Forbidden City and a ride in the Hutong (Day 13)

                                                                                    Sunday, June 19—Father’s Day

Forbidden City, Hutang

   Not an easy day!  Dad and I went to mass at 6 AM.  We could hardly tell what part was what—until we came to the greeting of peace!  Then we couldn’t figure out how to get in line for communion.  Luckily a man saw my confused look, and signaled to me where we should go.

   After the service was over, we went out on the main street to get a taxi.  Not!  We ended up taking a bus back to our hotel because none of the taxi drivers would stop.  Seriously.  I have never had that happen before.  We tried for 30 minutes, then I took the hotel card and showed it to a bus driver.  He told us to get on.  After about 20 minutes, he signaled for us to get off and pointed in the direction we should walk.  He was right on the mark!  I won’t deny having some feelings of—what if we never find our way back to the hotel?  My family would never forgive me!  Of course, I’d also be lost so maybe they would forgive me, a little?

   After church, our guide picked us up and we spent almost 3 hours in the Forbidden City.  Massive.  Beautiful.  But a dang lot of walking and standing.  Abraham, our guide, did a great job of keeping us in the shade.  I’m not sure of the temp, but I heard 36*C.  We were very Asian—had our umbrellas to keep off the sun.  

   We nick-named Dad “Hans guck in die luft”  (phonetically spoken it sounds like—Hans cook in dee looft).  It’s German meaning Hans (a little boy) who is always looking up and not looking where he is going.  He laughed, but continued to walk and look at the roofs.  And he didn’t fall down, so it must work for him.  :))

   We had another fantastic lunch.  The food here is remarkable.  None of us are going to lose weight.   Then went into the Hutang (small villages within the big city) and rode in a rickshaw and visited a home there.  The auntie was making celery/egg dumplings.  I refrained from grabbing one, but only because they were uncooked.  

   We took Dad out for a Peking duck Father’s Day dinner.  He topped that off with a bowl of ice cream.  Dad’s favorite food!  And remembering that we are on limited suitcase space/weight, we gave him a set of little kid's chopsticks.  Sort of like a pair of long tweezers.  But honestly, he's getting quite proficient with the real ones.
  Lots of photos . . .

amy

Catholic church we went to. Beautiful inside and out.

Moat around the Forbidden City.  Since most people back then could not swim, this was a handy way to keep away the bad guys.

One of the buildings in Forbidden City.  Oh, I remember--the Emperor got to go through the center door.  If anyone else did--that was the end of their life.

Pano of FC

Seriously--why is this here?  You can't even see it, but in case you have a magnifying glass . . .

I started this pano, and as I came around, this couple was suddenly there.  I was going to delete it, but then realized I was way behind so these are our new best friends.  

Fill it with water and it becomes a fire hydrant.  Seems that fires were bad back then.  Buildings made of wood and fires under the floors for heat.  Maybe not a good combo?

Dad reaching for Good Luck

Another pano, but no friends in it.

Beijing is trying to improve its facilities for the tourists.  Now they grade the toilets.

Just a carving in the FC.  I rather liked it.

Ice cream

Dave and Sylvia in the rickshaw

Dad

Inside the Hutong--a family's home.  Note the dumplings on the table.  :))

The woman who talked to us about life in the Hutong.

Making the dumplings

Father's Day Peking duck dinner.  With his new chopsticks.

Oh--so, so good.  The sauce and fixin's for the duck

He gave his life for a good cause.

Outside the restaurant.  Moving day?