5 Days in Paris!

We just got back from spending 5 days in Paris and boy are we tiered! Information overload coupled with 6 hours of driving each way. We would have loved to have taken the train but it was way more expensive and the timing just was not convenient :(
My husband brings me fantastic news! We were 200 Euro under budget :) Money to spend on another vacation, yippee!!

Our first two nights were spent at the Ibis Budget in San Cyr, which is quite close to Versailles. We had a huge room with 5 beds but everything else was very basic. There was a micro-wave oven in the lobby area and we took our kettle with us. In fact we traveled with a whole heap of food because we prefer to take sandwiches for lunch and have cereal for breakfast in our room. This decision is two fold. Firstly, of course, it is cheaper to take your food with you than to eat out and secondly it is way faster. We've spent many a lunch time trying to find a restaurant within our budget that serves vegetarian food, and other than in China we've been mostly unlucky. That's why after we vacationed in Barcelona 2 years ago we always take our food with us. Then when ever we are hungry we sit down and eat our lunch. This time we also carried two IKEA bags with us so we could sit down even when the benches were damp!

Here is my Google map in case you find it useful:

Day 1:

We drove into Versailles on our first morning and found ourselves some parking under the Cathedral. We wanted to park on the street, as one website suggested, but the meters would not take our debit cards nor cash for more than two hours. That was certainly not going to be enough. I had pre-purchased the tickets so we didn't have to wait in line but that was not such a problem because it was POURING WITH RAIN! On the one hand we were totally bummed out that we might not get to see the gardens, on the other hand we were overjoyed that the lines were not too long. We first visited the palace which was amazing. So extravagant and shiny but on the other hand sad that there were so many people going hungry while the kings lived in such luxury.

Inside Versailles. Notice the Crowds!

We took a couple of hours to see the main palace and despite the rain it was still packed. The tour groups pushed and shoved to get the best places and to keep up with their tour guides. Our kids even got shoved which was really annoying. This is the down side of Versailles. I can but imagine what it must be like on a beautiful summers day.

The Gardens after the Rain

After our picnic lunch we headed towards the gardens, because guess what, it had stopped raining and the sun was poking through. We had a lovely walk down to Marie Antoinettes little palace. No crowds or tour groups down there. Wonderfully calm, lots of time to enjoy. I really loved her kitchen, but then I'm a kitchen person. I wish I had a nice sturdy table like that and so much space. Oh and I think I'd like the maids that go with it to do all the chopping and stirring! This palace/house was our favourite place. We think it was mainly because of the lack of crowds.

We were amazed at the pulley system that was designed to cover the windows of Marie Antoinetts parlour with mirrors. I'm guessing it was for privacy. You can see the system from the room adjoining the kitchen, and the mirrors in the room above. Quite ingenious.

Notice the Lack of Crowds!

We stopped by the long lake and watched people practicing to row and swans swimming and flying over head in the bright sunlight.

Then we headed back to the hotel to watch TV and have some instant noodles for dinner.

Day 2:

Early the next day we headed out to our next hotel which was closer to Paris and very close to a RER station. Then armed with a 3 day train/metro pass we headed towards the Eiffel Tower for which we had bought advanced tickets for 2 pm.

We got to the Trocadero metro station and walked through the Jardins du Trocadero. My oh my what mayhem! There were people everywhere trying to take the perfect picture of their friends with the Eiffel Tower. Some supporting it, some holding it up by the tip. We had such fun watching them and since our girls didn't quite understand what their parents were cracking up over, we took a picture of them supporting the tower from either side! Oh it was such fun!! Then of course there were the people trying to sell Eiffel Towers. There were so many of them. 3 for a Euro, 4 for a Euro, 5 for a Euro! Why would I want so many Eiffel Tower key chains? Lord only knows.

The Eiffel Tower and Rain Clouds!

What we really wanted to see were the fountains but they were not sprouting much water. We sat down beside them and had our lunch. We were in for a treat! The fountains don't all go off at the same time. They are synchronized. We got to see the whole cycle and took a lot of pretty pictures (of which only one is here).

