Monday 7th May
Sick all day in bed. Ate in the hostel bar. That's pretty much it for me.
Frank kept himself entertained by doing laundry - taken in and laundered by the hostel - then doing a little shopping, fruit, bread, water, more tissues for me (!) and sun bathing/reading Stephen King's 'Thinner' on the roof terrace, chatting to the hostel owner, then 'Mary Berry' and generally watching the world go by.

Tuesday 8th May
Rested, we were up early for breakfast at 7am. Frank had an 'American breakfast' and I had a 'Swiss Breakfast' both came with toast and jam. It set us up for the day. The owner came in checked us off and lead us out to a small mini bus. We got front seats... in China that's an adventure all of its own! Watching the rush hour build, scooters doing what they liked and drivers doing 3 point turns on dual carriage main roads. Yes that happens... a lot. With a population of 21.7 million what would you expect? Then, barely 5 miles into Beijing the driver pulled over next to a coach - where our guide Tony beckoned us on and checked our hostel names. We picked up 2 more groups of people, then trundled on out of the capital toward Mutianyu. It didnt feel like we went that far before the scenery became more and more rural, a man herding goats in the slow lane, more and more farmed fields pass us by. Yet the same amount of dust remains. Then the mountains rise up before us green, jagged and beautiful with a blue sky to frame them. And if you looked carefully you could see a thin light grey line trickerling across the top of them...The Great Wall! Hopping off the bus we had to keep up with Tony - no shopping or eating there, we think it's a tourism agreement that all coaches have to stop infront of a section of shops and resturants. But not our Tony's tour, we hastily keep up and board our coach again. A few minutes later we arrrive at a restaurant car park (where our lunch was included) and near the foot of the cable car up to the 14th Tower. You can walk up to Tower 10, we were told, and make your way to the 21st Tower where the newer wall ends and the older wall begins. Starting from Tower 10 you would have to hike up for 40 minutes or take the cable car. We would have 3 hours on the wall then we were to met back at the resturant for lunch. Knowing Frank hates heights, including cable cars, I was setting my mind to the hike upwards.

"Right we'll do the cable car. It's once in a lifetime thing, so..."

Okey dokey!

In the cable car we were joined by Phelim, a follow Irishman who we met before we left the hostel. Frank focused on the converstion about Gaelic Football with him, rather than the ride up. We clambered out and hiked the few steps up onto The Wall, almost disorientated by the height and curve and the sense of achievement having reached this magnificent sight. Phelim took our picture, and we his, then we headed off. Needless to say our cameras clicked soo many times. Every bit of it was amazing. The veiw stretched on for miles into the haze. It truly is a feat of man, hard enough to protect and fight from but just imagining how near impossible it must have felt to build. We pushed on to see if we could reach the old wall, which looked to be a fair ol' climb. The air being fresher and given the excitement of where we were, I felt good to go for it.

It took just over an hour, after climbing the first set of steep and uneven steps you then reach the last set which were more like a ladder than a stairway. You have to pretty much climb it on your belly! Once at the top of the newer wall (refurbished/rebuilt in the 1980's) we took in the veiw once more. There was even a rather enthusiastic woman with a stall at the top wanting to sell you coke, cold beer (!) something...anything! Strange place to have a stall I suppose, there were others along the way, but I'm sure many have been grateful. She was also selling magnets. A-ha. An ideal buy we thought - cue a bit of haggling and we got one. We scaled over a part of the wall to climb the older wall. If we had thought the earlier journey was steep, this was ridiculous! Frank was ready, having clambered up the first few steps, I, on the third step however, was reminded of a recuring nightmare of being stuck in such a place. Feeling like we had genuilely gone well and far enough we scaled down.

A little while later we were back on the cable car, downwards this time, Frank had an easier time of it than earlier. An Indonesian father and daughter were in there. Chatting she said she wanted to go to Manchester as she is a Man United fan, Lukaku being her favourite player.

Lunch was provided in Mr. Wongs resturant. Tony was there to wave us in to two big 10 seater Lazy Suzan tables. We were sat with some of the others who were on the coach earlier. There was a couple from Utah, 2 girls from London, another couple - he was from Austraila and she was from Texas and a lad from France. Everyone sussed Frank's accent, but curiously I was asked where in Australia I was from (this wasn't the first time this had happened) by the Texan girl. Anyway, we all exchanged travel stories, where we had been, where we were heading, what to look out for, it all made for great conversation. The feast we had too was mighty and spicy.

Back on the bus and it wasn't long before the lot of us were dozing away the heat and excitement of the day and the Beijing traffic jam.

In the hostel during dinner we resolved to once again take it easy the next day and that we both get a rest.