Beijing - China

Our travel to Beijing was long, over 30 hours from hotel to hotel, as we had stop-over in Zurich and Shanghai. Still stepping off the plane in Beijing gave us a refreshing feeling, that humid, polluted smell… Yes were back in Asia!

An hour on the shuttle bus got us to our hotel at about 5pm, exhausted we climbed into bed for a few hours. At 8pm we headed back to the bus stop to pick up Maree, it was great to see her, we found a restaurant in the area for some noodles and dumplings before heading back to the hotel.

Sunday we slept to midday, with one interruption in the early morning, we have to change rooms later today according to the hotel. After changing rooms and finding some Chinese pancakes with egg and chives for brunch, we went for a walk around the area. We ended up in a shopping centre, of course! The night city bus tour that we joined started off ok, apart from no English, but after 5 minutes the bus broke down and there wasn’t enough room on the next tour, so we gave up on that company.
We saw a kid (1yo) wearing a one piece jump suit, except there were holes in the front and the back, where a nappy would go, if he were wearing one. It was very funny at first, but it turns out it is what all the babies wear over here!

We found a food market which was very interesting, but none of us were brave enough to eat much, although Maree was very keen to try the Skewered Snake or Sheep Penis!
Monday morning we slept in again… Ooops! We ate some more pancakes, and Christine and I stooped to a new low. We found some washing machines in a nearby youth hostel, but couldn’t find a laundromat anywhere, in desperate need of some clean clothes, we thought we would sneak into the hostel to do our laundry. Somehow we were able to buy some laundry tokens, the machines weren’t coin operated like we hoped, although to get these we had to tell them ‘our room number’ and then sign for them. The girl at front desk matched our signatures to those on file, and noticed they didn’t match, but we assured her that our surname was Campbell!
Our timing in Beijing has been good and bad. The next few days is a public holiday to celebrate 60 years of Chinese independence. This means there will be a march, fireworks and everything is looking great, but also means that much of the city will be ‘off limits’. We spent the afternoon doing a rushed visit to the Forbidden City. It had many buildings with old traditional Chinese architecture, nice gardens, sculptures and antiques. We didn’t get the best out of it as we were so rushed and didn’t have a guide or a map, but what we saw was nice. We then took a taxi (lazy, I know) to Tiananmen Square, which has a big monument in the middle and was looking fantastic with red lanterns and flowers everywhere for the celebrations. Both Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were going to be closed from tomorrow, so that’s why we rushed it all in today.
Something we need to get use to is everyone staring at us gorgeous whities!

Next morning we were shattered to wake up and see cloudy skies. Today we had booked a tour to the Great Wall of China. We were picked up early from our hotel by our ‘English speaking’ guide. In fairness he was speaking English, although it was a bit difficult to understand at times. The drive up into the mountains to the Great Wall took about 2 hours, meaning we arrived as one of the first tours for the day, at about 9am. The mountains were amazing and we would have loved to spend days there doing some hiking. As it turns out we only had 2 hours, so we were pretty much forced to pay for the cable car from the car park to the wall, rather than take the scenic walk. Sadly being so early in the morning the cloud was still quite low and being so high in the mountains visibility was poor, we could only see about 15-20 meters. The wall was still amazing, and being so early there was no one else on it for about the first hour. We spent the best part of 2 hours ambling along it looking and climbing the guard towers scattered along it. The highlights were finding a broomstick that we pretended to ride like a witch and seeing a donkey on the Great (cloudy) Wall of China.
As with any tour in Asia, our next stop was in a Jade factory, for a demonstration and then to visit the gift shop. We also had a Chinese banquet for lunch, outrageous, no Lemon Chicken!
On the way back to Beijing we had another stop at some of the Ming Tombs, which were actually underground. Very touristy, but interesting none the less. The gardens around the tombs were also very impressive, in the traditional Chinese style. Another stop in a silk shop and then it was back to the hotel by about 5pm. We were all exhausted, had some noodles in our room for dinner, then to bed for an early night! The great wall was great but the clouds, which didn’t clear at all during the day were disappointing, plus for such a long day we would have liked longer at the actual wall.

