Travelling Back In Time (Part 4): A Fairy-Tale Castle

Our Romantic Road trip in Germany culminated in the alpine terrain of southwest Bavaria. We were awed by the ice-capped mountains of the Bavarian Alps, and were dumbfounded by stunning vistas of rolling mountain ranges, emerald-green forests and exquisite blossoming flowers on expansive meadows. 

The splendid Bavarian Alps

The architecture of most houses had evolved to that of the traditional wood-framed alpine houses, and we had never felt so distant from home, yet our hearts kept reminding us that this is truly home.

A beautiful castle perched at the bottom of the Alps

My most memorable moment here was seeing Hubby running at top speed with his 2 beloved girls, with the backdrop of the ice-capped Bavarian Alps and a whole herd of contentedly grazing cows to their right. Eventually, they ran so close to the cows, and stopped to admire these gentle animals, much to the Bees' elation.

Can you spot where they are?

A breathless Little Bee after running loads! 

As we ascended higher up into the hills of Hohenschwangau where the magnificent Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles reside, we felt a lush silence of awe and wonder, as if the colossal giants of the mountains and forests were holding their breaths for us to appreciate the inexplicable beauty of this region. 

And true enough, our first glimpse of Neuschwanstein Castle perched atop a steep hill in the middle of the incredible Bavarian Alps was magical. To see an actual fairy-tale castle rising up above the craggy mountain tops was unbelievably enchanting. We were struck dumb by the sheer beauty of it all. 

Neuschwanstein Castle is a beautiful castle built in the 19th century, by the famous King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and is so spellbinding that it had been hailed as the inspiration behind Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty castle.

We stayed overnight in Hotel Muller, a quaint yet stately inn situated strategically between the 2 castles and near an alpine lake. What an amazing location! 

Can you see the castle?

We were exceedingly lucky to be allocated to a huge suite with 2 bedrooms and a large living room, with awe-inspiring views of Neuschwanstein Castle from all the windows in our suite! 

The Bees' quaint bedroom, with a view of the castle from the windows

I must highlight how amazed I was with the deep silence. After midnight, when everyone was asleep, I was once again struck by the sheer silence surrounding us, in the mountain region. The silence was so dense that it was deafening, and to some extent, pretty daunting and frightening. We would never ever experienced such silence in any urban areas. 

The lighted windows on the top floor to the right of the building were those of our suite's!

The next morning, we rose bright and early to travel to Neuschwanstein Castle. Unfortunately, the skies were grey and it was raining persistently. Due to the treacherous weather, we took a horse carriage up to the hills near Neuschwanstein Castle so that we did not need to walk too much under the cold rain. The Bees loved being in a horse carriage, at such close range to the majestic horses, listening to the clippity-clop of their hooves, seeing the steam rising from their hot bodies in the cold, and smelling their musky horsey smells. I had mixed feelings though - it was heady to be so close to these brilliant animals, but I felt really bad for them to lug a whole bunch of us up the tedious slopes of the hills. 

We had a few funny moments in the horse carriage though. We were seated right behind the horses, just beside the carriage driver (or coachman, in old English terms). And we were given the privilege to be privy to a few of the horses’ loud, snorty farts! It was hilarious, especially since the horses cleverly manoeuvred their large, bushy tails to one side, before emitting the loud, ever-familiar fart sound, to the shock of the Bees! When the coachman saw their stunned faces, he laughed and said that they were extremely lucky to have perfume right in their faces! Another time, the horses stopped completely just to poop – just like elephants!

The carriage stopped us only midway on the hills near the castle, and we had to trek uphill towards the castle. After some slight tribulations, we were inside Neuschwanstein Castle finally. 

While the weather was cold and wet outside, the interior of the castle was warm and somewhat musty and dark. The castle is not completed by the time of Ludwig’s death, but we were able to visit Ludwig’s intricately designed bedroom, and a somewhat bizarre grotto built into the back of his bedroom. We also visited other parts of the castle like the kitchen and the magnificent throne room. The Bees were fascinated, as this was the first time that they were inside a real castle!