The Tower Behind the Fountain

But even with all this we were too early for the tower so we went to investigate the Quai Branly Museum. Truely a gem. The best place to while away your time while waiting to see the Eiffel Tower. And guess what... they had 3 (or was it 5) Sri Lankan masks on display. Although I must say they were very poorly carved specimens. Yes, they were over a 100 years old but the art of carving back then was highly developed. It looked like what they used to sell the tourists on the streets in the 80's.

One Facade of the Quai Branly Museum

No problems leaving the museum and coming back in, just hold onto your ticket! Back at the tower the kids bought some small Eiffel towers just before the vendor got chased by the police. That was a lot of fun and excitement!

Up the tower we went all the way to the second floor and then on to the top. Although we missed the line at the bottom we still had to line up for the elevator to the top. There is more than one line so take a look around before you join one, it could just save you a whole heap of time. Once at the top we looked out on the whole of Paris. It was a wonderful view. I'm so glad that the city decided not to allow buildings to be too tall. It would have spoiled it's charm if there had been high rises everywhere. Round and round we walked pointing out all the points of interest to the kids.

Where We Came From

Arc de Triomphe

Then back into line to get the elevator down to the second floor and to take a look around. Not much of interest so due to pressure from our children we walked down the steps to the first floor. It wasn't that bad of a walk and it was interesting to see the levers and pulleys that moved the elevators up and down the legs.

On the first floor we again found nothing much of interest except maybe the glass floor. The girls were first scared to walk on it but then they decided to jump up and down on it and scare their mother! And finally after another long wait for the elevator we found our way to the bottom. I do advise that unless you have a problem with your knees or a heart condition you should really try to walk down. You will save a LOT of time!

We were so battered by the wind that we craved for a hot cup of tea. Remembering that the museum had a cafe we headed back to it. Oh my were we in for a shock, 5 Euro 10 for a cup of tea! You must be kidding me. It cost the same as a cup of hot chocolate. And you're thinking well it must have been really good tea but I can assure you it was probably just a tea bag. We walked one block back towards the tower and checked out the prices in a couple of cafe's there. Nothing under 4 Euros. That would mean for us to sit down and drink something would cost a total of 16 Euro, now that was way beyond our budget so we popped into a small supermarket (corner of Rue de l'Universite and Avenue de la Bourdonnaise) and bought some biscuits and string cheese instead. Still over priced but affordable.

By and by we discovered that tea was just that expensive in Paris. The cheapest tea we found was at Starbucks for 3 Euro 25 but that was after we bit the bullet and sat down in a cafe to have a cup of tea (Lipton tea-bag nonetheless for over 4 Euro).

The rest of the afternoon/evening we spent in the museum after which we had dinner at one of the cafe's just by the supermarket. Nothing spectacular, but it was getting late and we wanted to see the illuminated Eiffel Tower, which we managed to do. Unfortunately, I missed the flashing fairy lights. The girls saw them from the restaurant but I didn't bother to turn around to see them because I thought they would continue flashing. But as it turns out they don't and from logical deduction we deduced that they only blink on the hour.

Day 3:

The Louvre, one just has to go there. I'd read everywhere about the crowds and the lines but maybe because of the weather or because it was October the lines were not that long. We did take some advice and enter through the subway and there was hardly any line getting through security. To buy tickets you just need to keep your eyes open. There were 4 counters, in the four corners of the room selling tickets and one had a long line. The others had no line at all. Everyone just tends to follow everyone else. So we got our tickets immediately.

Under the Glass Pyramid

Our first stop, the Mona Lisa. I remembered the stairs going up to the exhibit from when I was 8, that was kind of cool. The hall was packed. We felt like we were back in China. Not only because it was packed but also because it was mainly packed with Chinese tour groups. We watched the Mona Lisa's roving eyes as they followed us from one side of the room to the other and then went on to see some other paintings. My youngest and I were rather bored with the paintings which were either violent or with nude people. I like more scenery and my daughter more animals, flowers and fruit. So we walked rather quickly through the exhibits.

