So, doing my due diligence, I called him before we left and went over the itinerary day by day and grilled him on how much walking there would be involved. Right from the get go though he has said it was a fairly easy going, low physical involvement tour. And again, day by day, he reaffirmed this to me.
Now, I am not a walker as you all know. I hate walking. My hip hurts, my back hurts, my feet hurt. No amount of walking gets rid of that pain. Honestly, my average steps per day round out between 1 and 2 thousand. Sometimes way less, sometimes a bit more.
So, let me tell you... my brother was totally out to lunch. The days that had the lowest step counts were travel days...and they were over ten thousand. I checked my phone for the count and lots of times it was up around 14 to 15 thousand. And of course, I was the only one in the crowd that had a really tough time doing it.
Even worse than the walking though was the standing around. It wasn't unusual for Adam, the tour guide, to stop lots, and spend twenty minutes giving us history lessons. I cannot stand. So I would either find a place to sit (like on a lion statue head, or spit laden ledges, or low walls that moms had held their toddlers over so they could pee) or I would go to the back of the crowd and pace back and forth. It was a pretty painful trip...one I would do over in a Shanghai second!!!
The first day was probably the most walking day. The buses do not park near the venues...ever. We always ended up walking a mile to get to where we needed to go.
So we were dropped off, walked a mile, past Tianenmen Square, which was closed due to security reasons due to the Chinese conferences. We stopped in a restaurant along the way for lunch and then continued on to the Forbidden City. I have been through the city twice before but I learned a lot more about it this time, thanks to Adams relentless lectures! There were a ton of steps, but lots of places to perch. My awesome sister helped me find places all along the way. In fact my awesome sister looked after me a lot through the whole trip. She is one amazing person.
We then marched back to our bus and drove for an hour to a Peking duck restaurant....which turned out to be the worst restaurant we encountered on the whole trip. Nothing more disappointing than flaccid duck skin and dirty glasses!
Anywhoo...that was the first full day in Beijing. I realized I would have to be more judicious about the amount of walking I would be doing. I would have to swallow my embarrassment and stay behind sometimes. I have to do something about this. I am tired of being the fat one that can't do it. Only I can fix that.
My days and nights are all mixed up. I slept all day yesterday! I was up all the night before, wide awake. So I got up at five, showered and unpacked and put a ton of stuff away. Got the laundry going. Then at eight I went and picked up Wrangler. He was shocked to see me and then so happy he was squealing! Its so good to have him back here.
When I got back home with him I lay down in my kitchen chair and fell sound asleep for hours and hours. I would wake up, all groggy, let the dog out, and go back to sleep. Right now its six in the morning. I have been up for hours. Jeez! Jet lag (shovel list.) TTYL
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| ALL OVER CHINA THERE ARE OUTDOOR EXERCISE PARKS USED BY SENIORS |
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| KATHY AND CONNIE VISITING WHILST EXERCISING THEIR LEGS |
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| THEY ALSO DO OUTDOOR DANCING |
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| THEIR MUSIC SOURCE |
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| LECTURE TIME |
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| THE LOBBY I BIT IT IN |
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| IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY |
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| I LOVE THESE PROTECTIVE FIGURES ON THE ROOFS |
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| THE SAD FLACCID DUCK SKIN RESTAURANT |
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