Beijing, China
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Today was another later start. I hope that I won't get used to it, because I know that soon we will have 7am starts. We ate breakfast, the first time with the Elliotts. It was nice to finally see them, safe and well. We ate breakfast and moved back to our rooms. Mum, dad, Aunty Robynne stayed back to pack bags for Xi'an as we would be leaving tonight for four days. The rest of us went to the local market once again It is amazing how much one can buy even though we were just there yesterday. We came back to the hotel and left our suitcases for the day with the concierge. We left and took the train to Tian'anmen Square again, but today we went to the Forbidden City. Even though I have been there twice before, it never ceases to amaze me how big it is. It took us three hours to make it to the other side, with breaks and detours into the little museums in the sides. It also amuses me the names of the halls; "Hall of Scrupulous Behaviour" to name one. The Forbidden City is mostly brick courtyards, but there is a little garden at the end
. That is the prettiest part of the Forbidden City in my opinion. We walked right to the end, and when we realised that we didn't know a train station near that exit, so we walked to the other end quickly. Walking quickly to the other end still took 41 minutes, so needless to say, we were tired. We went back on the train, and walked to a local restaurant for dinner. These restaurants will bend over backwards to accommodate you, so the food was delicious. We then headed back to the hotel before we got our bags to go to the train.
The train was narrow, with four people in each cabin. We had six cabins with two people in each, so we had all the top bunks. that meant that we each slept with two strangers. We arranged so that one big kid or adult went with a little kid, to make sure that we were all going to be okay. It turned out to be nice, in Ashleigh and Craig's cabin, they had two men with a five-month-old baby, which was adorable. We all went in to have a play with him, and the men liked it that we were being so nice.
Comments
Happy Easter
Wishing you all a Happy Easter. We hope that Easter Bunny finds you - he found Mel and I in China last year so I believe you will be OK this year! Love A Kate
Hello n Happy Easter!
Hello everyone, glad you are finally all together! Hope the train trip was ok and you enjoy Xian. I will miss your travelpods while you are there and look forward to hearing all about Xian when you are back on line. Wishing you all a very Happy Easter and lots of chocolate!
Take care, miss you Ash :( Love Tracey xoxo
Re: Happy Easter
Thanks guys:D. Happy Easter to you both!