A Very Long Day or Two of Travel from Denver to Beijing

Denver to Beijing a very long airplane ride: 

After we dropped The Boys at Puppy Camp we headed to Boulder, Colorado.  We had gotten tickets to see Johnny Clegg at the Boulder Theater and this worked out well for a pre flight night stay. 

Johnny Clegg is a South African musician and his show did not disappoint. I very much enjoy his music and learned much more about him and now his music has even more meaning to me. Jimmy Buffett does one of his songs “Brave Heart”. Seriously, check his music out, I have a feeling he may not be touring much more. 

After the show, we returned to our hotel and crashed. The next morning when I was switching over to a travel wallet, I noted my credit card I used the night before was missing. I had to have left it at the Pub where we had dinner. So we hung out till we could contact someone from the Pub and sure enough the card was there. I took this as a sign of good Karma.  Before retrieving the credit card we walked about Boulder. We found three, count them three, shops selling goods and trinkets from Tibet, so we have a back up should we forget a souvenir while on this trip. 

After leaving Boulder we made our way to the Denver Zoo. We do enjoy this zoo and seeing critters we have seen in the Wild from our other Adventures. This day was kewl because a Canada Goose landed in the Polar Bear pool. I said this is going to get interesting and sure enough the bear gave chase. (The goose got away).

We then made our way to The Parking Spot, where we park in Denver, great service from this location and the best parking rate in Denver. I highly recommend it for parking in Denver. Shuttle to the terminal and check in. My checked bag weighed 25 pounds and Lynn’s was 30. So we are in good shape for the internal flight in China. 

We had a lengthy wait, so off to the UAL Club room and waited for our flight to SFO (San Francisco).  We were glad this flight had a very light load and we were away from the gate early and winds were good and we arrived about 45 minutes early.  Shuttle to the Super 8 for a short night stay on Wyndham points. We got a good fare and upgrade so the 11 hour layover was worth this slight inconvenience.  Sleeping albeit a short sleep is better in a bed as compared to an airport gate seat. We showered and made our way back to SFO and through security and to the UAL Club room for breakfast. 

Our flight departed a but late, due to baggage being loaded. On board we had a nice dinner and I watched a couple of movies. We took this time to fill out our arrival and departure cards. 

We arrived Beijing and got in a very very very long line for customs, it did move slow but it moved. Next was baggage claim, and nothing to declare. We were met in the arrivals hall by Meiko. He escorted us to our car and traveled with us to our hotel. He was an English Major in college and said he was not a good student. I told him that is what college was all about.  We had a enjoyable conversation on the way into Beijing. Traffic has not improved nor has the quality of the local air. We arrived at the Hotel a Novetel property and were upgraded to a nicer room. We tend to stay in the Novetel / Accor properties.  We are on the 18th floor and can just see the the roofs of The Forbidden City. This property is located in an area we became familiar with from our last trip to China. 

We are settled into the room and getting things together. We will head out to explore a bit this evening before the lack of sleep catches up with us. 

We struck out on foot to check our walking time to Tiananmen Square and the entrance to The Forbidden City. It took us about 30 minutes to walk there and we spent some time watching the military prepare for the flag lowering ceremony. Each day at Tiananmen Square there is a flag raising at sunrise and a lowering at sunset. These ceremonies take place daily with a great deal of pomp and military drill, it is worth getting up early to see this event or linger at the end of the day. 

From Tiananmen Square we take the subway back to the hotel. We added 10RMB ($1.54 USD) to our subway cards.  Now we have 24RMB  to travel about Beijing. When we travel we enjoy using local public transportation as this gives one a feel for how the local folks travel on a daily basis. 

Our water supply was running low so we stopped at the first little Super Market for some water and other drinks. I had an Arctic Ocean orange soda and Lynn had yogurt based drink, and we also got a big jug of water for tomorrow. Further along our route we spotted a pastry shop and got two sweet bean paste filled pastries and two steam buns. Here they are called bao, bau, humbow, nunu, bakpao (Hokkien), bausak, pow, pau or pao (Hakka). These were filled with a ground pork in a rich brown hoisin style sauce. All for 15RMB ( $2.32 USD).  We enjoy eating these local street foods, this is often a Point and Receive kind of Dining.  Tonight it was perfect. 

We are tired and sleepy and will crash after laundry is done and this is posted.