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Published: June 26th 2017
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Geo: 39.9165, 116.391
A very grey day awaited us when we looked out the window on Saturday. It was pouring rain with thunder and lightning and no likelihood of it stopping. We eventually ventured out and walked down Nathan Road dodging puddles and trying to work out umbrella etiquette!! Along the way we found the Pacific Coffee shop. Bliss! A stop there for a real cappuccino and ham and cheese croissants really lifted the spirits. Most of the sights we had intended to see were out of the question, especially a ride to the top of the Peak which was enshrouded in cloud so we decided to stay undercover and try the Space Museum again.
Arriving there we saw a very long queue once more. While Fletcher joined it I went inside to the loo and then asked at the Information desk whether we needed to queue if we just wanted to see the Exhibition Halls. (They also have a Space Theatre and IMAX films). The young man told me that if I went to the Cultural Centre next door I could buy tickets there and save the wait. This was done easily and as Seniors they only cost $HK 5 each! (less
than a dollar). The exhibitions were very interesting. They had a mock up of a Space Shuttle which showed the control panel and several games which kids could play. Lots of families were there enjoying the exhibits. The displays about the Chinese Space exploration program were very informative and we spent about an hour looking through the halls.
We then had lunch at a café in the Cultural Centre, some pasta washed down with a Tsingdao and then returned to the hotel along Nathan Road. We did stop at a Marks and Spencers in one of the shopping centres and made our only purchases, a belt for Fletcher and a nice polka dot top for me. Back at the hotel we rested and I wrote my first blog entry then we joined Yvonne, Geoff and Pauline for drinks on the 15th Floor. This is the Premium Floor and there is a free Happy Hour for those who reside there each afternoon, with food as well. We eventually went down to the Tasca Bar and spent a convivial couple of hours.
This morning we were up at 5-15am and checked out. We shared a taxi to the airport with the Gardiners driven
by an aspirant for a Formula 1 drive at the Macau Grand Prix. Speeds of 120 kph were reached in 80kph zones! Check in and flight were fine . When we arrived in Beijing we approached the IAAF desk and were taken to where we could board a bus to the hotel. This is about the first day that people have started to arrive so there was much exuberant discussion in Mandarin about drivers, buses which hotels etc( well I imagine that was what it was all about).We were then directed to a bus and set out for the drive along the Airport Expressway ( a real misnomer!!). We arrived in the Olympic area and dropped the first passengers at one hotel. Then our driver did not know where our hotel(which is the official one) was. We had passed it as I had noted but as he did not speak English and my Mandarin is non existent I couldn't tell him. After several stops where he asked for directions he finally found someone who knew and 5 minutes later we arrived!
Our hotel is very swish and the IAAF has organised free WiFi with unrestricted access to the internet which means
I can post this on Facebook!!
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Jo armour
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Always love your blogs Colleen! Have a Tsingdao for me!