Come Along With Me: Singapore

One of the major reasons my husband and I visited Singapore was to see the amazing architecture. Most days we found ourselves walking around the city, pointing out interesting buildings to each other and snapping photos. We found the city to be extremely clean, quiet, safe and the people there very friendly. Singapore does have a mass transit system, but we enjoyed walking about the city, stumbling upon little parks and unique statues and buildings all along the way.

As I travel, I am perpetually fascinated with buildings that are a place of worship. Built with similar intentions, the various religions, cultural influences, and available building materials make each structure unique and special. The Chijmes, originally a Catholic convent school, this church now sits within a complex of restaurants and shops. When we first found this place, there was a wedding taking place in the church. I'm not sure if there is a regularly scheduled mass here or if it is just an event venue now, but the place was absolutely gorgeous. Located right across the street from our hotel (the Carlton), we ate a few dinners in some of the restaurants in this complex. Not only was the location convenient for us, but there were a multitude of restaurants that cater to almost any palette. Our Christmas dinner at the Spanish tapas restaurant, located in this complex, was one of our favorite meals while in Singapore. Never thought I would be eating at a restaurant in the backyard of a church, but then again there is a first time for everything, right?

Also located near our hotel was the largest cathedral in all of Singapore, St. Andrew's Cathedral. The pristine white steeple could be seen for blocks and is what initially drew me to this building. (I couldn't get a good picture of the entire Cathedral due to all the trees growing around it and a guard who was keeping a close eye on us to make sure we didn't walk on the grass.)

Along with the beautiful cathedrals, many of the residential and commercial buildings caught my eye and keep my camera busy. Here are some of my favorites.

I just love the colorful shutters on this building. It is the same along the back side of the building, too.

This was a sculpture in front of the building with the colorful shutters. There is a bus stop nearby and I wonder if this sculpture is suppose to be people waiting for the bus.

These two pictures show the front (left picture) and the back (right picture) of this apartment complex. I love all the plants and trees growing on the balconies of the different floors. Singapore has and continues to make a tremendous effort to develop a city that is environmentally conscience. In my humble opinion, they are doing an outstanding job!

This is the building next to the one pictured above. It also has multiple levels of balconies with plants and tree growing. I would love to live in either of these buildings.

Another building that I couldn't take my eyes off of. It looks like it could fall over at any moment but it keeps standing. I love architecture that makes me stop, scratch my head, and think, "how did they do that?"

This is a fire station that we spotted along one of our walks through the city. Probably one of the most interesting looking fire stations I have ever seen. Above the left seven arched doorways runs a second story balcony. At the far left end of the balcony was a sculpture of a firefighter. Even the fire station integrates art into its design, LOVE IT!

London as "The Eye" and Singapore as "The Flyer". Although The Flyer gives riders a great view of the city, we opted for a visit to some other locations (Supertrees in the Gardens by the Bay & the observation desk of the Marina Bay Sands hotel) that would offer us a view of the city from high above.

The smaller, white structure in the foreground in the Art Science Museum, which housed the Lego exhibit that I blogged about in a previous post. (To read more about my visit to the Art Science Museum, read Singapore Art Science Museum.) The building was designed to look like a lotus blossom opening up, yet some believe that it is a hand with the fingers stretching towards the sky. Towering behind the museum, the three-tower complex with the large ship stretched across the top is the Marina Bay Sands hotel. This complex is not only is a hotel, but a high end shopping mall, a movie theater, and has a roof top swimming pool and observation deck. We visited the observation deck and were able to get some fantastic pictures of the city of Singapore.

In order to get to the Art Science Museum and Marina Bay Sands hotel, you cross over a waterway using The Helix, a bridge that is truly a piece of art. It is the world's first curved bridge and looks like the structure of DNA. (The third picture in this trio is an aerial shot of the bridge from the observation deck of the Marina Bay Sands hotel.)