Flight to Shanghai - bus to Suzhou

Early start this morning.  Starts off with meeting in the dining room where we are all given a sad box breakfast.  Our tour leader Bella also comes in with a list of things that are missing from peoples rooms, very funny, 2 spoons, a glass etc.  They run in and check your room inventory as soon as you leave the room in the AM.  I wondered if I would be charged for the glass I broke, but no.  It was a bit of a walk from the ship to land, a little rainy outside, quite a few steps, and pitch black.  A little tricky for some of the less able, but as far as I know only one fall.  Funniest part was we are in the largest city in the world at 33 million, but we have never heard of it, famous for hot pots cuisine, but we never got to try any unfortunately.  Anyway funny part it is 5AM, we have 1 hour drive to the airport, and a guide is riding with us to tell us all about her city Chongqing!  We had to imagine how big the mountains are here she said as we couldn't see a thing. 

All of our luggage was transported directly from the ship to the airport, we didn't even need to get it to check it in, a nice perk.  This has happened a couple of times for us now, great way to travel.  Martin got called out from our group, they found something in his luggage, of course this led to lots of laughs.  We flew to Shangai, went out to lunch on a boat that is docked right down town, amazing architecture, this city has really just grown in the last 20 years or so with all these skyscrapers, amazing.  A really large banking district, tomorrow we are supposed to spend more time in this area.

 

After lunch we drove to Suzhou where we are spending the night, tomorrow we will go to visit some famous gardens.  We went straight to our hotel to let people rest, ha, we ventured off behind the hotel and found some streets that look like fun to visit tonight.

 

Love the brooms

Lots of kids were eating this candy

At 5:30 we all met in the lobby and took a short bus ride to the oldest street in Suzhou.  This was really fun, they call in the Venice of China, some little canals, lots of the houses have been converted to shops, mostly for tourists, but lots of little restaurants selling dumplings that looked amazing, you could tell what was in the dumpling based on what the dumpling looked like. Chicken legs, quail eggs, fresh fish mongers, and all kinds of gift shops.  Lots of Chinese on their bikes and motorcycles in this pedestrian area, a little crazy, you have to keep your eyes and ears open.  We also went to dinner in this area.  The weather has really changed, a cold front has come through.  The waiters were wearing jackets, it is only about 5 degrees, I think the same as home.  We opted to take the bus back to the hotel to add another layer and go out walking around there.

 

Andre wanted to go visit inside this door...

Nice secure building?

Very fancy dumplings

Along the canal

Back to the area around the hotel for a walk and look around.  The streets are really lit up with Neon signs around here, so Andre is having lots of fun taking pictures.  There are a few rickshaws around, we are offered lots of rides.  Andre found a belt today, so his pants are no longer falling down. 

 

Back to the hotel as we can't find a pub/bar for a drink.  We have been wandering around looking for one with Martin and Tammy, but no luck.  We asked the bellman and he took us to a place right outside our hotel, way too fancy.  Security and hostesses all outside, we are definitely not dressed for this place.  We also went into a karaoke place, very popular here, you rent a room for 4, 6, 8 whatever number of people, maybe we should have done that?  Ended up in the lobby bar for a drink, then off to bed.  A little later start tomorrow morning so hoping for a bit of a sleep in.