Our Big Adventure
Our time in Europe has come to a end and we must say goodbye to all the wonderful friends we have made here over the past nearly two years.
It has been a fantastic holiday, a trip of a life time in which we have driven well over 50,000 kilometers. Roughly 10,000 kms more than the circumference of the world. We have visited 34 countries, loads of islands and countless cities, travelling by plane, train, bus, ferry and even camel.
We have endured the 45 C heat of the Sahara in Morocco, and the -17 C frigid cold this winter in Sweden. I'm still not sure which was worse, but it has all been worth it, every minute of it!
CHINA
Beijing, formally known as Peking is the capital of the People’s Republic of China, and sadly the last stop on ‘Our Big Adventure’.
Beijing is a vast and amazing city with so much to see and do, so after our relatively short 8-hour flight from Stockholm we find our hotel, drop our bags and set off for the short subway ride to Tiananmen Square, a sprawling open plaza located in the heart of Beijing.
It feels surreal to be walking through this famous square that we have seen so many times after it gained international recognition for being the site of the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre. At 440,000 square metres in size this meeting place has the ability to hold up to 10,000,000 people at any given time and has been the focal point of numerous events in China’s long history. Even on this cold and blustery January winters day there are hundred’s of visitors here.
With the Forbidden City on the northern side of Tiananmen Square, Mao’s Mausoleum to the south, and is where the embalmed body of the leader of Chinese Revolution lies. Sorry no photo’s of Mao as all bags, cameras, mobile phones etc., have to left outside. The Museum of Chinese History Revolution is to the east and the Great Hall of the People to the west. And situated at the centre of the square, is the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the biggest monument ever created in Chinese history and which features an epitaph by Mao Zedong the founder of the People’s Republic of China engraved on to its surface. As I turn in a circle, I feel very overwhelmed with the historic significance of this great square.
We start out in the early morning for our visit to The Forbidden City, but breakfast is always a must for us. So after a quick look around the area of our hutong (more on that later) we discover a good likely spot. It’s filled with locals, families with small children in crisp blue and white uniforms, and young professionals on their way to work.
It seems that most locals eat out on a regular basis. Not sure if it’s because of the size of the local homes or that we can eat a quite substantial breakfast of, steamed buns filled with meat, a wonton soup with a healthy lashing of seaweed and a fried dough creation, all for the grand price of 7 RMB or about $1.10, and that’s the total for us both.
We usually ate where the locals did, it was sometimes a bit of a challenge with the menu, so we often watched what the other diners ordered, and at times had to rudely point at the dishes served, but only once was I not so sure about our choice. That was from a street vendor set up near the entrance to our subway stop. This enterprising young man had a portable stove attached to a rack on the back of his bicycle, and was cooking what looked to be meatballs. We ordered a serving and after a small bite I decided we were probably right with our guess about them being balls of meat, it was from where they came from the bothered me. I passed on anymore and Brian finished off the order, it wasn’t until the next day or so that we had a chat about the food we had been eating that I mentioned to Brian that I thought those meatballs were in fact testicle’s.
FORBIDDEN CITY
The Forbidden City was once the royal residence of the Ming (1368 to 1644) and Qing (1644 to 1911) dynasties. This expansive complex covers 74 hectares and encompasses 9,999 rooms in dozens of structures. Since the 20th century, the palace has been used as a museum, allowing access what lies behind the 10 meter high walls and it's 6 meter deep moat.
Construction of the palace complex began in 1407, and it was completed fourteen years later in 1420. It was said that a million workers including one hundred thousand artisans were driven into long-term hard labour. Stone needed was quarried from a suburb of Beijing and it is said a well was dug every fifty meters along the road, in order to pour water onto the road in winter to slide the huge stones on ice and into the city.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony and the Hall of Central Harmony, (do you sense a theme here) are some of the beautiful buildings in the Forbidden City along with the Palace of Heavenly Purity and the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity and a number of temples. Some of these palaces were constructed only for use on only one night, such as the wedding night of an Emperor.
Surrounding the Forbidden City on three sides are the Imperial Gardens, it’s a pity we are visiting Beijing in the depths of winter, I’m sure they would be beautiful in the summertime.