Crowds Around the Mona Lisa

Then we walked down to see the statues, in particular that of the slave by Micheal Angelo, and then out to have a picnic in the shade of the great glass pyramid. Back inside we decided to go to the Egyptian section with the intent of seeing Mesopotamian as well. This area of the museum was void of tour groups and in some rooms we were the only people. We managed one level of the Egyptian section and then were pooped. It was 2:30 and we could not go on anymore. The input was just too much. I think you could spend a whole week at this museum and not see everything in detail.

A Mummy

We dragged ourselves back to the metro station and on the way one child announced that they had to pee! We followed the signs in the underground mall to the toilets and found that it cost 1.50 to pee! You must be kidding me, I would not let my child go alone to the toilet so I'd have to spend 3 Euro just to pee. Well I gave the guy 2 Euro and pretended to be confused so he gave me the mother/child deal although my kid was pretty big. The toilets were spotless with little displays of all the things you could buy in the little toilet boutique. Like the coloured toilet paper and the toilet paper stand that would set you back by 155 Euro!! An experience well not worth paying for.

We metroed over to "Le Jardin du Luxembourg" to get some fresh air and relax. There was a huge playground that I can totally recommend even though my kids found it beneath themselves to play on it. Instead we sat on a park bench, munched on chocolate croissants and watched some amateurs play tennis. Then we headed over to the statue of the statue of liberty and watched some teenage girls taking pictures in front of it posing with pink plastic Disney cups as the flame and handbags as the book! Was amazingly entertaining.

After this we went back to our hotel, ate some instant mash potatoes with a spinach paneer curry, watched a movie and ate popcorn.

Day 4:

Time for the churches. We first went to Notre Dame where it didn't really feel like a place of worship. It was huge and the sculpting was amazing but there were just too many people. Too many people ignoring the signs of "silence", "no flashes" and "devotees only". We opted not to go to the treasure chamber and I over heard a guide telling her flock that they should not waste their money to go inside. The only things of importance in there were the body of some saint and the thorn crown that Jesus wore when he was crucified and that could only be seen once a month and hundreds came every month to see it. So I guess we did the right thing. We also didn't climb the towers. For one, the main bell could not be viewed due to renovations and two I was not doing very well with the stairs and would have had to stay at the bottom while the other three went up. These things together made my husband decide that he didn't want to go up either. And yes it might have also had something to do with the crowds and the drizzle.

Although we had Sainte-Chapelle on our itinerary we decided not to visit it and opted to catch the nearby RER to Sacre-Coeur. At the very bottom of the hill we stopped at a playground to have lunch and then headed upwards. There was a market at the top which was nice but it did take away any churchly atmosphere from the exterior and it turned the church steps into a garbage dump. But inside it was very nice. Nice and calm and not too many people jabbering. However, many people were ignoring the signs not to take pictures. But that made it easy to get to see things because I don't have any qualms walking in front of someone who is taking a picture in a place where they are not supposed to!

Outside the church we bought some macaroons and stared at the people eating snails! It's the first time I've tasted shop bought macaroons. They are always so expensive so we thought we'd gotten a deal at 10 Euro for 12.  Unfortunately, I must say, that I was not impressed. I thought they would taste different. And they certainly don't warrant the exorbitant pricing.

Then we found ourselves a cafe to sit in and had a cup of overpriced tea. Lipton at that, the same tea bag that was provided by the hotel for free! Oh well at least we got to use the toilets!! A quick walk down the hill took us past the Moulin Rouge whose dinner tickets were selling for 200 Euro and up. No, we were not going to go in there, just take a few pictures.

Moulin Rouge

We had so much time left over that we decided to go to little Africa to catch some dinner. It was most interesting. It reminded us of the China town in San Francisco but with an African atmosphere. Unfortunately the restaurants didn't open until 7 pm and it was only 4 so we decided to go back to the hotel and get some food around there, taking in La Defense on the way. Now that is some big, crazy building. We sat in it's shadow and snacked on twix bars and oreo cookies (or at least generic versions of them!).

Then we headed back and waited for the restaurants to open. The girls voted to eat Indian food so we went to this place http://restaurant-indien.miam.fr/ the food was delicious! It was extra creamy just like we love our Indian food and reminded us of the food we used to eat in East Lansing when we went to Sindhu's. The service was great and the tea... well it didn't cost 4 Euro's and it was BREWED. No tea bags here!