The following day we took it pretty easy, slept in and had bit of a rest day. Most of the city was on lock down due to the preparation for the celebrations. The girls went to do a bit of shopping in the afternoon and Damien headed down to the Olympic village for a look at the Birds Nest and Water Cube. They were both quite interesting and well worth a look. Struggling to find any shops open I ended up having a bag of chips and a banana for dinner, even McDonalds was closed.

Thursday was our last day in Beijing, and also the main day of the 60 year celebrations. After watching some of the parades on TV in the hotel room, Christine and Maree headed to the Zoo, to see a Panda. They had bit of an early night as they were both feeling a bit crook, probably something they ate.

Damien caught the bus, which took forever, to the Summer Palace. This place was unbelievable, and the blue skies and sun only made it better. It was a series of old buildings and gardens in the mountains that were built in the old traditional Chinese architecture. It was similar in some ways to the Forbidden Palace but the weather, mountains, and extra time to look around properly made it far more enjoyable.

On the way home I stopped off for a few beers at Hooters Beijing and bar district (most of the bars were karaoke), where I got to see some more of the celebrations on the TV. Finally heading home, I found out that the train station I was trying to get to was closed so I had to walk the last 3 stops, taking about an hour, but I didn’t mind this as the whole time I was walking closer and closer to the fireworks display at Tiananmen Square.

Friday morning we checked out of the hotel and took a cab to the airport, not our preferred method of transport! We then flew east, to Dalian where we met Amy and Alan at the airport. It was great to see them. We had a look around the area that the hotel was in and then some lunch. We gave them their wedding gift, a plate and bowls we bought in South of Spain, and carried all the way!
After a settling into the hotel and bit of a rest, it was off to dinner to meet the family. We were in awe of the banquet that was served up, but soon had to get used to eating wonderful food in plentiful quantities. We had a private room in the restaurant, with about 25 people from both sides of the family. Everyone was lovely, friendly and most people spoke none of very little English. The food was incredible, Dalian is known for its seafood, so there was abalone, craps, fish, prawns, calamari, sea cucumber, jelly fish, beef, chicken, veggies, soup, rice… All three of us needed to take it a bit easy, as we all felt a bit ill, but still managed to eat plenty of Chinese cuisine.

Paris - France

The only reason we had to go to Paris was to catch a flight to China, as our round the world ticket didn’t allow us to fly from Spain. We will probably be back early next year when Browyn and Kevin (Christines aunt and uncle) are in Paris.
Our first impressions of Paris and France were mixed. Parts of the city are very nice – Nottre Dam, Sacre Cour and the Eiffel Tour.

Our overall experience wasn’t a good one though, which is disappointing as we have met a few really nice people from France on our journey so far. The moment we entered France things became difficult. Arriving in a small town just over the Spanish border, we needed to change trains. When we got to the station though we were told that the train was ‘full’, although for another 220 euro, we would be able to go on the same train, the word ‘scam’ springs to mind. This was the train we tried to reserve seats for days ago, but reservations could only be made once in France! 5 hours later in a dingy train station we were able to get on the next train. This meant that after leaving Barcelona at 9am, instead of arriving at 6pm it was actually a bit after 11pm. We then rushed through the metro system (including both of us getting jammed in the doors, side by side, at one station. We were on the train but our backpacks were on the outside, very funny!), to get to our hostel before the last trains at about midnight.
Our hostel was expensive and apparently one of the better ones in the city. We weren't impressed, Christine especially, their ‘fully equipped’ kitchen didn’t even have a knife, the whole place was a bit old and dirty as the cleaners did but of a half arsed job.
The French people were generally rude and unhelpful compared to the other countries we have visited. This was disappointing as we have met some nice people from France, although they were not from Paris. From the staff at the train stations, the guy in line who bumped Christine and then had a French Sook, the bratty kids and parents on the train and the big french woman with really bad odour issues Damien had to sit near!

Our hostel was a short walk from Sacre Cour which is a nice old church on a hill with great city views. The church had a lot of stain glass windows, but less paintings and sculptures than the churches in Italy. We also did the touristy photos at the Eiffel tour and Arc de Triomf. The church at Nottre Dam was also very impressive with its many altars and stain glass windows. We also sat in Jardin de Luxembourg, a park for an afternoon and had some drinks, was very nice, and we saw a little girl pee in the potty, before dad emptied the potty into the fountain in the middle of the park, nice!