After our visit to the Forbidden City we decided to try little retail therapy and one moment we’re walking away from the Forbidden City and the next we’re in one of those crazy three wheelers, hurtling against the snarl of traffic, toward the Silk Market. Now I know there are rickshaw tours and people go on them and come back alive and unhurt but these guys are loners, cowboys. This driver screeched up to us and offered his completely unofficial services and for some reason, possibly the price 3 he kept repeating, as well as holding 3 fingers up we threw caution to the wind and climbed aboard. Possibly that is what being a foreigner in a foreign land does to the human psyche. We fly miraculously through too-narrow spaces between long lines of cars, down ancient alleys and up onto sidewalks, and also using the pedestrian crossing at times, if the driver thinks he can make it across the road a little quicker. We feel so integral to the landscape, it opens its arms wide and, like Alice’s rabbit hole, we simply fall in, and another world rises to meet us.
The Silk market is actually a whole building, 5 or 6 floors of stalls selling everything from shoes and bags, clothing for men, women and kids to electronics and jewellery including pearls and diamonds. We wandered until we couldn’t take the calls of the vendors any longer. Miss (who do they think their kidding) come here, look at this, Mr. buy a present for the lady? I think we did well with our bargaining on our purchases, after our practice in the souks of Morocco, but you never know with the vendors in these stalls, they must have great poker faces.
The Great Wall at Mutianyu.-first the bus trip to get there
Another early start today as we have learnt that to reach the Great Wall at Mutianyu, we will first need to take a subway ride to the main bus station and then, find the right bus.
After a couple (few) wrong turns and then being told that;
1) there is no bus today
2) there is a bus, but it leaves from around the corner outside of the bus station
3) it leaves from a platform that is completely wrong
we do find the right platform (by ourselves) and the bus is there and just about ready to leave. We climb on board not sure of the correct fare, hold out a handful of change for the driver, he takes a few coins and we head down the isle looking for a seat.
This is not a tour bus I need to add here, this is the local bus to Huairou County 70km northeast of Beijing, where if we have planned correctly we will then be able to catch a small bus which will take us up the mountain, to the Great Wall.
We passed through residential areas and then farming communities, the scenery ever changing. We also noticed that the driver took the bus out of gear and coasted down most of the hills, not sure of this was to save fuel or just so stop the loud whine coming from the diff. After being on the bus for just over an hour the driver pulls to the side of the road, get’s out from his seat and comes to the back of the bus where we have been sitting, ‘get off now’ he say’s. Where are we, we ask as we are climbing down the stairs. Just then a nicely dressed man walks to us and asks if we need a ride to the Mutianyu Wall, ( this was probably pre-arranged by the bus driver as he was coasting down the highway out of gear), by now the bus had pulled away so we had no choice but to say ‘yes’. We negotiated a reasonable return rate and climbed into his car. The next part was easy, we just sat in his luxury Chinese brand sedan, with it’s leather upholstery and enjoyed the ride.
THE GREAT WALL at MUTIANYU
It’s all a little bit surreal.
At times I just have to stop for a second and say to myself, “I’m standing on the Great Wall of China”
This is one of the best-preserved parts of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall used to serve as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs from the raiding Mongols. Built around 386-581 AD and known to the Chinese as Chang Cheng or Long Wall.
Built mainly with granite, this section of wall is 7-8 meters high and the top is 4-5 meters wide. 22 watch towers are densely placed on this 2,250-meter-long stretch.
It is almost impossible to grasp how people could have built so huge a fortification. Recent archaeology surveys have shown that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for massive 8,851.8 km.
We are lucky to have a sunny day here, and the surrounding forested hillsides although winter bare, look beautiful today.
Even though the tourists are not here now, the vendor stalls as you leave the chairlift are open, and we are swarmed, or so it seems, to buy t-shirts, postcards, magnets and much more. Brian negiotiated the price of a fur-lined army hat from 600RMB to 50 RMB, then thought 'whatever am I going to do with a fur lined hat in Queensland' As you can imagine the lady running the stall was not too pleased with him when he said sorry, but I don't want it now.
Our driver was waiting for us in the pre arranged spot, and in no time had us back at the bus stop for our short wait for the bus back to Beijing.
OUR LAST DAY IN BEIJING- THE LAMA TEMPLE
It was originally built in 1694 and originally used as official residence for court eunuchs of the Ming dynasty. It later became the Palace of Peace and Harmony and was converted to the royal court of Prince Yongzheng.
