The photos are in a bit of a mish-mash order today, and range from Sooty turfing Sam and Amy out of 'his' bedroom, to a photo I took of a beautiful golden sunrise when I got up for work one morning.
It was a wonderful week with Sam and Amy - they are probably the easiest guest we have ever had in China! They required no looking after at all, were happy to make plans that included us, or didn't, depending on the situation, and were just very happy to be tourists in this amazing city. Plus they bought us chocolate, so there's that to consider!
After the Westin last week, we had a quiet-ish Monday at work, while Sam and Amy did some touristing around the city. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday they were staying at the fabulous-sounding Disney hotel at Shanghai Disneyland. It sounds like they had a fabulous time - the Disney here is really fun and has a great parade and fireworks! On Thursday evening we met them at the Cheesecake Factory in downtown Disney, with Andy and Becky too. We ordered appetizers to share (as always, we still haven't made it off the appetizers menu), and so there was room for some carrot cake swirled cheesecake at the end of the meal too. Andy and Becky shared their own meals, and ended up with food poisoning, which was terrible. Let down by our favourite restaurant!
On Friday night, Matt started getting busy: he had the school sports coaches dinner to attend, so Sam, Amy and I went to Yang's for the best dumplings in Shanghai. They did surprisingly well with the chopsticks! This was followed by a trip to The Green Party, a shop in the lifehub, for a nosey around, and then a trip to McDonald's for grey ice cream. Yes, grey ice cream. Sam wanted some strange food, and that was the best I could do at the time. Even the cone was grey, yet for some reason the ice cream was coconut vanilla flavour! Not strange at all! We ended up in Lean, the bar by our flat for a drink and a chat before heading home.
Saturday was a busy one. Matt was out all day coaching a football tournament for his club. Sam, Amy and I went to Tianzifang for a wander - it's lots of little lanes and streets with interesting shops, bars and cafes. It was very busy! We then went to the Bund for a river boat cruise, which was very complicated, since we missed our boat time - the dock was really difficult to find and covered in scaffolding and on a different level to the rest of the docks - we were searching for it for a good 40 minutes! Eventually we found it and the boat trip in the late afternoon sun was glorious. The weather had got really hot again, so it was 26 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. It's now down to 13, and we are really feeling the change!
On the boat, I found some chocolate, durian fruit and egg (a bit like custard) flavours of ice cream to satisfy Sam's need for strange food. Then we headed up Jinmao tower to the Cloud 9 bar on the 87th floor to watch the Bund lit up at night. It's such an impressive view, and is even better with a sparkly rose to accompany it. Matt met us there. I was pretty exhausted by this point, so Matt and I headed home, while Sam and Amy went back across the river to see the skyscrapers all lit up - you have to have both sides of the river views at night - they are equally as impressive.
On Sunday, Matt was playing football, and he scored his first goal for the England veterans team, yay! There is even a video of him scoring it. Sam and Amy went out to the fake market and then in the afternoon, we all headed off to Zotters Chocolate Factory, for the Chocolate Indulgence Experience Tour! It starts off with a video about how they source all their cocoa beans and the philosophy behind making chocolate, then we were taken around by a private tour guide, and got to try the raw cocoa beans, and the 100 percent liquid cocoa mass. Then we got to make our own chocolate bars, which was really fun. I went for a rabbit shape, Matt went for a star, Sam a car and Amy a mouse. You choose 2 chocolate flavours to go in and then can decorate it however you like. Then the real chocolate tasting started.
Matt and I had done the tour before, when we first moved to China, and we felt so sick last time! We had much better tactics this time, and I didn't feel sick at all. There was no giggling and we didn't need Subway sandwiches immediately after the tour this time, so it's all good. I could even manage to try the hot chocolate at the hot choc station - I tried ginger/coconut, chili, and honey/cinnamon. All were delicious, but the chili one was really tasty! To end the tour there is a moving platform of about 30 different types of chocolate to try including fish bone marshmallow flavour. It was actually really delicious!
We got a cab home and tried to go to LaPasta, but it had closed down! So we walked to Da Marcos Italian near school, via Carrefour supermarket, which Amy wanted to have a look in. The dinner was lovely, but Sam seemed to get sick after it, and spent Monday morning not feeling well unfortunately.
Anyway, he is feeling much better now, and they arrived safely from the night train in Xi'an and are now exploring that wonderful city. It's been such a nice week, and it went really quickly! Only 3 and a half more weeks of school until the holidays!
That last photo of Sam is hilarious!
ReplyDeleteI know! love it!
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