By Dirk
Got up early this morning, because Trudy and Marijke have to be at the airport at 8 am for their flight to Ulaanbataar, the capital of Mongolia.
After a delicious breakfast, the two ladies leave for the airport by shuttle bus.
There Nico and Dirk are, all alone in the midst of 25 million Beijingers.
Nico cleans up his hotel room and moves in with Dirk. At nine o’clock they leave for the center of Beijing together with the guides Paul and Tony.
The outside temperature is already around 20 degrees. According to our guide, this is the best time to visit Beijing. The weather will only get warmer.
There is Dirk with all his thermal underwear, hats and electrically heated gloves.
At 10 am we receive a message from Trudy and Marijke that they are on the plane.
We are going to the Summer Palace. It is extremely busy. All Chinese are off today because of a national holiday. Dirk is accosted several times by young Chinese who want to test their English.
After playing tourists for a few hours, we receive the message that the ladies have arrived in Ulaanbataar. That’s good for us; they are in Mongolia; now we still.
We had a photo with Mao on Tiananmen Square and our day couldn’t go wrong.
After a delicious lunch with noodle soup for Dirk and pie with vegetable filling for Nico, we went back to our hotel, crawling through the very busy traffic of Beijing.
Dirk takes a power nap and Nico goes to the hotel reception with his laptop. The internet connection is stronger there (he thinks). Ultimately, the connection to the hot spot on his phone appears to work better.