Day 108 Xian, China
We woke to a wet dreary day in Xian, which also happened to be our wedding anniversary. After breakfast in our mini apartment we headed out in our raincoats to wonder the streets of the Muslim Quarter of Xian. What a delight! It was really busy on a Sunday with everyone out, even given the bad weather. We discovered all sorts of great street foods and enjoyed the people watching. I love markets and street stalls and from the places we have travelled, I think the Muslim Quarter, Xian is one of the best areas in Asia to explore. We also discovered that for the first time in 108 days of travel that both camera batteries were totally flat! I was not impressed because so many things were photo worthy.
After the Muslim Quarter had fed us with some amazing and unknown foods we headed for the Children’s Park that was marked on the map. What we discovered was a rundown park with amusement park rides in it. The park was closed with some tape across the gateway indicating we should keep out. Well, other people were going in so we did too. We had a little look around before we were chased out, along with the locals that had wandered in too! We kept walking towards the old City Wall that was quite close to us by now.
Xian has a fantastic old city wall that you can completely circumnavigate. We bought tickets to go up onto the wall and I started wishing again that I had my camera. It had stopped raining by now and the day was starting to warm up. You can hire a bike to ride around the wall or hire a golf cart and driver. Given that it was the middle of the day; we were unprepared for bike riding; we had also walked a long way already and had a decent walk to get home; we decided on the more expensive, but leg resting option of the golf cart. It was a bone rattling ride along the cobbled stone wall. It would have been a challenging ride for young riders and a little difficult on tandem bikes. One day when the kids are bigger it would be great fun, or Steve and I will come back without children and bring a bottle of wine to enjoy along the way at sunset!
We got the golf cart 3/4 of the way around because this brought us to the city gate that was the closest to our hotel. We walked back to the hotel for a well earned rest before venturing back to our food court for another cheap dinner. What a great (anniversary) day … without photos (boo hoo).
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