UMTravels

Breakfast started with the muesli this morning – and of course, the mimosa. It wasn’t quite enough so I went back for scrambled eggs and sausage. I fear to pull the scale out in the bathroom even with all this walking.

The morning tour (promptly at 9am with Swiss precision – Viking River Cruises is a Swiss company) is to the Yueyang Tower – a 66 foot tall, three story tower that originally was a naval observation post in 716, but the current tower was built in 1985 in the style of the Song Dynasty which lasted from 969-1127AD.

The tower and grounds tour was followed by a tea tasting of the local tea grown on an island in the middle of China’s second largest fresh water lake – it used to the largest, but silt from the Yangtze has reduced its size. The tasting included traditional Chinese music. I wasn’t impressed with the tea – which supposedly rises and sinks three times after you pour the hot water over it. By the time it got to our table, it was all sunk.

A lazy afternoon follows, with lunch followed by reading and a nap, followed by a bridge tour, followed by reading, followed by a lecture on “China Today” by our Cruise Manager, followed by scotch and writing in the journal. Next up is “What’s On For Tomorrow” at 6pm accompanied by cut-rate martinis.

We are now half way through the China trip – with the best to come… the Three Gorges Dam (and tour), the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, and Bejing with its Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Peking Duck Dinner and the Peking Opera. It feels like we are saving the best for last… makes me wonder how the people doing this tour in the other direction feel having everything major up front when they are still jetlagged.

I thought about emailing this to people from the computers on board – until I realized that with all the pictures (compressed even) that the file was 23megs. This that would choke their connection, and everyone else’s connection – guess this will have to wait until I get home to mail out.

Dinner at the usual time and place. With the nap during the afternoon I was actually able to stay up for Bingo at 9pm. Not a big bingo fan – though I did play it on the visit to Steve in prison on family day. Of course, the prizes are drink coupons or money off your beverage bill. Came close a couple of times, Marty won two Drink of the Days. Oh well.