Lama Temple is now a typical working Tibetan Monastery with Mongolian Monks. Closed for many years during the Cultural Revolution it has been refurbished and was reopened in 1980. During the time we spent there we saw many monks attending to their praying and attending to their business.
Our time in Beijing has come to an end, and although we didn't get to see the Summer Palace, Imperial Tombs or the Olympic site I do think that we have seen the places that were important for us.
Beijing has entered the modern era with many areas that were formerly farmland now developed into residential or commercial districts. But the little hutongs hidden behind their walls still form the heart of Old Beijing, and in those hutongs life is simply going on, just as it has done for thousands of years.
STOCKHOLM
After a very pleasant 2 hour train ride from Skövde, and in first class, we arrive in Stockholm.
Situated on 14 islands and linked by 57 bridges, Stockholm is often called “The City between the Bridges.”
Gamla Stan or The Old Town is like something out of a fairy tale, complete with a Palace and Royal family in residence. The cobblestone streets are lined with Swedish handcraft shops, restaurants and museums. We watched the changing of the guard and felt sorry for the young soldiers having to stand for hours in the cold.
We took the ferry to the island of Skansen to visit an open air museum. The ferry had to break it's way through the thick ice, leaving large chunks that sank briefly, then floated to the top again as we ploughed through the icy water.
Skansen, once the Royal hunting grounds was founded as an outdoor museum in 1891 and is complete with old farms, churches, schools and other dwellings moved from all area's of Sweden. There are also many native Scandinavian animals living here, such as wolves, reindeer, elk and the bears which we missed as they were in hibernation at this time of the year.
Tomorrow we fly to Beijing for a short 4 day visit on our way home to Australia.
Our time in Sweden in nearly over.
We have booked out tickets and are now enjoying our last few days here in Lerdala.
Leaving here on Thursday, 21st January, we travel by train to Stockholm where we spend 3 days. We are looking forward to Stockholm having been told it is such a beautiful city.
Then from Stockholm we fly to Beijing arriving on Jan 25th, spend 4 days there, which from the list of places we want to visit, we will be very busy.
Our Big Adventure is coming to an end, not that we can complain, by the time we get home, we will have been away for nearly two years. It will be wonderful to see the family and friends we have missed greatly, and also to be back again on home soil.
Another eBay purchase
Having had good luck with the last two cars we have purchased on eBay, we decided after many hours spent looking at various used car sale web sites, to bid on the vehicle we will need once we’re home.
Thinking a nice little soft-top Suzuki would suit us and the idyllic climate on the ‘Sunny Coast’, we spotted our car from a seller in Victoria.
After numerous bids and emails we were able to come to a price agreeable to both parties, coincidently Lindsay is selling the car so as she can go touring Australia in her motor home.
So after we land in Sydney on the 29th, we change airports and then board another plane for the short hop down to Melbourne, and pick up ???. No name for our new car yet, we just hope she will give us as much enjoyment and reliability as Josephine and Fatima have done during ‘Our Big Adventure’.
Else and Adam’s visit and Brian’s BDay Party
Thankfully the weather and Adam’s car co-operated and he and Else arrived here safely.
The roasted lamb with all the fixings, and the Chocolate Mud cake for dessert made a nice birthday dinner for ‘the boy’ and after dinner we sat down to some very competitive games of Memory, and Maxi Yahtzee.
On Sunday morning after a nice breakfast we ventured out to the nearby nature reserve to see the water falls, now only partially frozen, and Sally had a great romp around in the snow. We had the forethought to turn on the sauna before we left and Else and I enjoyed the warmth and a good chat in there.
All too soon it was time for Else and Adam to head home, so after a late Scandinavian style smorgasbord lunch, they headed down the dark road and back to Oslo.
We hope they had a good time here, and enjoyed sharing in Brian’s birthday and seeing a little more of Sweden, we are certainly glad they were able to make it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN
Just like a fine wine, you grow better with the years, Happy Birthday My Love!
Today we celebrate another special occasion, Brian’s birthday.
We are looking forward to having Else and Adam stay with us this weekend, and celebrate Brian’s birthday. They are driving down from Oslo in the depths of winter, and we do appreciate it.
Last year we celebrated your birthday in France, and this year it’s Sweden, where do you think we may be next year?
Hope you enjoy the slide show.