We had a simple lunch in a cosy café with a stupendous view of the surrounding mountains and alpine lakes. It was bewitching just to sit and eat amidst such gorgeous scenery, while breathing in the pure alpine air.

The expansive view of the gorgeous surroundings - our hotel complex is situated in between the alpine lake and Hohenschwangau castle (the yellow castle on a hill)

After lunch, we decided to trek around the mysterious dark woods surrounding the castle, up to an iron bridge (Marienbrucke) spanning a breathtaking gorge with spectacular views of the castle and the surrounding plains. 

Marienbrucke, perched precariously atop the deep gorge

It was heart-stopping to venture onto the bridge with the crowds of tourists, especially when we looked down to the steep drop of the valley many kilometres down below. Can this skinny, ancient bridge truly withstand the weight of so many curious modern-day tourists?

The sensational view of the castle and its surrounding meadows from the bridge

A heart-stopping drop right down the the valley below! 

Still, it was certainly a privilege and a huge blessing for us to be walking in these beautiful woods, to be part of this resplendent scenery amongst the splendid Alps.

Little Bee plodding along the path up the hill! 

Hohenschwangau Castle on the left, where Ludwig II spent his childhood days in

We took a short bus trip down the hills to our hotel, and enjoyed a short stroll around the alpine lake, admiring the blossoming spring flowers in the hills around the lake, before departing this enchanting locale for Munich. What a beguiling day indeed!

Celebrating Mid-Autumn...With Whatsapp!

The mid-autumn festival is upon us again, where the moon shines the brightest and roundest, and where luminous lanterns swing cheerily from the hands of boisterous and merry children. 

We visited Gardens By The Bay's lantern display last Sunday, and was captivated by the multitude of enchanting lights, speckled all around a remote part of the Gardens. However, I enjoyed our leisurely amble into the Gardens in the dark a lot more, as the main lantern display areas were too crowded! There were food stalls emitting all kinds of delicious smells, and we snacked a little while Little Bee dangled her lantern happily. There was also a large stage in which a variety of Chinese performers were taking turns to dance or sing. All very magical and traditional!

Last night, on the actual Mid-Autumn day, I had to be away for work, so guess what? I still managed to "spend" the evening with the Bees, participating in their lanterns-lighting frenzy via Whatsapp!

With the girls being much older now, they were able to record their proceedings on video and sent me lots of audio soundbites - just as if we were beside one another!

So, on a night when I was thousands of miles away from home, I had never felt closer to the girls. And for the first time, I am thankful for the technology that enables us to communicate so freely with our family wherever we are! 

Inspired To Paint

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, Hubby took out paints, easels and canvas, and encouraged the 3 females in the family to indulge in a bout of escapism. Painting, to us, is escapism. The focus it provides is an amazing reprieve from the stress of daily life. Whether we emulate existing paintings, attempt to re-create the great works of old masters, or enact another world from our imaginations, it provides us with a little channel into another world.

Little Bee had previously sketched out a rainforest some time back, and could immediately launched into painting this rainforest alive through mainly verdant shades. 

Big Bee opted to paint a semi-abstract painting comprising of a fairly challenging blended background and a pair of love birds on a beautiful blossoming tree. 

Whereas I decided to re-enact an European countryside scene which I found online. 

We will be displaying our paintings around the house, which makes it so much more meaningful for the Bees rather than us buying paintings from other painters. And I think this rejuvenating exercise will be a regular one for us! 

Heading Towards Popstardom

*This post is by special request of Big Bee!*
As a little kid, Big Bee had undergone many phases of obsessions, ranging from milder ones to more compulsive ones. From young, she had been a devotee of Maizy the Mouse, Barney, High Five, My Little Pony, and The Powerpuff Girls. And now, as she is entering her teens, she has started on the inevitable phase - like many of us - of idolizing pop stars.

She is now crazy over Taylor Swift, and we had been blasted incessantly with her music and songs. However, I am glad she is sharing all these obsessions with us, so that we can participate in her over-zealous expressions of love!

