DAY 94 - DAY 3 - BEIJING, CHINA

A few of you had asked about the weather in Beijing.

The first day we were there it was quite cold.  This was a combination of the cooler than normal temperatures coupled with the lack of sunlight as it was extremely overcast most of the day.  We were well prepared for the cool temperatures but wore more items the following day for the Great Wall.  Even when Keith was taking photos the first day at Forbidden City at times it would be challenging because he couldn't use gloves while taking photos.

We expected that it might be even colder the following day since we had to travel two plus hours outside of the city over to a remote area of The Great Wall.  As such we wore not only our North Face Jackets with attached Fleece as we did the day before but Keith wore another Fleece under that and Anne Marie wore a sweater.  In addition Keith wore a flannel shirt, and a long john shirt under that and Anne Marie had a top on as well.  We each wore long johns bottoms and socks that are for the cold weather.  We were fortunate that between being very prepared and with the sun being out for a good portion of our walk that we were quite comfortable.  

Ironically, for about 30 minutes it got windy as we ate lunch and a little while before we ate lunch and during the first part of lunch we had a light snow shower.  However, the sun came back out and the wind went away.  All in all it was a perfect day.

The portion of the Great Wall that we saw was extraordinary.  You see a lot more of the wall from that area and there is so much more to walk.  We were very pleased to have the opportunity to go to a more remote location with very few other tourists.

These are a few additional photos from the Great Wall.

This photo shows steps that Keith walked at an area of the Great Wall that has not yet been restored.

Bob and Glo speaking with one of the locals who walked with us.

On our return from the Great Wall our tour made an unplanned drive around the Bird's Nest and we also drove around many of the other nearby sites that were home to the Beijing Olympics.

In yesterday's post, we had mentioned the breakfast at the Club Room of the Hotel and these are some photos that we took at breakfast.

While we each had the cold cereal and some fruit there was also a menu at the table for hots foods such as eggs, and pancakes.

We dined with friends Bob and Glo at an Asian Restuurant in the hotel on Friday evening.

This was a spicy seafood soup that Keith had as his first course.  He thought it was quite spicy until he tried some of the soup that Bob and Glo ordered as their soup came in a very large soup bowl so he was able to try some of that as well.  That soup was so spicy that ones tongue would went numb.

This was a spicy chicken and shrimp entree that Keith had as his second course.  The bowl was humongous but a good portion of it was the peppers that made the entree taste fairly spicy but Keith didn't eat that.

Anne Marie had a milder soup and her Shrimp was more like a Shrimp Tempura.

We slept well at the hotel as we did the night before.  We were very tired having gotten up very early on Friday morning in preparation of our visit to the Great Wall.

We had breakfast in the club lounge and then spoke with some fellow guests who arrived there shortly after we did.  Like yesterday, we each had cereal and Keith had fruit and we had coffee.

We originally planned to visit a couple of sites this morning and then to go shopping at the Pear Factory which is an outlet selling much more than Pearls.  However, we were all a bit tired from our two days of touring and one of the two sites we planned to visit was added to yesterday's tour.  We also didn't really need to go shopping so we decided to just drive back to the ship realizing that the drive would take close to three hours.

This is a photo from the Birds Nest (part of the Beijing Olympics) that was on our schedule for today but we ended up viewing it yesterday.

After arriving back to the ship, we did several loads of laundry, had lunch, did reading and writing and got settled.

Keith even got in one hour of Paddle Tennis (it was a bit chilly and windy) and he also sat with friend Bob.

This evening we will be back at the Crystal Dining Room and it's glad to be back "home".


TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...

 “The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up.” -  Mark Twain

Keith and Anne Marie