After the Beach, it was time for some History!! We made it to Manila and went on a tour of the old part of the city, Intramuros.
We rode on a carriage, much better than walking! The temperature finally jumped up and it was a hot day!
The Quintessential carriage driver!!!
The oldest church in Manila! It's ceilings were intricate, what we thought was carvings, but turned out to be paintings!! It was really cool. It looked 3D and was really hard to believe until we could see it up close on the column and walls. It was really well done!
The front of the church building was beautiful in it's intricacies, and I loved the purple!! It dates back to the time when the Spanish ruled in the Philippines.
View from Rizal park outer wall. To learn what Rizal park is, click here!
So the bombs are all old diffused ones, but my kids found that over the next few days there was a lot of decommissioned amo to climb all over!
This is one of the best head in a cut out I've gotten of my kids! They were so cute!
Thinking statues. Great place for kids to pose. . .
I think one of my favorite tours and places we went to was our trip to Corregidor. It was such a remarkable place! The buildings like the one below are what was left after the whole island was basically decimated by bombs during the war.
It's basically a small island in the middle of Manila bay. My pictures show a lot of greenery, but after the war, there wasn't vegetation left! They used a helicopter to seed the island with different vegetation and being the philippines, it grew quickly! It was really something to see.
Bombed out buildings were everywhere. These were some of the Barracks on the island.
If you look closely, you can see the tile still up for a shower or bathroom of sorts. . .
This was one of the gun sites. The guns can swivel and shoot in different directions.
This is one of the largest guns on the island. It was up on a high point, and could shoot all the way to the ocean, in the picture under it. It's barrel weighs like 50 tons or something outrageous like that!
There was this bomb crater next to the gun. . .
And this bunker just on the other side of the driveway area. The American's placed many bunkers like this one all around the island. I will show you pictures of the Japanese bunkers a bit later.
We had a great lunch at this lighthouse area. It was pretty high up, and the stairs were crazy, but the kids thought it was cool!
This is at the memorial on the island. It shows a Filipino and an American helping each other.
This is another memorial area.
Inside the museum we found different planes and other artifacts.
This is the actual flag that was raised by General MacArthur when Corregidor was back in American/Filipino hands.
General MacArthur stood on this spot and promised to come back and retake the island. It took him a couple of years to fulfill that promise.
This is a Japanese bunker. They were really hard to find and were deep, holding many Japanese soldiers.
The hole in the rock over there is where the Japanese would hide for a water attack.
This is the tunnel that the American's went into for safety. It was dug out with many offshoots of tunnels where people would live since the houses and barracks had all been destroyed.
I do look forward to going back to Corregidor again, with more family! It was difficult to remember all the history and I hope to see it all again. It was really a nice tour.
Good Friday in Manila is a ghost town. NOTHING is open. Malls are closed, restaurants are closed, almost COMPLETE shutdown of the city!! However, the American ww2 cemetery was open!! So we went there!
I love it each time we get to go. It's a great place to visit. Really humbling.
Also, thank goodness for Texas Roadhouse!!! They were also open on Good Friday! We had this beautiful sunset outside the restaurant window! It was truly beautiful!
Now for shopping. How did I NOT get pictures???? We went to Greenhills and shopped for a few hours for souvenirs. Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Cobb got some really great things and had a great time! Next time I go I will try to remember to snap a few shots of this place!!