Day 5:

It was Sunday, time to pack up and go home but not without first driving round the Arc de Triomphe.

Yes, we drove one and half times around the Arc and pretended to be stuck in traffic! Given that it was Sunday morning and raining there was no traffic to speak of, but one can always pretend! And we even found free street parking so that we could go walking down the Champs-Elysees. We didn't find the Champs-Elysees too interesting. My husband said it had changed since he was last there (don't ask how long ago that was!). There are hoards of tourists and over priced cafe's. Yes, tea was even more expensive here. And I really don't see the point. Most people were carrying bags from places like H&M and Gap. Really, you don't have to go to Paris to shop at this type of store. I thought Champs-Elysees only had expensive stores and although I did see the stores I rather think that any decent Parisian would shop elsewhere for their expensive attire.

Well at least there was a "Paul"s which is where we've been buying our baguette the past 3 days. The line was long but I suppose it's because it was the cheapest place to get some food.

We drove back home, stopping on the way at a rest area to have our baguette with the left over spreads and junk food. And oh my! Look at the price of tea... it's only 2 Euro!!!

Xi'an

Oh today is my lucky day! I've been waiting for so long to get to this post but I had to get through Hangzhou first which was difficult. I think it has something to do with the fact that there was no good food associated with it!!

The old town of Xi'an is compact and quaint. Yes, there are lots of people but you should be used to that by now! And the main attractions is... the FOOD (Ah! And you thought it had something to do with terracotta warriors, didn't you?). Oh I so wish that we had stayed longer so that I could have eaten more.

Getting Around:

There are plenty of options here. As usual there are taxi's everywhere but they might not take you if you are not travelling for a long enough distance. There is a subway that runs north south but if you have luggage it's not the easiest to get to from the old train station, which is where the sleeper trains arrive. The high speed trains come into a different station further north of town and this station is hooked up to the subway. The buses are not crowded and are pretty easy to use.

Of course you are here to see the terracotta warriors which are on the outskirts of Xi'an so you'll need to either take the bus or hire a taxi to go there. There are air conditioned buses that leave from the old train station and they are very comfortable and reasonably priced. Read about our experience for some insider tips on catching the bus :)

Hotel:

We stayed at the Jiahe Hotel which goes under many different names!! That totally confused me and I was really worried that I might have been hoodwinked. The reason is, that just like in Shanghai, Expedia has the hotel positioned incorrectly on the map! This 陕西省西安市碑林区南大街4F伊莎美尔美容院, cut and paste into Google maps, will give you the correct location.
The hotel was nice and clean. The staff were grumpy when they were busy but otherwise they were helpful. They spoke English, which was nice. Don't take the breakfast the other alternatives are fantastic and cheap.
Our room looked something like this (without the couch, with a dinning table by the window and two double beds):

The windows are thin and don't quite close properly so there is a bit of noise from the street. A great price for four people, plenty of space and the best location ever. During our stay we only used motorized transport to get to and from the train station.

Day 12

So arriving refreshed and well slept in Xi’an we decided to catch a taxi to our hotel. It proved to be a challenge even with the address written in Chinese and my husband speaking the language (albeit brokenly). Most of the drivers claimed to not know where it was. We think that the hotel was just too close by and they wanted to get a better hire. This seemed to be a common problem all across China and it only got worse when we got to Beijing. Finally we found someone who was willing to take us and he was really nice. The hotel we stayed at is in an area that is difficult to access with a taxi (at least not without driving around in circles) so we were dropped off on the main road and pointed in the right direction. We had no idea where we were supposed to go and could not figure out where the front door was to the hotel. The best thing to do is to walk around the big shopping mall on the corner and eventually you will see it since it looks out onto the mall (or alternatively inform yourself before you go by pasting the Chinese address above into an online map).

