We made the decision to use a tour company to get us around Beijing. We knew we had 2 days before I had to go to work to fit in the key sites. And with one of those being the day we landed, it was going to be a tough feat.

So, we decided to hire someone to pick us up from the airport and drive us around for 2 days.

First stop was the Forbidden City. So far so good.

Later on in the tour, not so good. As it turns out, the tour companies (or at least this one) are government owned. So that meant we stopped by the government owned restaurant, government owned jade warehouse, and government owned medical facility for foot massages and attempts to sell us herbal medicine. If I had it to do all over again, I would skip the guide and do it on our own. The city was surprisingly easy to get around in via the metro, and we had no trouble when we were on our own.

This time, though, we were stuck with the guides.

After the Forbidden City, they took us to the hutongs. I had heard of them from a co-worker who recommended restaurants nearby, so thought it must have been good.

And to be fair, they weren't terrible. They beat the jade shop and herbal medicine place for sure.

But the whole situation of it was funny.

To get around the hutongs, you ride in a rickshaw. So, Paul and I clamored into the seat behind our bike driver and got ready to see the sites.


Then, pops up alongside us, on a bicycle, our hutong tour guide. Yelling out over the ruckus of the neighborhood itself, she furiously pedals to keep up with us, all while avoiding the other rickshaws and  bikes that clutter the roads of the neighborhood.


After perusing the streets, we end up in what is described to us as a typical hutong courtyard, where the family used to gather back in ancient times. This wasn't so interesting, as they have tourist-ized parts of it, and done nothing to the others. One room is decorated to look like what was a traditional bedroom for the wedding night. The next is a real bedroom, AC unit and all. Yet, the guide takes us into each and explains it (there is the bed and chairs). After an awkward 30 minutes, we thought we were done, but no. Back out in the courtyard, we get descriptions of the pot holding water & fish, flowers, and are taken back to the wedding room for photos.

My smile says "Are we done yet?!"

We end our tour of the hutongs by driving by the lake. Now I can see why someone would recommend it! The lake is filled with paddle boats, full of families and couples enjoying a sunny afternoon. The streets are lined with trees, restaurants and people, giving life to the whole neighborhood.

We spent the last week cut-off from the social world. No blogger, no you-tube, no facebook. No, we weren't on an island without access to the internet. We were in China. Government control of the internet kept me from keeping you all posted as we traveled along, but no worries, now you'll hear it all!

Our first stop on our China tour was Beijing; we went straight from the airport to the Forbidden City. This made sure we both a) fit in as much sightseeing as we could with my short time there and b) didn't go check into the hotel and pass out.

One of the most interesting things to me about sightseeing in China was all the domestic tourists. Nearly everyone we saw was Chinese. It was inspiring, the pride they had in their history and the excitement they all felt at visiting their capital city and historic sites. It made me ashamed to say I had never visited Washington D.C.


Back to the Forbidden City - this was the imperial residences of the emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, built in the late 15th century. On nearly 200 acres, the imperial residence houses 90 palaces and over 8,500 rooms.


We started off at the entrance, by Tiananmen Square. Here you walk through the Gate of Heavenly Peace to the Meridian Gate, through the outer court, which finally brought us to the inner court. As you go through each of the gates, you'll notice there are 3 doorways within each gate. One for the emperor, one for the high lords, and one for just the plain old lords.



A perk of off-season travel is smaller crowds, but a downside is renovations. So upon our entrance to the Inner Court, we found the Palace of Heavenly Peace covered in scaffolding. So we continued by admiring all the unique details of the surrounding buildings, from the little statues adorning each roof (the more statues, the more important), the carvings of figures in the marble, the old stones run down by the millions of visitors whose footsteps have covered these same paths.




After that, we headed to the gardens surrounding the palace. During our visit, we got to see some of the most beautiful cherry blossoms, making every garden beautiful and making me pause with my camera to catch a picture.



Finally, we found ourselves back out on the streets of Beijing, confronted by the real world and made to leave behind our imaginations of how the city used to be.

I would not necessarily call myself "hip" or "technology-savvy."  I am almost always behind the curve, finally joined Instagram in December and just now got around to creating a Facebook Page for followers of the blog to get updates and more pictures than I can post on here (so "like" it for all the info!).

