Early start 4.30 though checked alarm through the night. Fast taxi to empty station so sitting waiting for 1.5hrs. The landscape surrounding Beijing is pancake flat entirely arable cultivated. Smallish fields with uniform young green planting, not padi? Young wheat/corn? Further on graduated to barren rocky hills, with large areas covered with randomly placed solar …
Today an easy day…. Hectic start and anticipated early 5am start and busy 2 days in Pingyao coming up Visited the Cloisonné Museum. Very quiet. There were 3 floors, historic display museum floor, shop and “factory” floor, and shop floor It was interesting if you like cloisonne but presentation a little sterile. Some pieces are …
Started the day with 1.5hr taxi drive out of town to National Botanical Gardens with Mr Bob (and weave) Grumpy Joined the same million other people at the gardens though this time the space accommodated us all Busy but reasonable. Had to teach (and failed) Ying how to do Instagram poses which were de rigeur …
Off to the Great Wall at Mutianyu today. Sky very grey and slightly hazy coming out through suburbs. Temp 20-24c After a painless drive (taxi) to Mutianyu Ying had asked the driver what translation app he used We are now the proud face of Chinese tourism 2026! He had gone off and found the Tourist …
Our first full day Together we had a good nights sleep…. Ying was awake til 4am, I woke up at 5… Hotel breakfast was extensive, 30yards of buffet. I was surprised at all the pork/bacon. Not in Malaysia now! And to Ying’s delight, free flowing coffee Breakfast cafeteria. It’s has everything you could desire , …
A rather bumpy flight all told, but views over Russian Steppes, Mongolia were spectacular from above Ying had fish rice, I had beef rice, not sure I could tell the difference! Took minutes to go through health quarantine, (which just meant walking through a gate?) customs, bag collection and out we went Took first BYD …
We’ve had many happy months planning our trip with Sally and Gary Unfortunately circumstances conspired against us and thwarted their participation at the last minute and they quite rightly bailed out a few days before departure This led to an epic Ying vs Call Centre battle getting our tickets and luggage organised, Ying won!!!
Blue Mountain view We went up to the Blue Mountains for our final full day, despite slightly suboptimal weather and this was the view of the Three Sisters on arrival… However 2 minutes later From there the Cascades and Katoomba Falls so not so bad (but raining between photos tbh)
Coffee and Culture We started the day going to Toby Estates coffee Shop at Victoria Park (Chippendale) which was voted top in the 100 best coffee shops in the world… After an inevitable (but shortish) queue the shop was suitably trendy with baristas working on islands beside you rather than behind counters etc Coffee – …
Coffee, Darling Harbour, Barangaroo Reserve, Jazz pub, Botanical Gardens home then out for Dinner on Bondi! Turned out to be busier day than expected! After the usual coffee and fantastic Foccacia BLT at Hollys (Ying had “Winter rice porridge” in the heat) we headed into town for more coffee (original destination closed) but picked up …