Sunday March 18 - Hello Xi'an!

To continue...

We were met inside the Xi'an train station by our new local guide. (Ma Rui is still with us, which we are very happy about, but the local guide will be taking us around this city for the next two days and explaining the sights and history here.)

We had a 10 minute walk from the station to where our bus was parked. Between hefting our numerous carry-on bags and holding onto (or watching) children, by the time we stumbled onto the bus most of the adults were ready to collapse onto those padded seats. We could not have been happier to have someone take over moving us to our hotel. One thing we should mention - our children are being phenomenal about all the tougher parts of travelling. They are real troopers and we couldn't be more proud of them all.

Compared to the long drives in and aroung Beijing, the bus ride through Xi'an to our hotel - the Shangri-la Golden Flower! - was like snapping your fingers and *poof* we were there. The kids barely had time to settle into their "bus" activities...

It's a lovely hotel. A little older than our hotel in Beijing, but with much more "atmosphere" than the stark western style of the Jianguo. As our rooms were not quite ready when we arrived at 8:00 am, we all went to have breakfast and the food was wonderful too.

Our guides then told us that we had an hour and a half before we'd be heading out on our first tour (yikes). Everyone scrambled to find their rooms, have showers and try to make ourselves feel somewhat human in time to meet in the lobby at 11:00. I kept having the weird sensation that the floor was moving under me - almost like being on land after having been at sea for some time.

We were then taken to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Originally built in 625 A.D. to house Buddhist classics and portraits brought back from India, the pagoda is now situated in lovely landscaped grounds that are open to the public. However, monks still live and work here and monks from around the world come to visit here. We saw a number of Tibetan monks walking the grounds.

And imagine our delight (especially after hearing about the snowstorm back home!) to find that Spring had found us in Xi'an! We really enjoyed walking here.

We had a delicious lunch nearby and then visited the Shaanxi History Museum. However, by this time, the attention spans of both the kids and the moms, dads and grandparents were starting to wander. And in about the third exhibit room, we finally lost the kids! (hee hee)

We returned to the hotel soon after and got a little more settled before grabbing something to eat and heading back to our rooms. (Another nice touch in this hotel - in the main dining room, they have a television playing cartoons in a corner, with kids' toys and mats laid out in front. Did they know we were coming?)

Tomorrow we are off to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and also an ancient Mosque.

Until then, I wish you a very good night - our beds are calling to us! Love to all at home.