Past to future in a day

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Hello again bloggers,today we go from Suzhou to Shanghai.The day starts at a respectable hour with breakfast .Buffets seem to be the order of the day everywhere for breakfast and we load our plates with a bit of this and some of that.George is waiting at the appointed hour and we are off to the river streets.As I mentioned yesterday Suzou is named the Venice of the esat because of the river streets.Canals actually and coming from Ottawa we thought we had canals down pat and had not immediately wanted to take the boat trip around the canals.As I mentioned George is engaging and used his charm to convince us that a trip to Suzou without a vosit to the canals was like a massage without bruises.Oh yes I awoke feeling prety much as I had ecery other day with no apparent beneficial effects of the massage carrying over the night.
Georgs has the boat waiting for us and we board as if our own private yacht.Actually it was as a boat normally holding 20 or so passengers was ours alone.We wended our way through the narrow canals enjoying the city sliping by us quietly. The cruise was about an hour and we both enjoyed it more than we had expected,again George had it right.The boat let us off at 'Tiger Hill" an interesting mix of history and modern culture with a pagoda leaning a few degrees off its proper angle similar to the leaning tower and a lovely park with boats to ride as well as sedan chairs for photo ops and rides.We did not inflict our north american bodies on the waiting sedan chair porters much to their relief I am sure.Ther was a performance unfolding as we got to the top of this hill and a natual amphetheatre was filling up quickly with chinese and others.A wonderful acrobatic display of a lion leaping between posts in the ground about 10 feet off the ground then a full scale performance of plate spinners ,drummers,hula hoop girls and contortionists.Throw in a Dragon dance and lots of colour and costume and we had a great time. Back for lunch at the snake wine place then George took us to our train and deposited us safely at car number 8 seat 61 and 62. The trip to Shanghai was now familiar and it passed quickly and before we knew it there was a smiling Speak sign to greet us at the platform. This one had Kely holding it a young local guide who spirited us to a Taxi then to our hotel.
The Pacific hotel is an older hotel in downtown Shanghai.The room is large with hardwood floors and a chandaliere and the view is wonderful. Kelly left us for the night and we went to the bar for a scotch after a quick wash. The hotel has a Chateau Laurier feel to it and as I mentioned earlier the saxaphone guy with the cowboy hat is playing down the road. After the drink we wandered down Nanjing road,a pedestrian street running to the river.It is amazing with as many neon lights as Vegas ,people filling the street of shops restaurants.The archtecture in Shanghaii is breatrhtaking with the most amazing buildings scraping the sky.The lights, the pace, the sounds.We are not in Kansas anymore Toto. We are solicited by a dozen Rolex watch sellers and laugh at how absolutely stereotypical they are.Supper is enjoyed at another UBC coffee restaurant and then back to the hotel to bblog and sleep.

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