Getting to Shanghai

We had a limo pick us up at 4:15 Friday morning and had a relaxing ride to the airport.

We had breakfast and did a lot of walking.

We were upgraded on the flight to Chicago.

Everything went smoothly and we only had an hour in Chicago.

We got bulk head seats on the very long flight to Shanghai and that was such a treat. 14 hours in a plane is far too long. I never really had a good sleep. I would doze, wake to turn off my book and then not go back to sleep.

All in all the flight was not bad. The food was alright although the sandwiches we had for lunch were frozen. It was easy not to eat it.

We landed Saturday afternoon at 2:00. We are exactly 12 hours ahead of Boston so it is easy to check the time.

Stephen, from the Shanghai school for the blind and a driver picked us up after we went through customs. Neal and I were pretty much walking in our sleep at this point.

Stephen is his English name. He teaches English at the school and speaks it perfectly. We had a lovely conversation as we worked our way through the traffic.

We are staying at the Hotel Astor House that is right on the Bund. This is the embankment along the river that divides the city. You can find out all about the hotel on line. It has quite a history. Check out Wikipedia.

Marconi stayed in our very room in 1933. We think we heard him bumping around last night.

We are on the first floor and have absolutely no view. In fact the windows are frosted. However, what a lovely room we have. Actually it is two rooms. Our furniture is all antique. Everything is elaborately carved and big. The floors are perfectly finished hardwood with tile at the entry and bathroom. The bathroom is very modern. The room is even decorated with lovely little old tea pots and such. I will add more about the room in the next few entries.

After we settled in, without allowing ourselves to lie down on the lovely big bed, we headed out for a walk.

The bund is a beautiful walking area and was full of Saturday evening strollers. There were several wedding parties having photos taken. Brides in traditional red wedding dresses and very modern western style ones but in nontraditional colors like light purple.

As we were heading back to our hotel all the amazing lights were coming on, on the buildings.

We had a lovely Chinese meal in our hotel although the service was not like home. English is not spoken much in the hotel but we were warned about that.

We fell into bed shortly after seven.

That was one very long day.

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