16 & 17 June 2014 -
Welcome to Xi'an!
Our flight was – gulp! – ON TIME. No seriously. I know you're shaking your head and tell me that's IMPOSSIBLE but I tell – it was. Really!
However, it's late. Our driver (whom I arranged via our guide we'll meet tomorrow) just dropped us off at the Bell Tower Hotel in Xi'an (this was after a nearly one hour drive from the airport). We're tired. It's close to midnight and these kids…and the adults!…need to get some sleep. Sadly, I didn't look at the check-in clerk's name tag when we first arrived. Otherwise I would have noticed that it said "Trainee" on it and I would have realized that check-in would take longer than expected. As it was I did NOT notice her name tag and I was got a wee bit frustrated just how long it took her to photocopy all of our passports…and then proceed to write down all of our China visa information on those photocopies. Except she got us all wrong (Lilly for Ava, etc). Argh! Why oh why can't you just make photocopies of our visas too? That way you'd get done with our check-in so much quicker! And this needing to copy down our visa information – that's new, isn't it??? I don't recall that being a requirement at any of the other numerous hotels we've stayed at in our travels around China. Always gotta change things up!
What's for breakfast???
Starbucks! That's what!
Since we had such a late arrive Michael, our tour guide, very thoughtfully chose 9am for our departure time from the hotel. Ready to go? It's about an hour drive to the Terra-cotta Warrior Museum (TWM). Oh, right…I think I forgot to tell you our plans for today: first stop – TWM (leaving the best pit for last), lunch, City Wall and then top things off with a visit to the Muslim Quarter.
Check out this extremely complicated Chinese character:It's supposedly the Chinese word for the noodle dish that is popular in this area. I want to try this dish! Anything that uses THAT many strokes to write the character has got to be good!!!!
We're at our first stop – the Terra-cotta Warrior Museum! So..Michael said that kids 16 years of age and younger were free. Umm….I guess not anymore. The guards took one look at Emily (who is taller than Dani but not THAT tall) and they assumed she was an adult. Thankfully Eric and Dani had her passport with them and could prove that she's only twelve years old. So…she had to get a half price ticket. Jeesh.
Finally, we're at the TWM!
Our guide, Michael, chatting with Dani:
This is one of the fun reasons I love exploring places with friends (even places I've previously visited)… Eric noticed this Evacuation Equipment Box in the first museum building we visited. I would have never noticed it if he hadn't pointed it out! There are water bottles… and gas masks inside this box. Eep.
And so…for the longest time I thought that archaeologists didn't know anything about the kilns that were used to build the actual Terra-cotta Warriors. Well, apparently that was the Great Misunderstanding of 2014 – because YES they DO know where the kilns were located. huh…:
You may have see this horse and carriage before:
The Archer; a perrenial favorite:
Each warrior is unique. You can tell their supposed military rank based on the clothing, hair-style, boots and chubbiness of each of the soldiers. The bigger the beer belly; the higher the rank. LOL. No, really!
Lilly seems to be wiped out from all this traveling business. :-)
On to pit #2:
And finally…the biggest and "baddest" for last!
And that, folks, is the Terra-cotta Warrior Museum!!!!
Time for lunch…we tried ordering those noodles (you remember the Chinese character we saw earlier today???) …but guess which dish didn't come out??? Yep, that one. And now we're heading to the City Wall. We're hoping we can rent bikes and bike around the entire wall.
The City Wall:
Yahoo!!!
After Michael worked some magic (meaning the "girls" at the rental check-out desk would barely lift a finger to help us. *sigh*) we were able to rent bicycles. Ava and I were on a tandem together as were Eric and Lilly:
Dani and Michael. Eric and Dani paid for Michael's bike rental:
Ha! I'm loving this tandem bike! Ava really wants to pedal…and I feel that if she wants to pedal then she SHOULD! I'm loving this relaxed form of biking. Aaaaaah….relaxing. This is lots of fun! And … hopefully she'll sleep soundly tonight from all this exercise!
After about a two hour bike ride – we did the entire thing. Ice creams for all the kids…and potty stop for all of us!
Now it's off to the Muslim Quarter.
Hey.
I just figured something out!
I had assumed that we missed the Muslim Quarter on our last visit to Xi'an but it turns out we DID see it. I'm not sure if you remember it…but I do…the fun shopping/food street we discovered (where we tried plum juice and found all sorts of nuts and dried fruits)…that IS the Muslim Quarter.
And here we are…trying plum juice! It's still as yummy as I remember it being!:
This place is a huge, bustling market. With lots of food vendors…
Anybody want a "Mariboro" cowboy hat???? (I'm 100% positive it's supposed to say Marlboro…LOL!):
Time for dinner! Eric and Dani convinced Michael to join us for dinner (at a restaurant he chose in the Muslim Quarter:
I'm loving Lilly's enthusiastic and happy smile!
Dani asked Michael all the questions I've been curious about but too afraid to ask (regarding China and Chinese culture). Awesome, Dani!:
Ooooooh….awesome dishes! My favorite were the small "pancakes" you filled with a hot pepper/ meat dish and the soup Annika ordered. Yum!
Emily, I adore your smile! Plus, I absolutely love your adventuresome spirit and your eagnerness to try all the dishes. AWESOME!:
Night-time in teh Muslim Quarter:
It's fun, vibrant and absolutely bustling with people…positively vibrating with activity!
The Drum Tower…all lit up. Isn't it gorgeous????:
Michael took our photo in front of the Bell Tower (just outside our hotel):
And here's the view from our room at night. Not a bad view!
After an amusing night's sleep (I could *swear* there was mouse trapped inside the walls next to my side of the bed – I heard chewing and rustling noises for most of the night. Aaaaaack!!!) it's time for breakfast at Starbucks…followed by a tour of the Bell Tower. Michael suggested (and I agree) we only do ONE of the towers (instead of both) and since the Bell Tower is next to our hotel – we went for that one!
Why is it called the Bell Tower?????
Here's your clue:
That's a BIG BELL!
And here you can see just how close our hotel is to the Bell Tower (with Dani and the kids posing for us):
And here's My Annika!
Inside the Bell Tower we listened to this Chinese music performance with all sorts of interesting Chinese instruments:
Short potty stop at the hotel…
And then off to do some souvenir shopping in the Muslim Quarter:
(Eric and Lilly checking out magnets)
Noah, Annika and Ava checking out another souvenir:
Nuts and dried fruits:
This cute, nice lady asked very kindly to have her photo taken with Ava. Thank you for asking so nicely!!!
And now it's time to head to the airport! We're flying off to Tianjin this afternoon.
After eating a lunch in the airport (after we got through security) the kids got ice cream. Lucky kids!
I think this photo would make an EXCELLENT advertisement for ice cream. Am I right or AM I RIGHT???? 🙂 (You KNOW I'm right!!!!):
And another wonderful blessing…flight was on time! Woohoo!!! I still can't believe we've managed to do so many sets of flights and not a single one of them was late. It's unreal! It's unheard of!!!!
Anyway…we're back home. Unpacking. And Dani has got ALL of our laundry in neat piles. Laundry is my un-doing…I will happily wash all the dishes – I just hate doing laundry!
Dani & Eric, thanks for everything!!!!!