Beijing, Sunday February 14th - Temple of Heaven, Noodles, Summer Palace and Acrobat show

So far behind on posting - the schedule in Beijing has been crazy and we have had little down time and we are just exhausted by the time we go to bed.   Thanks for all the birthday wishes to David in the comments - also appreciated the laughs about the dentures which we had forgotten to mention - fortunately, David is not quite yet ready for dentures :-)  We saw those just sitting like that on the wall and it just cracked us up - obviously left by someone although hopefully they took their photos while the dentures were still being worn!   Do keep the comments coming - as you can see it's a struggle to keep up with the blog and knowing people are following along, is a motivating factor.   On Sunday we bundled up and went to the Temple of Heaven - it was very cold, although clear, but bitterly cold wind.   On the way we passed this burned out building you see in the first photos - this was the result from fireworks from last year's new year!  There was quite a crowd at the Temple of Heaven as there was a ceremony of some sorts to represent the wish for a good harvest that would have been held during the time of the emporer.   We watched a while and then watched some people playing hacky sack - they are very skilled at it.   We were so excited to go for a hot lunch.   Lunch was in a huge mall that had a lot of restaurants.   We had a delicious lunch with some sort of fried sweet tarot root that you dipped in garlic sauce, a delicious green bean dish and some other good dishes.   The main things was the huge bowl of noodles that we mixed with a bean and pork sauce and ate - they were super long.  It's traditional to eat long uncut noodles on new year so that you have a long life and don't "cut" it short.   After lunch we hit the Starbucks - just like home.   We got back on the bus and headed to the Summer Palace.  The sun had come out and although cold, it was more pleasant.   We had a good time at the summer palace although the vendors there were extremely aggressive.  It was crazy to see Kunming lake frozen after we had been on the boat ride on it when here in July 2007.  This time people were out walking on it - including Ben, Drew and Adam from our crowd.   Everyone was impressed by the long corridor with all its beautiful paintings - the summer palace was built to be a cool residence for the emporer during the summer months.   We had the Acrobat show that night and it was already really late in the day.  We were supposed to have duck dinner this night but we asked if it could be switched as we would have basically gone straight from the summer palace to dinner, to the acrobat show.   Doyle, our wonderful and amazing guide said okay and so we got a very short break, perhaps an hour or so at the hotel before leaving again for the acrobat show.  We just noshed on some of the food we had bought from our grocery store expedition.   The kids got to have a sleep which was terrific.   We headed out to the Acrobat show and all had the most fantastic time.   We had worried that Isaac would not sit or would screech but he was transfixed, apart from occasionally trying to wack the head of the guy in front of us - who was a very nice Israeli who was on vacation without his kids so he said it made him feel good to see the kids.   Indigo was transfixed by the whole show - we all loved it - and the Magnum chocolate ice cream sticks we got to eat while watching the show.  The show had also been changed from when we were here in 2007 so that  was nice.  It was really a lovely night and both families had a great time.   We had not realized that the fireworks would be a nightly event in Beijing during new year but indeed, even now, I am listening to the exploding sounds of crackers and fireworks going off - it's been every night into the wee hours of the morning - we have had some spectacular firework shows although the noise can become a little tiresome when trying to sleep - although not for Granddad!  Isaac has started to say what sounds like "boom, boom" when he hears them - it's so funny, even coming back from the acrobat show, we basically had the drive the bus around people setting of fireworks in the street - there is nothing like it.  Photos from the 14th here:

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