Of course we were too early so our rooms were not ready so we left our bags at the reception and went out to explore. First of all we walked south along the main north-south road, appropriately named "south road" on the southern side of the bell tower.  A short walk brought us to the city walls and gate. On one side was a small side street with loads of shops selling calligraphy stuff. At the beginning of the street we picked up some noodles and tofu for lunch from a friendly street vendor. Be careful almost all the food in Xi’an is hot. And when I say hot I mean HOT! Ask for no chili … it will still be hot.

We took our noodles up to the city walls and ate under the only patch of trees on the wall overlooking the courtyard.

From here we had a nice view of everything. If you are lucky you might get to see an enactment of how people were greeted in years gone by when they entered the courtyard. My husband saw it last time he was in Xi’an but we did not. It’s apparently a bit like Disney Land and my husband thinks that it’s performed when the big tourist buses pull in.

After walking around a bit we decided to rent bikes and bike to the Northern gate. This was not as easy as it seemed because the office we first went to would not rent us bikes because our kids were too young. The minimum age is 10 years and although our eldest is 10 she does not look it. We were a bit bummed and wondered what we could do. We finally decided that my husband would go to the rental office on the other side of the gate and try to rent two tandem bikes. This was not a problem. With the kids and me not in sight they were happy to rent him two bikes. We left our 8 year old on a bench and told her to wait there until we had picked up the bikes. Neither of our two had a problem riding on the backs of the bikes. In fact they peddled way too fast for me and I had to keep shouting at them to stop pedaling, but I’m not too good at riding a bike.

We biked around the west side and stopped along the way to take in the old buildings inside the wall, which was an amazing contrast to the skyscrapers just outside the wall that stretched as far as the eye could see. 

Half way around there is a decent toilet which was welcome. We handed our bikes in at the north gate and headed down to the main street. We now had the option of taking the subway, catching a bus, or walking back to the hotel. We chose to stay out and walk back passing by the Muslim quarter on the way.

It’s a pretty long walk but don’t fear you cannot get hungry or thirsty along the way. There are so many cool places to buy food. We stopped at a place on a side road and got some bakery type stuff. We got a couple of large cookie like things and some bread like stuff. It was delicious. At that point we were wondering if it would be possible to go back to the place to get some more. This thought did not last long as we past a small shop that was making bread in a tandoori oven. This stuff not only looked delicious but it also tasted delicious. We bought a bread, sprinkled with sesame seeds, straight out of the oven. Oh! So delicious that my mouth is watering right now. 

On Maixian Street parallel to North Street

Our next culinary stop was at a sweet store where I bought a box of candied peanuts, sesame and goodness knows what else. Again delicious (on Beiyuanmen St.). Our journey continued and we walked along a small side street to get to the mosque. We had an off-line map to help us navigate our way there. There were so many side roads and so much to take in that we would have otherwise been lost. I was told it was a small mosque so we would not take long to look it over. The walk to it was amazing. There were so many cool looking things to eat. So many that we could not stuff in our bellies. We decided to come back and sample everything for dinner. Especially the crisps (chips) on a stick.

The mosque turned out to be anything but small! It was delightful to walk around the gardens and see the mixture of the cultures. Naturally Chinese culture was the dominant one. 

After the mosque we walked out towards the drum tower and back to our hotel so that we could check in. The bazaar between the mosque and the drum tower is very touristy and was not to our liking so we took a side street to get away from it and out into the open. At the hotel we were finally able to check in. The lady at the desk was really apologetic to us because they didn't have the room that we had booked. So she asked if we would mind terribly if we were given an upgrade!!! Of course we were devastated at the thought of a free upgrade!!

After settling in we headed out for dinner. We went back to Beiyuanmen St. where things were now bustling. And oh I can't even list all the things we tasted while walking down the street. 

Making Peanut Brittle

Quail Eggs on a Stick

Some Type of Candy

Stretching the Candy

Something Like Pittu

Tofu

Oh shoot! We didn't get to take a picture of the crisps on a stick. They were consumed too quickly!

Once we had walked the whole block plus more we were soooo stuffed. And not just stuffed, we also had bags with food in them. Wonderfully flavourful fried stuff, which we munched for days. Even though they lost their initial taste they were still good a couple of days later.

