Day 2 Summer Palace

After the absolute worst meal of our entire trip, we went to the Summer Palace of the Emperor. The beauty and nature made this a much more relaxing place although the crowds were quite large.

The Summer Palace is encompassed by a huge lake. We rode in this very Chinese boat. There was actually a dragon head on the front!

The buildings were painted beautifully.

This is our guide, Eric. He was good but was a little slanted on his view of the relationship between China and the US. He blamed the US for everything that is wrong with China. His answer to most of our question was always "80%".
Bob: So Eric, how many Chinese people go to college?
Eric: 80%
Julie:How much of this palace has been repainted?
Eric: 80%
Bob: Has any of the Great Wall been rebuilt?
Eric: 80%
It became a game for us to come up with more questions just to see how he would answer. Eric also preached and preached to us about Chinese Medicine and how wonderful it was. He even took us to a "Medical Center" to learn more about the Chinese beliefs and see all of the herbs, nuts and twigs used to cure people. We just nodded our heads and smiled. Then the next morning, Eric had a headache and took some aspirin!


It was a very hazy day in Beijing but you can see the lake and the building at the top of the hill. The emperor came here in the summer with his most trusted aids, his wife and his chosen concubines.

Day 2 Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. The emperor lived inside this walled area of Beijing (Peking) with his wife, children and concubines and he rarely left the city. We were shocked at the size! It was located in the middle of Beijing, not far from our hotel, and right behind the famous photo of Mao Tse Tung hanging in Tienanmen Square. This was really our first excursion with our tour guide, Eric.

Take a look at all the people in the background of these pictures. It was packed. All Chinese people desire to see this very important part of their history. Again, we were one of only very few "Westerners" visiting the historical Forbidden City.

The pictures cannot convey all the things we saw. The place was huge, old and a pilgrimage for young and old.




Try to see the umbrellas in the background. It wasn't raining but all the people in China carry umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. We got poked in the eye and head more than once by those sun shades!

Giant Panda in China - Our First Day

From the moment we arrived, we knew our trip to China would be special. We had arrived in a part of the world so different from our own and we were ready for the experience.

After the wonderful tea ceremony we traveled to our hotel (It was 7am in Beijing!) via Tienanmen Square and the famous photo of Mao Tse Tung. People were everywhere!

We needed to eat!! With Bob as our leader, we ate in a restaurant filled only with Chinese people. It seemed like a family place with fast service. The food was delicious but ordering was quite a challenge. We found someone who could somewhat understand what we wanted. We would point at pictures and he would shake his head yes or no if it was something he thought we would eat. Everyone stared at us and pointed. Leah and Maria have funny looks on their faces in this picture because everyone was staring at us. The food looks horrible but it was great...our first of many fabulous meals.

Today would be one of our only days without a guide and we chose to explore Beijing and visit the Giant Pandas at the Beijing Zoo. This is not a typical tourist attraction for Westerners, as we would soon learn would be our label. We were the only people there who looked like us! We were stared at and people took our picture as much as they took pictures of the animals! In the picture below the girls are in front of the Giant Pandas. You can see one in the background.

The Pandas were plentiful and playful moving all over, eating carrots and climbing on ladders. The bears were cool but the rest of the zoo was quite run down and dirty. It was a little shocking since we are used to the pristine and well groomed zoos in North America.


By the end of the day, we were exhausted and hungry again! Although McDonald's was everywhere, we vowed to avoid it during our trip. Our hotel was near a true Chinese shopping mall and we explored all 8 floors. We didn't find much to buy but we had an extremely yummy and spicy meal at a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant. Once again, ordering was a challenge but the people in the restaurant were so kind and helpful and showed us how to eat everything since you cook most of the food in the pots placed in the middle of the table. The picture below is of the busy shopping street.


Next post - The Forbidden City and Summer Palace

Ni Hao from China!

Greetings and hello from the beautiful country of China! We just returned from a fabulous trip that took us from Beijing to Hong Kong. We landed back in Belgium this morning are jet lagged and exhausted from non stop site seeing, shopping and walking. The picture above is of us at the Forbidden City in Beijing. I will try to post just the most exceptional picutres since Bob took over 1500 photos!
Before we even checked into our hotel on our first day in Beijing, we went to a traditional tea ceremony where the cutest Chinese woman showed us how to drink tea and differentiate between varieties. She also taught us which tea would give us more energy and which tea would make us remember all the things we tend to forget. It was a nice and relaxing way to start the trip and learn about a Chinese custom that we would be taking part in over and over again.



