Fri 19th Nov – The Great Wall of China & Diamond Princess

Hmm  - the joys of jet lag. Having gone to sleep at about 10pm I woke up in the dark thinking I’d had a great sleep. Unfortunately I then looked at the clock and realised it was only 11.30pm! Whoops. Not much sleep for me, but resting was good. Andy woke up at about 3am so we were in plenty of time for the tour to the Great Wall of China that started at 7.30am.

The 1hr drive to the Great Wall at Juyongguan near Badaling was made longer by the traffic jams in central Beijing but we reached the wall in plenty of time and Amy our guide took us into the entrance. It’s very touristy at this part, but still very impressive. I really wasn’t expecting it to be so steep! I know that sounds daft but a lot of the photos you see are of wide fairly flat sections – trust me this wasn’t – it was trying to be vertical! We made it up several sections – past 2 guard towers, and up to a viewing area just below the third guard tower. The views were stunning – well worth the climb, and the amount of people reduced the higher we got. Needless to say we didn’t reach the top, but we still did well. We felt positively athletic compared to the wheezing school kids who were coughing their guts up! I must admit my legs were rather wobbly by the time we reached the ground again tho.

           

We picked up our group photo/ souvenir guide book and headed off for lunch. This was about an hour away at a shopping emphorium where they make clousionner vases etc (I’m sure that’s nowhere near how it’s spelt!). Lunch was a huge spread of more than 10 assorted dishes served on a big lazy susan in the middle of a table seating 10. It was lovely but very filling again. We were pleased we’d passed on the buffet breakfast.

After lunch it was on south to the port of Tainjin. This took rather longer than expected as a highway had been closed all morning due to a huge accident ( a regular occurrence in Beijing apparently – their driving rally isn’t up to much). The poor people who had chosen not to go on the tour had left the hotel at 11am and checked in just before us at 5/6pm.

The Diamond Princess is lovely. Totally huge, but very special looking and the people on here are so friendly. There’s a really big nationality mix too which will make it nice. Our stateroom is lovely. Top marks to Bath Travel for recommending a partially obstructed view – the window is pretty much clear! It’s lovely and spacious and we’ll be very happy here. After the emergency drill and perusing the pile of info leaflets we headed up to the Horizon Court Buffet for a tiny amount to eat, had a wonder round the ship to get our bearings, had a cocktail and headed to bed. All in all a long but very satisfying day. Tomorrow is a day at sea so we get more time to explore and experience our first formal night.