We were pooped and headed back to our hotel stopping only for a couple of photos of the illuminated bell tower.

 Day 13:

The next morning we were up early to make the trek out to see the famous warriors. My husband went out and purchased breakfast and lunch for us from a hole in the wall place (or should I say open air place) around the corner. The kids dinned on sesame balls and long doughnuts that we haven’t had since we left San Francisco. Everyone was in heaven. We packed up some vegetarian dumplings for lunch along with the left over goodies from last night and off we went. We asked at the front desk which bus to take to the train station and it turns out it stops right outside the hotel on the main road. Fantastic, it was a double decker bus! 

The terminal stop was the train station where the buses to the warriors leave. We crossed the road, went under the city walls and turned right. There was a long line but my husband had been here the year before on a conference and said the bus stop was quite far away. So we assumed that this line (which was worse than any Disney Land line I have ever seen) was for something else. However, as we got closer and closer to the bus stop we realized that we were wrong. This line was indeed to get to the warriors. Not willing to wait for so long we wondered up towards the private buses that were waiting for passengers. The first lady tried to sell us seats to all the sights and probably some shops too but when we explained that we ONLY wanted to see the warriors she pointed us to some other buses. We went over, confirmed that that is where they were going and got in. The bus was full of locals and I just hope we did not jump the line. The price was fractionally higher than what our guide book quoted but well worth not having to stand in that long line.

The ride was exciting with the bus driver bumping into another bus. Luckily he only lost his side mirror. Then the bus broke down!! Great we thought, but they were so, so nice. The bus conductor, who was female, apologized profusely and got out with us to take the next bus. The next bus was full but we all agreed that it would be better to stand the short way to the warriors in the air conditioned bus than to stand in the scalding heat waiting for the next. And who knows the next one might be full too.

Finally we arrived at the bus stop and took the long walk through the hawkers to the ticket counter. Again there were long lines that moved very quickly. Something that might be useful is that they had a large counter opposite the ticket counter for storing large luggage. This might be useful to know if you go to the warriors straight from the train, which was initially our plan but we didn’t know about the luggage storage.

You can either walk to the warriors or you can take an electric car. The electric car ride is very short and the walk is very long. Of course they make you walk a long way past all kinds of shops. Being on a budget we walked. Starving by the time we got through the first gate we stopped under some trees to eat our lunch. It didn’t seem common to picnic here. I thought that someone would come at any moment and tell us to get off the grass. But they didn’t. The only problem was the mosquitoes that smelled fresh blood and started to swarm around us. But we were ready for that and first sprayed ourselves with repellent.

After lunch we headed out to see the warriors. And I’ll just post some photos because there is not much to say except that they are truly amazing!!

Back to the bus and back to Xi’an. In Xi'an finding the bus back to the hotel was easy, it starts its route exactly where it stops it. This would have been useful for us to know (that’s why I’m putting it here!). Back at the hotel we refreshed ourselves and headed out for dinner. My husband had discovered a small hole in the wall noodle place last time he was in town so we went back there for dinner. The great thing was that you could pick what you wanted them to put in the soup. My girls were ecstatic: lots of thick noodles and tofu and NOTHING else, please. The cook was a bit perturbed by their orders but none the less he made the soup exactly as they said and they gobbled it all up. The whole adult sized portion! You could go in and sit inside but we preferred to sit on the side walk on the other side of the road on tiny little plastic stools. It was definitely an experience and the food was good too. Hot and fresh.

The Store on MaiXian St. (Cross Street: Dapiyuan)

Outdoor Seating across the Road (Indoor Seating also Available)

The Cooker

Enjoying the Noodle Soup

After dinner we had promised ourselves ice cream. We discovered this ice cream place the day before but were too full to eat any so we went there after dinner. Oh my, what heavenly ice cream. It was delicious and the flavours were from produce all around the province (okay there were some others too). The smallest portion was two scoops and they were big scoops. One topping of your choice comes with the ice cream and, get this, a cup of hot tea. I so wish we could have stayed longer but I had to find a toilet and they didn’t have one L

That was it for the day. Tiered and full we fell into bed.