Next post - Beijing Zoo and the Giant Panda

WORLD CUP SOCCER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you were here right now, you would be watching the final soccer game of the World Cup and wearing orange in honor of the Netherlands. The picture above was taken less than an hour ago. Maria is downtown with her friends and their families watching the game between the Netherlands and Spain on a big outdoor screen. It's about 90 degrees here today and we don't have air conditioning. So indoors or out, there is no real comfortable spot to watch the game. We should have gone to South Africa to watch in person. It is winter down there!
(Note - Don't feel sorry for us because we don't have air conditioning. Nobody has it.)

Doge's Palace in Venice

The Doge's Palace in Venice was unbelievable. Like I said before, we have hundreds of pictures from our trip. All the pictures are great but somehow even Bob's superb camera skills couldn't catch the beauty of the palace. It didn't help him that pictures were forbidden and most of his shots were illegal! The picture above is of a secret box built into the wall. Venetians could write a complaint on a piece of paper, drop it into the mouth of the monster on the wall and let it fall into a collection box. I need one of those complaint boxes at my house. Although most of the notes would say, "Don't make us empty the dishwasher." or "I am tired of eating vegetables." or the most popular "Quit writing about us on your blog!"

The Streets of Venice

Best Restaurant in Venice

Truthfully the food in Venice is not that great. Typical of touristy places, most of the restaurants serve food to people who will never return. Consequently, they don't need to please people over and over again and have mediocre food and poor service. One dinner we had was so inedible that none of us finished our food.
Thanks to a tip from our good friend, Mr. A, we knew that somewhere in Venice was a place called La Bitta and it would reportedly give us a good meal. Magnificent would better describe the food!!! At one point, Bob leaned over to the waitress and whispered, "Could I just have a little more of that Polenta?" She giggled and brought a bowl just for him!
Thanks Mr. A for the great suggestion of La Bitta. It was wonderful.




After we left La Bitta, we walked through a piazza with a huge church. But the church wasn't the big draw of the piazza; a local bar had set up a big TV and tables and chairs so everyone could sit outside and watch the USA/Ghana World Cup Soccer Game. How cool! You can see Bob and the girls in the last picture watching the game.

More Tour de France from Awesome Bob's Camera

...or should that title read Bob's Awesome Camera?
Whatever title you choose, Bob is having lots of success with his new toy. Today he and I found Lance Armstrong in the sea of riders while admiring all the photos he took. So here is the famous Live Strong Lance during the Tour de France riding through our little commune of Overijse, Belgium.

Experiencing the Tour de France

It is truly unbelievable to think the Tour de France went right by our street as the race traveled throughout Europe. The bikers went by so fast! Our location was toward the beginning of the day's route so most of the riders were still clumped together. In the pack was the racer who won the leg of the race the day before. He was the only biker wearing the traditional Tour de France yellow jersey. You can see him in the picture.
This has been another one of those unbelievable things we have been able to experience while living in Europe. Thankful - Yes!!

Before the actual Tour de France, we watched the parade of advertisers drive through the course. Bob and I stood on one side of the road and the girls and their friends stood on the other. They were in a prime spot to get all kinds of free stuff! In this picture you can see them to the right of the Horse Car. They are all wearing silly hats they caught as cars drove by. They also got foam fingers, key chains, bags, water, candy, cookies and even sausage!


Bob got this great picture of the leader. He eventually won the yellow shirt for the day's race. Bob took 45 pictures in 17 seconds!

Tour de France

Watch the Tour de France today on TV and see the riders go right through our town! We are walking to the top of our road to see them pass by.

(More pictures of Venice coming later today!)

Venice

Right after Leah and Jennifer graduated, we hopped on a plane and flew to Venice! Magical and beautiful could easily describe what we saw! Venice is one place I will put on my list of places to see again. Bob took at least 400 pictures and we had so much fun!





We have so many more photos! Keep watching!

June 24

Leah and Jennifer had their "Moving On" ceremony on June 24. They have made the big step from Elementary to Middle School! The ceremony was very nice with the twins playing their instruments in a small ensamble and lots of speeches.

Unfortunately, the pictures are on a memory card that nobody can find! I promise to add them even it takes until Christmas to locate the pics!