After 2 days we were both ready to leave. Partially due to how difficult and expensive Paris has been and partially because we are looking forward to getting to China and seeing our friends from Melbourne Maree, Amy and Alan.

Barcelona

We had been looking forward to Barcelona for a long time, its our last stop in Spain (not that we want to leave), the beach (which we didn't end up making it to due to time and weather) and more recently to meet up with Emma and Tanya, friends we made on the Scotland tour.
September has been tough for Damien with St Kilda Football Club playing so well (all year), but also in the finals. It has made him the most homesick he has been for the whole trip.
We spent Friday on a day train from Madrid, which happened to be the time the Saints were playing their preliminary final in Melbourne. When we arrive at the Hip Karma Hostel, we had to wait about 20 minutes to check in. In the mean time we were able to jump on a computer to check the score, Saints up by 2 points with 10 minutes to go! We tried to get the radio over the internet but the computer wouldn't give us sound, so we had to settle for afl.com.au After an exciting/nervous 10 minutes Saints won by 7 points. We are so happy for them and hope the do well in the grand final, but really wish we were there to watch!

After check in we went for a walk down Las Rambla, the main street of Barcelona, with a big pedestrian walk, stalls and markets, street performers, cafes, bars and heaps of tourists.It is very nice with Date Palm trees running all the way down the street, to the port. We found an Aussie Bar and asked about the football replay, but the English Woman behind the bar didn't even know what Australian Rules was (bloody poms)! At 9.30pm we met Emma and Tanya for dinner (bit late, hey!). Anyone interested, Tanya is available, although a bid of 40 Camels made by a middle eastern guy was recently rejected, perhaps offer goats as well! It was great to see some familiar faces and we had Spanish Comida (food) in a nice little restaurant just off the Ramblas. After dinner we went for a walk along the Ramblas, absorbing the atmosphere and avoiding the Pakistani's trying to sell us warm cans of beer or drugs on the street. The girls took us to a really cool bar, connected to the wax museum, one of the rooms was full of paper and origami and the other was set up like a fairy tale with wax characters, trees and a waterfall. We had a great night, and the girls offered to take us for a drive the next day, which we were really excited about.

Tanya picked us up at 10am and we headed about 90 minutes north (almost to France) to the province of Girona. Christine loved the first stop, Figueres, home of the Dali Gallery, a very cool building with statues and eggs on the roof.

Our next stop was Empuriabravia, a costal city with a beach, port and nice houses on canals. We had way too much to eat for lunch, 2 bread rolls each, olives and alloli for entree, followed by massive bowls of Spanish Fideua and Paella. After lunch we waddled down to the beach and then along the harbour and some of the canals. It was a very nice little town, many big houses and boats with french and german flags on them.

On the way home we visited two more amazing towns one with a castle, Castello De Empuries and Sant Marti De Empuries which had a nice church with a wedding party out the front. We also went to the beach, some cliffs which had great coastal views and found some old ruins to climb on. The drive back was uneventful except for when Tanya got us lost, but I suppose it was really Emma's fault as she had the map! We got home at about 10pm, still not hungry but very tired. We had an awesome time seeing some places we wouldn't have seen if it weren't for the girls, so BIG thanks!

Sunday morning we slept in, exhausted after all our travels of the last few weeks. Still full from lunch yesterday we had a light breakfast, leaving the bacon and eggs we had bought in the fridge for another day.
We spent the afternoon sightseeing in Barcelona starting with Parc De Joan Miro which had gum trees (exciting), sculptures and a big dog poo that Damien stepped in! We saw the old bull ring which is being turned into a shopping centre, Placa Espanya, Font (fountain) Montjuic and some city views from the Museu Nacional, via a series of escalators up a big hill. Our tour continued to the site of the 1992 Olympic Games, where we saw a big white tower, Torre Calatrava, some fountains, Palau Sant Jordi and Estadi Olimpic. This part of the city is more modern and the stadium was open for us to enter and have a look around, it was really good to see, the atmosphere at the Olympics must have been so amazing.
After a late siesta, we were hoping to head back down to the fountains for the sound and light show, but unfortunately a huge storm rolled in so it was too wet. We did go for a walk, hearing the thunder roaring over the city was quite cool.