To demonstrate to you the full extent of her devotion to Taylor Swift, here is a snippet of Big Bee's thoughts on her. Pardon the teenage gushings of love ;)

"Oh my gosh her eyes are like so nice... AHHHHHHH. OMG OMG OMG. She is like the best singer EVER!!! And she is like so so so so so nice and her face is like AHHHHSHS. OMG... sigh TEEHEE Her hair is like..... SO AWESOMELY CURLY. And she is sooo pretty. She's sooosoosoosoosoosososososoosoosoososo talented and her voice is TO DIE FOR."
She wrote a whole load of stuff, but I think I will stop here, lest it is an extreme overdose (which it is!). For those of you interested to read more, you can check out Big Bee's blog here!

Colours Of Nature: Strolling Through The Beginning Of Life

Every week, our family of four tries to amble or trek in verdant parks or lush nature reserves. Weekly jaunts in emerald green expanses never cease to rejuvenate and revitalise us, injecting renewed energy and optimism in us, allowing us to look forward to another gruelling week ahead.

Unfortunately, the recent torrential and incessant downpours in Singapore prevented much walks, but we had a most memorable saunter a couple of weeks ago in Botanic Gardens' Evolution Garden Trail. This walk brought us back in time, no, it literally transported our bodies and awareness to the beginning of time, when Earth was first created and early lifeforms were gradually emerging in a young Earth. Yes, we walked back millions of years in time.

We walked along paths where there were signs on the ground indicated that we were rambling in an Earth from 300 million years ago.

We caressed the hard, gritty surfaces of volcanic rocks in an Earth that had just come into being.

We were enthralled by the first flowers on Earth, and enchanted by the ubiquitous dreamy jade-green moss and algae that covered much of Earth in its early days.

We imagined ourselves to be walking alongside colossal dinosaurs when they first walked on Earth.

We were fascinated by antiquated, "petrified" trees that were from eons back.

And then we plunged into the damp humidity of lush rainforests when the Ice Ages on Earth finally ended, and when mammals started to populate the Earth. And all these were not conveyed through big, powerful video screens, but entirely through our imaginations inspired by evolving vegetation cleverly speckled across the path that meandered through the ravages of time. 

It was a beautiful walk, and the Bees were fascinated and captivated by the changing faces of Earth. They had a wonderful time hopping on giant boulders, admiring volcanic rocks, gazing at strange exotic plants, and observing little (and real!) life forms like exquisite tadpoles on huge lily pads.

What a beautiful world we live in indeed!

Magical Musicals

Watching musicals is mesmerising. Seeing the actors sing and act 'live' on stage just reinforces how talented some artistes are. The Bees had learned to be as fascinated and captivated by musicals as Hubby and I are. We always look forward to new musicals in town, and never failed to make each outing a special occasion to celebrate talent, art and expression in life. It is such a pity that really good musicals are few and far between in Singapore. I dream of the day that I can bring the Bees to the West End or Broadway and indulge in incessant excellent musicals!

I had previously written about our experiences with The Lion King and Wicked. These 2 years, we had watched Annie The Musical, and more recently, Phantom of The Opera. 

Annie The Musical, while really fun and entertaining, was a little disappointing in terms of sound quality from the lead child actress. Perhaps she had been singing for a full season in Singapore already. Perhaps she was having a sore throat, as what the Bees justified. But, nevertheless, the musical still engaged the Bees wholeheartedly with its touching storyline.

The highlight came after the show though. As we ambled out into the stunning vista of the Marina Bay, we saw a few of the child cast from Annie, with 3 Golden Retrievers (which were the dog featured in the musical). How thrilling! The girls walked up to them, and patted the retrievers, although they were a little shy to make much conversation with the gregarious cast.

2 weeks ago, we went to watch Phantom Of The Opera. This had always been one of my favourite musicals, and I love the themes of love, longing, desire, beauty, insecurity, and ambition. Some people told me that it might be a little profound for the Bees, and they did express a little confusion when the Phantom released Christine, even though she reluctantly promised she would be his. However, after a little explanation, they grasped the meaning of insecurity and hopeless love.

As always, I love its haunting tunes, the Phantom's feelings of futility and despair, as well as the gorgeous sets. It was a little spine-chilling for the Bees though. As Big Bee said, "The musical was very scary, but the storyline was very meaningful and thrilling. My favourite moment was when the chandelier moved to the stage because it looked so majestic!"

