Back in Berlin

I'm back in Berlin and shaking off jet lag and sleeping problems.

I had a wonderful time in Beijing and area and wanted to stay. Huge thanks to Birgit and Ian for putting me up...and putting up with me!

On arrival they gently took me around the area where they live, got me a travel card and another card to pay for food at a local 'meal market' where lots of local workers dropped in. How well I remember the 'jiaozi' ladies there :-)

After that, I started to organise my daily trips and travels. I started with sights in the city, then in the second week I booked tours to the mountains and countryside. In my last week I saw all the sights in the city I had't seen in my first week.

I saw many amazing places, scenes and buildings, but walking on the Great Wall of China in the middle of the second week was perhaps the most memorable event. Here is a photo to show that I made it to the top of a very high point.

On my return, I bought a wok and have started to cook delicious vegetarian meals. Ian and Birgit gave me the book to guide me in my new cooking adventure. I have already started work on the 465 photographs I took and will post selected ones to this blog during October.