We are staying at Hip Karma Hostel, which is really good, has free internet, good location, very clean and a tv with cable. We found out the Saints game was being replayed tonight at 10.30pm, but due to a baseball game running late, it was delayed by 2 hours. We still watched it of course, and got to bed a bit after 2am. Saints won the replay too, Go Saints!

Monday, again we slept in, and then cooked ourselves bacon and eggs for breakfast. Christine then went for a walk, and some how took an hour to find a junky tourist shop on Las Ramblas, which is quite an effort since there is one on just about every corner of the city! Damien went and had his hair cut which was fun, as the guy only spoke Spanish, but we managed! We spent the afternoon sightseeing again, looking at the amazing Gaudi architecture in Barcelona. The big church Temple de la Sagrada Familia, is an amazing gothic design, and the main attraction in Barcelona. This is where Christine thought she had lost her prescription sunglasses as she couldn't find them anywhere. "They are on your face, darling!".

We wandered up to the hospital which was quite stunning, before cruising along Passery de Gracia, the most expensive street in the city, which has a number of amazing building designs.
After a tiring day Emma met us at the hostel so that we could cook her dinner, sadly Tanya wasn't feeling well. We had a nice pesto pasta and Branzo de Gitano (a cream and chocolate pastry desert), watched some AFL on TV, said our farewells, packed our bags and went to bed.

Madrid

Our train to Madrid was a night train, not by choice this time, rather it being the only service for Lisbon to Madrid. This was fine at first, but about halfway through the journey the air con kicked into overdrive and the whole carriage was freezing. We arrived at our small guest house about 10am, the lady who ran it was very nice and let us have our room early.
After a siesta we headed out for a late lunch, beer and a Tortilla Espanol Bocadillo (potato omelet in a baguette). We spent a bit of time around La Latina, a bar and restaurant district before seeing the main squares Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol. Wednesday morning we had a reservation on a walking tour of 'old Madrid', unfortunately due to being a bit slow to get out of bed, and the metro taking longer than we thought we were late and missed it. Luckily the lady at the tour office was nice enough to put us on a later tour, a general city tour. It has been surprisingly easy to get around Spain and Portugal, everyone we have met has been really helpful and friendly. Sadly, since they speak so much English, our Spanish has not developed as much as I had hoped.
The tour departed from Plaza Mayor, a big square in the middle of the city. It is very nice, has a horse statue in the middle and a building with modern (15 years old) fresco paintings on the exterior. The tour guide was ok, and we got to see many of the main sights of Madrid. The guide was particularly excited about the city walls (which no longer exist). When we saw Palacio Real (Royal Palace), the timing was good as the changing of the guards was just about to happen. The gardens in front of the palace were very nice too.
After the tour we grabbed lunch at a little cafe, where the menu had over 100 different types of mini bread rolls. We took the easy option and ordered a mixed plate, all were very nice, some had seafood, bacon or churizzo fillings.
Our siesta today also involved watching Futurama in Spanish on TV. It was a bit hard to follow, but amusing nonetheless.
We spent the evening at the Gallery Museo del Prado which had a really good collection of art, including many Spanish works. In particular Goya's works were impressive. We also briefly visited Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which we didn't like as much. The following day was a bit frustrating, just one of those days! We slept in, which was nice. We had planned to go to the post office to send some things home (including tapas cook books) but this never eventuated. We visited Templo de Debod, which is an Egyptian tomb, transported to Madrid and reconstructed brick by brick. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed, as the tourist info had told us the wrong times, but it was still cool from the outside. We did a bit of shopping for touristy crap on Gran Via, before returning to Museo del Prado to see the rest of the collection. We liked Madrid, although it is a bit of a case of 'just another nice European city'. It is still very vibrant, as everywhere in Spain seems to be. We probably didn't have enough time here either. It also rained, the first time we have seen rain since the UK, although it didn't really effect our visit. Next stop, Barcelona where we are meeting some friends from our Scotland tour!