Monday, July 5th, Part III: Sometimes, It Seems Like Singapore Believes It Is in Europe, Not Asia

Just for contrast, the things above ^^ are what greeted me when I came down out of the park - the veritable concrete jungle! I was heading towards the Swissôtel, where I was supposed to meet up with a group for cocktails and city-watching from 70 stories up! So, I meandered towards the waterfront, whereby was located the Swissôtel, and came across so many wonderful things on the way!

^^ Seriously, I thought I was in Paris or London while walking by this building. The bottom floor comprised several posh, European-looking shops and restaurants/cafés.

^^ The giant tower in the background is the Swissôtel, one of the largest hotels in the world, my ultimate destination! I still had about an hour, though, so I kept exploring!

^^ There was this bizarre moment when everyone was jaywalking! This is a pretty big road, and we were more or less right in the heart of downtown, but there were somehow no cars coming, and I figured if all the Singaporeans were doing it, I might as well do it too!

Stumbling across St. Andrew's was a delightful surprise. I had no idea it existed, and it had not been on my list of places in the area I might want to explore. But as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to take an endless number of pictures :-) Yet again, I feel like it looks a lot like so many of the cathédrales I saw in France. And, yet again, such a lovely, majestic cathedral felt quite incongruous in the heart of an Asian metropolis.

^^ There is this concrete, steel, and glass structure that grows out of the MRT stop in front of the church. It, like so many other things, seems very incongruous.
^^ What an enchanting garden.
^^ Cathedral New Sanctuary is what it says, in case you can't read it.

^^ The City Hall MRT stop rises abruptly out of the lawn in front of St. Andrew's.

^^ It's true that many things are prohibited in Singapore.

^^ St. Andrew's crouches behind the trees as the Swissôtel soars into the sky!

^^ I will never stop loving Singapore sunsets!

^^ Setup for National Day (I think...either that or the Youth Olympics). Behind it is the river, in front, the Old Parliament.

^^ The Old Parliament, as I'm sure you've guessed, is a leftover from the British colonial times.

^^ The outlandish New Parliament, right behind the old one! Yup. Sure enough, it's a U.F.O.

^^ The Marina Bay Sands, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, is always peaking out from random angles!

^^ The Swissôtel rises up out of the Raffles City Mall.

^^ Our next stop, the fabulous Swissôtel!

^^ And, lastly, to wrap up the Europe theme, a French sign in the mall on the way to the hotel.