I am now awaiting the next great musical to hit town! Maybe we might end up watching Hairspray?

Too Big, Too Fast

I was feeling melancholic and nostalgic this quiet, halcyon night, and decided to look through some old photos. My my, I uncovered quite a number of gems! The photos below are 6 years apart. How did my baby girls transform from cherubic angels to sensible young ladies in what seemed like seconds?! See how fast they had grown...Big Bee is just 6 centimetres shorter than me, and Little Bee is fast approaching the height of my chest.

Although I had been trying my best to cherish every single second with them, savouring their present loveliness, it still amazes me that time ravages through our lives, leaving us with nothing but memories of the joyous past through photographic memories or old photos like the ones here.

 

Before we know it, our children will be adults, and we will be grandparents. Somehow, this rapid journey through time frightens me tremendously. Does anyone have a solution to slow time down, perhaps?

 

When was the last time you looked through your children's birth or infant photos?

Learning At Home: All About Singapore

With the impending National Day celebrations, I thought it might be fitting for me to share what we had done for homelearning some months back. We completed a whole series of homelearning on Singapore where we did lots of activities. However, I must highlight that I find it much harder to do any homelearning these days, because (1) Big Bee has such a full schedule of homework and CCAs, and (2) I am increasingly doing more (boring) academic stuff with Little Bee so she can catch up on her schoolwork. Therefore, it is a wonder that we can complete this series of Singapore studies!

Books 

We borrowed, bought and read lots of books about Singapore - our history, culture, languages and prominent sites of attraction. The Bees particularly enjoyed this book, On A Street In Singapore, which depicts Singapore's historical sites, food, history, culture and Singlish in a hilarious and easily comprehensible comic and text format. 

Even I enjoyed this book, and learned quite a lot of new things about my own country that I had never known about! For example, do you know that fish-head curry was created because an enterprising local Indian chef wanted to create a dish for the Chinese customers who loved fish head for its flavour and tenderness? Or that Roti John was named in the 1970s after a Western tourist who probably asked for French toast in a Malay hawker stall?

Little Bee also enjoyed reading this book below, which wrote about a lot of interesting attractions in Singapore.

History

We visited the Singapore National Museum (yet again) to learn about the history of Singapore, and I am so glad that Singapore citizens now enjoy free trips to the museums, yay! 

The pretty domed ceiling of our National Museum

Field Trips

We visited lots of attractions in Singapore, focusing a lot on the cultural enclaves like Little India, Arab Street and Chinatown. 

The Bees in Arab Street early this year

National Day Parade (preview)

Thanks to my cousin, Hubby, Little Bee and I were able to get preview tickets for the remarkable National Day Parade in mid July (which warrants another blog post!), while Big Bee attended the same parade as part of the primary 5 national education. We were awed by the brilliant fireworks set against a beautiful background of our cityline, and were dazzled by the military displays of our army, navy and air force.

Lapbook

Little Bee completed a lapbook on Singapore where she covered topics like our languages, climate, history, religions, geographical borders, her favourite places in Singapore, etc. It was really fun in an educational and intimate manner to get to know your home country this way. Big Bee dabbled a little in the lapbook, but was not able to complete due to her hectic schedule. 

Enjoy the festivities of our nation's independence this National Day! 

Port Of Lost Wonders

With Big Bee blossoming into a tween, it is increasingly harder for us to find activities that would engage both the Bees in a way that both would be equally enthusiastic and absorbed. 

Which was why I love the Port of Lost Wonders so much, because even skeptical Big Bee was charmed.

 

We were invited to a birthday party at the Port Of Lost Wonders in Sentosa one Saturday last month, and could literally sit back and admire the Bees indulging in so much water play that they were shrivelled and brown by the time they emerged from underneath the scorching noon sun! 

Our good friends threw a party under a marquee in the Port of Lost Wonders for both their daughters, and what a party it was! All the kids were excitedly playing with the myriad slides and water features, and it was quite a feat to lure them up halfway through their water play for party games and the cake-cutting activity! 

