum of London and another extra place for the ladies, shopping at The Harrods. Hyde Park is huge! It looked so small in the map but when we are there it just seemed endless. Anyway, I would say I had a good time walking but I may not be able to say the same for the rest of the party.

Project WWWT Day 15 of 72- London, United Kingdom

2nd June 2017

Today is our last day in Marriott County Hall Hotel, so we did not do much except to spend time packing up, eating our last breakfast in that Hotel (It was a very pleasurable experience as compared to Park Lane Marriott Hotel although the latter being the more expensive hotel). We also spend some time walking across the Westminster Bridge, the Big Ben, and Westminster Cathedral. 

Our original plan was to stay in JW Marriott Grosvernor House but due to some miscommunication, intention to save a little cash on our accomodation, the omission of per night (£150 per night) cash payment on top of the Marriott Points redemption but more importantly, the photos of the room in Marriott Park Lane Hotel at Mayfair is more impressive, I decided to change plan and stay there instead.

Project WWWT London Terror Attack

3rd June 2017

London was under terrorist attach today. The attacker drove a van and plough into pedestrian at London Bridge and then, the attackers went on a stabbing rampage nearby Borough Market. At least 7 were killed and at least 40 was injured and sent to the hospital. I pray that they made it through the ordeal. 

Project WWWT Day 14 of 72 - London, United Kingdom

1st June 2017

I woke up early this morning and as my normal practice, slide open the window to check the weather outside. The past few days has been cloudy in the morning and slightly more sunny in the late afternoon, but not today. The sky was in its majestic cloak of azure blue that I wasted no time in washing up and changing into the next best thing I can grab from my pile of worn attires, took my camera and head out of the hotel towards the Westminster Bridge for a field day.

Project WWWT Day 13 of 72 - London, United Kingdom

31st May 2017

Everyone went to YL London today, except for me and the boys so I played the role of Mary Poppins for half a day. As a reward, I get to head out to take some evening/night photography and I opted somewhere nearby viz the County Hall/Westminster area. The weather was fair and I managed to shoot the photos below.

Project WWWT Day 12 of 72 - London, United Kingdom

30th May 2017

London truly has an erratic weather. One moment it is cloudy, the other moment it is sunny sky and another moment it is raining. So whenever you visited somewhere indoor, try to go in rainy days less you will miss the sunshine while you are indoors and raining when you are about to leave.

Project WWWT Dining @ Maze Grill by Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay has been one of the chefs that I would go out of my way to see. Four years back in 2013, Gordon Ramsay visited Singapore in an event organised by SingTel whereby the Singapore Citizens are engaged to vote for Singapore's top local dish cooked by respective local chefs or experts and GR will cook off with the local experts/chefs on the top three highest voted dish viz. the Chili crab, Laksa and the famed Chicken rice.I recalled that I almost got into a fight with someone just to secure a spot to photograph GR in action.

Project WWWT Day 11 of 72 - England, United Kingdom

29th May 2017

Today is a shopping day. I rented a car to drive to Bicester Village, which is about 60 miles away from London city. The drive is quite comfortable and it takes approximately 80~90 minutes to reach. Nothing much to note on the driving style if you are coming from a commonwealth country, it is pretty much like driving in Singapore or Malaysia for me. A couple of interesting points to note while driving in Zone 1 is that 1) There is a traffic light in almost every 50 meters; and 2) There is a concession fee to drive in Zone 1 which costs £11.50 during working days and free when it is public holiday (Why can't Singapore follow this type of system? Why???).