Lazy Day

May 14

We wake up to a cold and rainy day, our first in quite a while, and a welcome sight for our weary souls.  We take advantage of the cozy weather and give ourselves permission to take it easy for a day. We were planning to visit the Great Wall today, but are glad that we postponed our plans for another time.  It is quite expensive to go there (around $50 per person) and we are trying to weigh our options in terms of the best location to visit and the best price for the tour.  We enjoy our new morning ritual of visiting the MacDonalds for coffee and are joined by Hudson and Sam for a biscuit and hot chocolate.   We return to the hotel and decide to knock out some life maintenence stuff like laundry.  We find a washer and dryer on the 4^th floor and proceed there with an armful.  While there we meet a nice Swiss guy named Chris who is super tall (6’7”) and we discuss going to the Great Wall together without the assistance of a tour group.  He has been traveling in China for the past 3 weeks and is up for the challenge.  We meet a little later on the 6^th Floor in the restaurant area and find that we can indeed take a local bus to the most scenic area of the wall called Mutianyu.  We find out the bus route and station and agree to meet later to finalize the details over dinner.  We pretty much piddle the day away and meet up with Chris in the early evening and walk to a nearby restaurant for a bite.  We have a nice meal and return to the hotel to have a couple of beers and a few rounds of pool before calling it a day….a lazy day!