To be honest, it was my first time, to visit the places mentioned below thanks to my Beau. I bought him here but the truth is he bought me here because he is really interested about history, museums, war, etc. It felt like I was a tourist in my own country.  Anyways, these are the area highlights:

Rizal Park

Fort Santiago

Rizal Park is a guarded memorial park where the Philippine National hero Jose Rizal is respected and remembered. There is marble slab that highlights the Martyrs death. The park is a memorial and illustrates Rizal's journey for independence of the Filipino people. We visited Fort Santiago where Rizal faced trial and wrote his memoirs in his last days before he was led outside to an adjacent park to face a Spanish firing squad. It was disappointing that we were not able to see the lights and sounds performance as it was not available at the time. 

"Fort Santiago was absolutely amazing!!" Beau said.  It is a Spanish Fort that was completed in 1593. Since then it has seen its fair share of conflict and has been occupied by the Spanish, English, and Japanese. We were astounded by the age and condition of the structures, as they have stood the test of time. The Fort, still with its guard towers and gun inplacements intact faces the Manila Pasig river and is housed within the grounds of intramuros (the old Spanish city). Beau had an amazing time here since he's really into this kind of stuff. 

Now, we are off to Corregidor Island so we could learn more about the Philippine WW2 History.

until my next post!