The Great Wall

day 2

Up early but not tired..

The day looked terrible outside, rain, chilly  an foggy.  I took a cab to and waited for a pickup for the Great Wall Tour. I was waiting at the wrong hotel and noticed not seeing anyone. I found out there was a hotel with the same name a few doors down. 

I saw a happy face call my name and greeted me to the tour. There was four of us in a comfortable mini van. the weather was getting worst as we began what would be a two hour drive to the wall. 

We finally made it to the wall then walking towards the entrance, we stopped at a Subway for a coffee and use the toilet. I bought a poncho to cover me as the rain was getting worst. The uphill walk to the cable car was wet. The fog had rolled in beautifully if it was not rainy so hard. 

the guide was a nice woman but did not provide much guiding. She was sweet as she stood with this older women in her 70’s to help with the walk on wet payment.  The cable car ride up was fun as due to the fog it seemed like we were floating on air.  once at the top you had a 10 minute walk to make the first stairs that led to the wall. once on the wall you could walk either direction the the various towers. the walk was precarious and steep stones down made worst with the continual rain.  The wall itself was about 12-15 feet wide with a lot of people going up and down. the thing was that there was nothing to see over the wall, due to heavy fog and on the wall no markers or historical signs explaining anything. i was terribly disappointed. the walking was difficult . I visited two towers and began getting wet and annoyed. I had enough. so i walk back down the wall and waited at the Subway Restaurant with a hot soup for the others. It was about 10:30. At 12 pm others showed up. we departed back home but first a lunch stop. I like the small group meal setting and the food was good. the ride home took two hours and I was lucky to snooze a bit on the drive back. I worked out a deal where the driver would take me back to my hotel. Everything was nice. I tipped well, and went to the room exhausted and disappointed.