June 26th - Turning Lemons into Lemonade

The day started as all the others....we got up and was downstairs for breakfast by 8:00AM. Usually by this time we see a few of the other CCAI group members that are traveling with us ~ but not today. As we ate our breakfast we were still waiting for someone {from our group} to appear but nothing! It is than at this time I decided to have the front desk contact by phone our CCAI guide "George" to see what time we would be leaving for the Great Wall tour. When she finally reached him (about 9:00AM - which was the time our group met yesterday to visit the Forbidden Square), he and the other group members were already on their way to the Great Wall...while never contacted us of departing time. You don't even have to ask me if I was pissed because believe me, I was, but I managed to keep my cool...I did mention to George that just because we did not take the tour yesterday didn't mean we were not doing it today. I made it my business with our guide George when we first met on June 24th that we were not doing the Forbidden City tour but WOULD BE DOING the Great Wall the following day. He said that was OK and our tour rates would be adjusted (becuase you pay by day of touring). Come the night of the 25th, we never received any messages or phone call stating when the group would be leaving for the Great Wall so we just assumed it would be the same time as the day before 9:00AM. Well, as you can see that was not the case. As soon as I relayed the message to Keith that I was receiving from George via telephone in regards to the group status (that they already left) and George insisting on sending a car to get us, Keith & I both agreed & said no to his offer. We knew we would find something else just as exciting to do and boy are we so happy we did! The hotel here offers private tours which we jumped on and not only did we see the Great Wall (by cable cars) but we also visited a local tea shop! The spot where we were able to access the Great Wall was truly amazing & one area we never visited before! It is the place that so many of us are familiar with in seeing in movies, tour books, or posters! It was breath-taking and we walked a ton of it! It was truly one of my all time favorite moments in life! I can only hope the photos that were taken can show just how breath-taking this particular spot was...

Tomorrow we head out at 7:30AM for Zhengzhou! I can't believe our time here in Beijing has once again come to an end. But I must admit, I am so looking forward to Monday morning...so saying goodbye to this amazing city is not so bad (and I have a strong feeling we will be back again some time really soon...)

Anyway....

I am going to try to post something tomorrow, but seeing how we might be a bit busy with getting everything organized and ready for Benjamin, you might just have to wait until 28th ~ but we'll see...

Until than ENJOY these photos from today!!!!