Re-discovering Chopstick Skills

On the 15th of Janaury, Jakob’s birthday, we went to the Amsterdam restaurant “Sea Palace” to re-discover our chopstick eating skills. Everything worked out nicely and they even served our favorite dishes from China: Chicken pieces with nuts and vegetables in a spicy sauce and of course roast duck with rice. The contrast between the average Chinese restaurant in China …

Finally: Pictures are online!!

Pretty late in the evening and after a few days of looking through our photos from our trip to China we’re finally ready to post the best of the best online! Basically viewers have two options – an external slideshow from Flickr.com and a thumbnail gallery on China.Thusgaard.com. The links are both available in the menu on the right hand …

23 Hours after getting up: Finally at Home

This post might look a bit unstructured. The main reason is that at this point in time we’ve been awake for almost 24 hours, and have been packing, checking out, checking in, checking out and then in again, and to make a long story short we’re back home in Amsterdam without any injuries to ourselves and only minor damage to …

Xi’an: Goodbye China

Xi’an, 08/10/2005 at 16:56 We still have a few days to write about here in the blog, but rather than spending our last evening in China writing blog, we’ll be updating it with the last couple of days, more stories, more info, photo gallery , etc. when we come home. To mention a few things from the last couple of …

Day 23: Beijing – Xi’an: Arrival in Xi’an

Amsterdam 23/10/2005 at 15:30 Day 23: Beijing – Xi’an: Arrival in Xi’an At the station in Xi’an we found that there were absolutely no problems with the bikes. As usual the gears had been changed, but we were getting used to that. Outside the station we met hordes of sales people who wanted to sell anything from hotels and taxis …

Day 22: Beijing – Xi’an: Chinese Bureaucracy

Amsterdam 23/10/2005 at 15:30 Day 22: Beijing – Xi’an: Chinese Bureaucracy ***** 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ***** – Although we didn’t realize that ourselves until on the train to Xi’an. Instead we got the day going with in-the-room “home made” breakfast and got busy packing, making final arrangements with the Vlieg & Fiets agent in Beijing, and eventually checking out of …

Beijing: Back in the Capital

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00 The weather the last couple of days has been mostly good, but always a bit cloudy. Warm enough, though, for shorts. Below is a quick rundown of most of the events of the days 18-21.

Day 21: Beijing: Tai Chi in the Temple of Heaven Park

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00 Day 21: Beijing: Tai Chi in the Temple of Heaven Park Getting up very early we left the hotel at 06.00 to see people do Beijing wake up in the Temple of Heaven Park. “Waking up” in Beijing includes various sports including easy gymnastics, running, tai chi, kung fu with and without weapons, singing, screaming, tennis, …

Day 20: Shanhaiguan – Beijing: Back to the Base

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00 Day 20: Shanhaiguan – Beijing: Back to the Base As agreed our contact in the taxi underworld of Shanhaiguan had kept his word to arrive with a mini bus to bring us to Beijing. We hadto take the bikes partly apart, but at the end everything fitted and we were brought safely to Beijing. The driver …

Day 19: Shanhaiguan: End of the Wall

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00 Day 19: Shanhaiguan: End of the Wall Finally ready for a bit of sightseeing in Shanhaiguan this day was about seeing the first part of the Wall. We started out early in the morning at “The First Pass Under Heaven”, which is the first important tower on the Wall. Having enjoyed this we took the cableway …