We're Here!

Made it to Beijing today! Left Mpls in torrents of rain, made all of our flights in Denver and San Fran, and made it through the grueling flight over seas.  Man, that is a hard day, it felt like it took us three days to get here.  My schedule is all screwed up this time around.  The long flight was hard on Rose too.  Bright spot was that for the long flight the airline was able to put us all in the same row.

All was smooth except for customs here - it took about 1.5 hours to get through, each line had about 50 people in it.  There were about 20 lines.  All smooshed together.   Don't know if it's always like that or not.  Their airport is beautiful and efficient otherwise.  It seems like a whole different city since we were here in 2004.  And the hotel we are staying at is on a really fun street, lots of small restaurants and shops, all decorated outdoors with hanging red lanterns.  Can't wait to stroll along there at night.  Our guide gave us a couple of good recommendations for places to eat, but tonight I think we will just hit the market for some bottled water and snacks.  Oh!  And swim caps.  The hotel has a pool, but they require everyone to wear a swim cap.

Tomorrow morning we head off to the Forbidden City.  Our guide is a fast walker, I hope we can keep up with her!  (Side note - her name is Nancy too).