As I was scrolling through Instagram updates last week, I came across a hashtag I didn't understand - like so many  hashtags out there. After a quick google search, I learned what the hype was.

#TBT.  Throw-back Thursday. Not sure why Thursday was picked in favor of Tuesday, but there you have it. And now every Thursday, I will know what I am in store for. Childhood pictures of my friends put up on Instagram.

It inspired me - not to put awkward teen pics onto Instagram, but to create a TBT of my own. We have lots of trips and activities to share from pre-blog times.

So, for my first TBT we'll look at the first trip as Tarts - our honeymoon in Belize. We picked Belize because it had beaches and was a direct (and short) flight from Dallas. 3 hours and you're there.

There are many parts of Belize you can visit, but we headed over to San Pedro. After landing in Belize City, we hopped on our teeny plane, two rows behind our pilot, and after 30 minutes of craning our necks to view the water, we found ourselves on the island. One runway, a plywood shack with a roped off area in the dirt for baggage claim, yes, we had arrived.


As one of the main activities is scuba-diving, we got certified in advance and spend half our days there underwater making friends with the little fishies, in many cases big fishies and even a couple of friendly sharks.

Who is bigger? Paul or the fish?

Reef Canyon - breathtaking

Snorkeling during our surface time, we found some friends

When we weren't diving or beach lounging, we headed to the mainland to visit Lamanai Ruins. These Mayan ruins boasted inhabitants as early as the 16th BC, but were not re-discovered until the 1970's. Like many ruins in Central America, tourists can climb and explore to their hearts desire. We spent a day enjoying the ruins and the fantastic views they afforded of the jungle.

The High Temple

And the steep climb up

Then it was back to San Pedro and the beach.

Paradise

While I wouldn't usually call myself a museum lover, I've been itching lately to get over to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Oh, that hat.

Imagine walking through a doorway! At least it hides hips

These are bathing suits and a more literal bathing SUIT on the right. Stylish at the beach

Added to the Hereford Cathedral in the 19th C, it was removed in the 20th C as it wasn't "in style"

Two pieces of the Trajan column cast

After six months of living in London, Belle has visited parks in London several times. Living a 20 minute walk from Kensington Gardens, it's our favorite haunt.

This weekend, we decided to go crazy and get adventurous by trying out some of the other local parks.

Our first stop was Hamstead Heath. While it isn't one of the Royal Parks, it is a favorite by many locals.

Why is that? First off,  because it is huge. It continues to amaze me the planning that has gone in to many of these European cities, but especially London, to save space for public park. Hampstead Heath is made up of more than 790 acres of country oasis, all within the city.

The best part about the Heath are the open spaces for Belle to run like the wild dog she can be sometimes. There are many areas that have paths with green, rolling hills in between, and benches dotting the landscape for those who may want to sit and take it all in.

I spy a happy little dog

On prettier days, you'll find many people flying kites. On winter days, you may find sledders. It's a fantastic place to just be outdoors.

Belle is saying "I'm so happy! Park! Belly rub!"

And the whole point of the trip was for Belle. She loved it. As soon as we let her off the lead, she ran laps around us, almost jumping for joy. She ran from one wonderful smell to the next and managed to dirty herself up pretty good in the process.

Best place to rest up after running around? A puddle of mud, obviously

Luckily, the Heath has 25 lakes within its acreage. Some are more for waterfowl, like ducks and swans; others, dogs can jump in and swim to their hearts desire. And, for those off path wanderers like Belle, clean off some mud in the process.

One of the 25 lakes at the park

The one part of the Heath we didn't get to check out was Kenwood House, which you may remember from the end of the film Notting Hill. While it is closed for renovations until Autumn 2013, hopefully on our next trip (which will be soon!) we can wander by for some views of the iconic building front.

Following our morning trip to Stonehenge, we continued our trek West to Bath.

The old main entrance to the cathedral

Inside the Bath Cathedral

Roman Baths with the Cathedral in the background. See the steam rising?

Small street with shops in Bath

Posing at Pulteney Bridge

Pulteney Bridge - see the windows of the shops?

 Looking forward to returning to Bath for at least an overnight - and this time, with a visit to the baths!