Day 14:

Today was bell tower and drum tower day. We still hadn’t seen them! We managed to see both of the shows. The bell tower one was packed and although we could hear the musicians we could not see them. The drum tower was set up with a huge space at the front of the stage where all the kids went and sat. And the drumming, my it was wonderful. One of the lead drummers was female which we really enjoyed. The kids had a ball and listened intently standing at the side of the stage. Well worth watching. A pleasure to both the ear and the eye.

By now we had done all the usual sightseeing and the question was “what to do next?” If we’d been without kids we would have gone to see some more temples but the kids needed some time off. So we went to a mall that had an indoor ice rink on the topmost floor. The ice was not well kept but it was still a lot of fun. The room was not cold either. After skating around we went to find lunch. 

Being really hungry and a bit grumpy we took the first decently priced restaurant that we could find. It was not our type of place. All the staff were dressed up like 1950’s in Chicago, there were fairly lights all over the ceiling, the décor was all white, glass and chrome and the clientele looked all filthy rich. When we saw how over staffed they were we were rightly worried about how long the food would take to get to us. But it was still decent by European standards. The food was good but a bit pricey.

Leaving here we went to dunking doughnuts for dessert, walked around the streets a bit and did a bit of shopping at the lower end places (or at least our kids did). Then we picked up our packs from the hotel and headed to the train station to catch our train to Beijing, stocking up on noodle soup on the way.

Home-made Granola

My husband eats muesli almost every morning for breakfast. Unfortunately the kids and I don't touch it. "Unfortunately" because it is extremely good for you but I just can't swallow it and prefer my overly sugared, easily digestible, cereals instead. There is one thing we all eat and that is granola. Unfortunately (again) it is difficult to get good granola here in Germany. When you can get it, it has one of the following problems: it contains desiccated coconut (yuck!), it contains chocolate chunks (not for breakfast, no way!) or it is extremely expensive. So once we moved to Germany I had to start making granola at home. I haven't made it recently and I don't know why because it is very simple to make. But the muesli ran out yesterday and my hubby needs his fiber. [If you are wondering what happened today, well it was a public holiday so we had toast and fried eggs instead of cereal!]

So I made some this afternoon and figured I would share the recipe. Now I didn't come up with this recipe myself. The initial version was copied from a website and I no longer know which one so I can't cite it. But I think I've changed the recipe enough that it would be okay to post it again.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (300 g)	Brown Sugar
1/2 cup (150 ml)	Water
2 tsp	Vanilla Extract
1 tsp	Salt
8 cups (800 g)	Oats
1 cup	Sunflower Seeds
300 g	Sliced Almonds
200 g	Dried Cranberries

Method:

Set your fan oven to 120°C (conventional oven around 140°C / 280°F)

First mix together the brown sugar, water, vanilla and salt in a microwavable bowl. Some times I don't have brown sugar, or am frankly too stingy to pay the price for it. So instead I use white sugar with a teaspoon of "Goldsaft" which is something like molasses. You can use any type of syrup to make your sugar brown. If you are in Sri Lanka you could use coconut treacle, for example.

Stir a bit to combine and then put the bowl in the microwave and heat for 3 minutes. (Alternatively you could do this on a stove top.)

While the mixture is heating measure out the oats, sunflower seeds and the almonds, put them in a large mixing bowl and combine. In actual fact it does not matter what type of nuts you use. I could imagine that cashew nuts would taste wonderful as probably would peanuts. It's all a matter of taste and availability. This time I didn't have the usual sliced almonds but instead I had chopped almonds and some walnuts so that is what will be in our granola. You also don't have to worry too much about how much you put it. It is really all a matter of taste.

Carefully take your bowl out of the microwave and stir until all the sugar etc. is dissolved.

Then pour it over your oat nut mixture and mix till well combined.

Then spread the oats equally onto two baking trays lined with parchment paper. You can skip the parchment paper if you like, you will just have more to clean up. I don't think the oats will stick to your baking sheet. Make sure everything is evenly spread so that you ensure that your granola is crunchy

and stick it in the oven for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes take out the trays, one at a time, and mix (turn) the granola so that it gets evenly  baked. Bake for a further 45 until crisp.