The Bees were getting a wee too old for kiddy party games, although Little Bee gamely plodded on with the other toddlers and little kids. Looking at her with all these kids, it struck me once again that my baby girl is growing up really fast as well! What a deja vu feeling, because I seemed to have felt that whimsical, bittersweet whiff of emotion when looking at Big Bee a few years ago, and now it is Little Bee's turn! Nooooo......!! 

Big Bee, on the other hand, was getting all excited discussing about her latest craze, Taylor Swift, with Alexis, another 9-year-old daughter of a good friend. Boy - kids are getting more sophisticated at a younger age these days! They made me dedicate incessant Taylor Swift songs to them with the DJ, and were joined by an equally enthusiastic Little Bee. 

The party ended with much squealing and reluctance to emerge from the captivating water playground. But at least I know where to spend a lazy afternoon where both the girls get to enjoy themselves equally well! 

Is Our Math Curriculum Relevant for the Real World?

Last week, I attended a Primary 5 & Primary 6 Parents' Maths workshop. This was the first time I had attended a workshop of such nature, and Maths had never been a favourite subject, so I wasn't really looking forward to it. However, with so much changes in the primary school Maths curriculum, plus the challenging Maths questions that Big Bee occasionally asked me at home, I thought it is good to understand what Big Bee is going through in school. The real Maths whiz in our family, Hubby, came along too, much to my relief, and I was really thankful for his interest and support in his girls' education.

What ensued was a 2.5 hour of mind-boggling and muddle-headed session where parents were taught the various strategies used in the PSLE Maths curriculum, and parents were made to do 16 problem sums (gulp!).

The audience was filled with parents from all walks of life - from doctors to lawyers to journalists to parents with postgraduate qualifications. But the looks of bewilderment on most parents were truly priceless. We had to throw all our years of algebra aside, and for Hubby especially, to toss his advanced Engineering maths aside, so that we can become primary school students, learning a new curriculum from scratch again.

We grappled with new strategies like repeated identity, branching, advanced model drawing, etc. Eventually, the final problem sum that we had to solve baffled most of us, and it was so ironical that a Primary 6 girl had to come up to the main board and explained the solution to the entire audience.

After the workshop, I was really perturbed. Today's Maths curriculum does not help in fostering creativity and problem-solving skills in our children at all. Today's Maths - with its allocated strategies for respective problems - reinforces the perennial problems that most Singaporean students are facing, which is the inability to think out of the box and the lack of opportunities to think beyond what they are learning in the classroom. Having fixed strategies for individual problem sums just prove to students that there are ready-made solutions for every problem they face, when the world's problems are really made up of so many ambiguous issues with no black-and-white solutions. Thereby, this will sadly reduce our children's inspiration to think beyond the traditional boundaries of knowledge to create more unique and applicable solutions, which is what a fledging and small country like Singapore really needs.

Frankly, I emerged from the workshop disillusioned and disappointed. Despite the Ministry of Education's call for more creative teaching and a more holistic curriculum, the teaching of this core subject, Mathematics, shows that we, as a nation, are somewhat unprepared to veer away from the staid curriculum of rote-memory and examinations-based learning. Worst of all, I fear that such a curriculum will not foster a life-long love for and interest in learning, and is not practical nor intellectual.

When will we be ready to steer away from rote memory examinations, from ready-made solutions for a more liberating and intellectually stimulating curriculum that will nurture the true abilities of our children?

Some of the questions that we had to solve are below. Want to try your hand at solving? ;)

1) On Monday, Alynna has $48 more than Eunice. On Tuesday, Alynna spent 1/4 of her money and Eunice received 20% of the amount of money she had on Monday from her father. Eunice found that she had $72 more than Alynna on Tuesday. How much money did Eunice have on Monday?

2) Anne, Belle, Cecil and David each have some stickers. The number of stickers Anne ha is 2/3 of the total number of stickers Belle, Cecil and David have. The number of stickers Cecil has is 20% of the total number of stickers that Anne, Belle and David have. If Cecil has 35 stickers, find the total number of stickers that Belle and David have altogether.