A very lazy start to our day today--we relaxed, ate a late breakfast and left the hotel at almost 11 a.m. All that climbing and walking yesterday must have worn us out! Our plan for the day was to take the subway over to Beijing Olympic Park to see the Bird's Nest Stadium & Water Cube. I think the Bird's Nest is a beautifully designed masterpiece of architecture--so to see it in person was a treat for me. We walked around the Park, almost all the way ar...

Great Wall What a wonderful day we had today! Unlike yesterday's visit to The Forbidden City, this was one of those Travelin' Lundburys "BEST Travel Days Ever!" We had arranged for a local guide, Joe Qiao, to take us to the the Great Wall and the Summer Palace today. He picked us up at our hotel right at 8 a.m. for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. It was a nice drive out of the very smoggy city into the countryside, and Joe pointed out s...

Battle in Beijing! Even after our miles and miles of walking yesterday we were right back at it this morning. After a good nights sleep on the surprisingly comfy bed at our new hotel we ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant. After last nights awful dinner there, we normally wouldn't have risked it, but i's included with our room, so being the frugal travelers that we are, we gave it a try. We were very pleasantly surprised--it was a nice buffet with plenty ...

After another wonderful night sleeping in a soft bed, we checked out of our guesthouse and took a taxi over to our new hotel near The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We're pretty satisfied with our new "digs"--the location is much better than the guesthouse, but the room is soooo much smaller--we're kind of walking sideways around each other. But it's good enough for us--and it's free because we used points! We quickly unpacked a bit then headed out...

After a great nights sleep in the wonderfully soft bed here in our guesthouse, we had our usual breakfast at the guesthouse, and left for our walk to the subway about 9:30. We've been "saving" most of the big historical sights for a weekday visit in an attempt to avoid the big weekend crowds, so today we planned to visit a big hutong market and do some shopping at the Pearl Market. It was still crazy crowded! We'd planned our subway routes out befor...