While the granola is baking chop the cranberries because they are a bit too big. Again like the nuts you can use any type of dried fruits for the granola. I had a half finished bag of cranberries and one of raisins so that is what went in today.

Once the granola is done, mix in the dried fruit and it is ready to eat. I can't tell you how long it keeps, we finish it within a week but I'm guessing you can keep it longer :)

Hangzhou - Day 9, 10 and 11

The ride to the islands confused us a bit. There are many places to hire boats. We got off at the Longxiangqiao (龙翔桥站) subway station and walked over to the river (passing the Gucci store!). The best one to take is the really fancy air-conditioned one that will take you to the island. What we didn't realize is that this is the ONLY fancy boat and it just goes to the island and back to the shore. It doesn't do a round trip.



Each route is run by different boats and they basically go back and forth. They also leave the island in different places. So wherever you arrived (unless you want to go back where you came from) is not where you need to catch the next boat. In the middle of the island is a place to buy food and drinks.

Don’t forget to see the reflecting moon thingy’s. Not much to look at but just don’t miss them.

The island is actually really pretty and it's a very nice walk around with lots of opportunities for nice photographs. You can also see the whole perimeter of the lake so its good to get a good orientation. For example, one of the pagoda's we wanted to see turned out to be on the top of a hill and because of the hill and the fact that the pagoda looked like all other pagoda's we decided not to visit it!

Catch the boat to north-western corner of the lake and visit the Quyuan Gardens. They are bounded by the lake, Beishan Rd. and Yanggongdi Rd. We were going to go here but didn't have time. I'll definitely go next time because it looks like a really beautiful place to visit especially in the summer.

You can then head back to Beishan Rd. and go and visit the Yuewang Temple. We enjoyed roaming around in this place although it does look like many of the other temples in China!

And of course my favourite photograph that I now use as a background on my smart phone:

All of this should be enough to fill up your day! But if it's not there are always the shopping malls to take in :)

Day 10:

I would suggest biking around the lake on day 10. That is what I had planned to do :( Was really ticked that I didn't get to do that especially since the girls had practiced AND they had kids bikes for rent. 

There are oodles of things to see around the lake, like:
Orioles Singing in the Willows 杭州--柳浪闻莺
Hangzhou Underwater World 杭州海底世界
Chinese Silk Museum 中国丝绸博物馆 (I really wanted to go and see this one)
Leifeng Xizhao (a pagoda on top of a hill)
Jingci Temple
Taiziwan Park
Viewing Fish at Flower Pond 花港观鱼. 

And if you have any energy left take a trip to the China Tea Museum (88 Longjing Lu) and drink Hangzhou's most famous tea "dragon well".

Day 11:

Take time to chill before you catch the night train to Xi'an.

Catching the overnight train was relatively simple. We just had to get to the main train station and find the right waiting area. There was no good food or drink in the waiting area so make sure you get something before you go through security. We had decided to have instant noodles for dinner. These things are great, everyone eats them. You just buy a Styrofoam soup bowl, they are available absolutely everywhere, and then all you have to do is find hot water. This is not a problem in China. Every (train) car has a tap which serves you “scalding” water. So all you do is take your bowl to the tap, open the lid halfway (very important), remove the foldable fork, fill the bowl with adequate water and then close the lid using the fork to hold the lid down. If you've no idea how to do that just look at all the other peoples bowls and copy them. After 5 minutes or so you have yourself a hot meal albeit not so tasty.

You can see the noodle bowls in the bottom left hand corner!

Overall the train was great. The one problem we had was that people smoke in the train. It’s a non-smoking train but no one objects to people smoking between the carriages. The only problem with that is that the trains are sealed because they are fully air-conditioned. The smoke invariably seeped back down the corridor and into the compartment via the vent under the beds. Not nice but once you are asleep you might not even notice it! Once the staff had put the lights out, at around 9:30 pm, it was amazingly quiet. No more loud movies, chatting, or cell phones ringing. We were totally amazed and all slept relatively well.

And now on to Xi'an. Probably where we had the most fun of all :)