Nanjing

This past week we headed to Nanjing, which is about two hours to the West of us (by train). Nanjing is the capital of the Jiangsu Province in which we live. As a result, it is basically seen as the business center of this area. There are therefore trains going to and from Nanjing all the time, and it was pretty easy for us to get a good train without hassle. The ride there gave us no hassle either.

I looked it up to find an interesting fact. Nanjing's U.S. sister city is St. Louis, MO. It was the first sister city pairing between the United States and the People's Republic of China, and the official pairing of the two cities occurred on November 2, 1978, my first birthday...


We arrived in Nanjing at about 3:00 p.m. Nanjing's train station was very large and impressive. It is also situated as one stop on Nanjing's metro subway line. When we arrived, we checked to see if we wanted to take a taxi to our hotel or go by subway. Everyone we talked to said that we should take a taxi; for some reason we decided to take the subway. The result: we were perfectly fine. The subway was fast and easy and it allowed us to get out and see a few things. (I think most people see an American couple with three kids and immediately think that we need a ton of help. Kudos to Jane for knowing how to get around, and kudos to the kids for traveling that way with no problems). Public transportation is usually the easiest, because we always have our double stroller packed with daily necessities, and it is more of a pain to fold that up and get everyone in a taxi than it is to just hop on a subway, train or bus. It is also a lot better for interacting with people as well.

We arrived at our hostel in which we were staying to find out that it was right in the middle of one of Nanjing's major tourist areas. Despite being on the 3rd floor (with no elevator = stroller carrying), we thought it would be nice to be in a popular place. We found out later that it was a VERY popular place. As it is the Chinese New Year, most people are off work for the entire week, or even the entire month. Resultantly, everyone travels. Nanjing was a hotspot for travel, and our area was a hotspot for those travelers. There were time when it would take 5 minutes just to walk one block. For the most part, we tried to only go in these areas in the morning, when the crowds would be down, which worked out pretty well.

With only a few hours left in the first day, we decided to go to the Confucius Temple, which was literally 2 blocks away from our hostel. This is a temple originally built in 1034 (and rebuilt several times thereafter) to honor Confucius, then ancient philosopher and Chinese educator, whose philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. (It also cost a bit to get in, which meant the crowds inside were not so bad, which was nice.)


Confucius lived between 551 BC – 479 BC. While Jane and I knew that he was important for shaping Chinese culture, we did not know that he was worshipped to the extent that he was. Here is Evelyn with a Confucian disciple. I do not remember his name, but I know he lived around 300 BC.

Here are Dan and Evelyn with the largest statue of Confucius in the world.

Here is one of the large alters to Confucius, full of nicnacks that have much importance. I, though, don't know what that importance is.

In the Confucian temple is one of the largest Jade murals in the world. It goes along three walls, consisting of roughly thirty of these framed segments. The detail was pretty amazing, considering it was made of rock.

Dan also got to ring this bell. He was supposed to just get his picture taken with it, but they let him ring it as well. Evelyn, for some reason, was afraid to go near it.

Evelyn and Jane along the outside of the temple. There were plenty of decorations that normally are not there due to the Chinese New Year festivities.

Dan and Evelyn in a rickshaw outside the temple. Jane was just one of dozens of photographers who took this picture.







After the temple, the kids were still doing pretty well despite the fact that it was getting close to their bedtimes. Jane found out about and arranged for a special treat of going to an Irish Pub called Finnegan's Wake, which advertised itself as Nanjing's only Irish Pub.

When we arrived, there were only a few other customers there, which is common for places here. Because of this, and because of our name, we got a bit of special treatment. Here is a picture of Dan and I toasting our drinks. He is having a kiddie cocktail, and I am having a very expensive (though very tasty) Guinness.

Because it was a slow night, the bar owner Ian hung out with us for a while. He said that they dressed up in masks every once in a while to play tricks on patrons. Dan and even Evelyn really loved the masks.

Here I am in the best mask; the bar owner acknowledged that the hood really made to costume that much better.

Despite being the only ones there at the time, they still played some Irish music for us. They played Danny Boy, Fields of Athenry, and Wild Rover, along with a few others. The kids played along with toy tambourines and maracas.

Here is Evelyn dancing along.

On the 4th floor of our hostel there was a bar/lounge that had a pool table and a foosball table. Dan always wanted to go up there and play. Here he is playing alongside the local cat, which always tried to steal the ball after a goal. Cat in Chinese is mao. Evelyn will always say mao rather than cat, one of many words that she seems to prefer speaking in Chinese.

There are always plenty of bronze statues along the streets, often with no explanations as to what they mean. Here is Dan alongside one such happy statue.

On our first full day in Nanjing, the weather was amazing, so we decided to go to Purple Hill. This is a small mountain and surrounding area of about 4000 acres. It gets its name from two sources, one being the plentiful plum blossoms (which hadn't bloomed yet), and the other being a mysterious purple cloudiness that sometimes develops around the mountain. Around Purple Hill are many historical sites from the Ming Dynasty, which was in rule during the 14th century. Though Nanjing was originally established near 500BC, it was popularized when it was made the capital of China in 1368 by emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Much of Nanjing, as a result, pays tribute to and has characteristics of this Ming Dynasty.

One of the things that happened during the Ming Dynasty was the building of the City Wall, which can be seen here. It took 200,000 laborers 21 years to finish the project, and it is the longest city wall in the world. We traveled to a gate of the city wall later in the trip, so there will be more on it later.

Purple Hill involved a lot of walking, and at the time it felt like we walked almost all of the mountain. We kept waiting for a bus to arrive to take us to one of the destinations that we wanted to see, but it never did. Whenever we did see one pass, it was completely packed such that we would never have all fit on it. So, we walked and walked and walked. Luckily it was such a nice day that we got to enjoy it.

Here are Dan and Etain walking along one portion of the wooden path which seemed to go for miles. The wooden path also had tons of steps, which meant plenty of stroller carrying, but it was no big deal.

Here is Etain, out for a stroll in one of the park areas.

The sisters having a conversation on the park bench.

One of the neat things in an area of Purple Mountain was Divine Trail. This was a long pathway that led to the burial site of one of the Ming Dynasty emperors. The Ming Tombs at this site are the largest in China, and they are the only such tombs outside of Beijing. Along the path were several pairs of stone animals intended to protect and honor the emperor. It was cool to see the kids play on these statues that were 600 years old.

This is Evelyn riding Xiezhi (shay-gee), a bear eyed unicorn.

Here are Dan and Evelyn, acting like one of the lions farted.

Here we are at the “Da Ming Xiao Ling Shen Gong Sheng De Bei” (Stele Eulogising the Great Achievements of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang). It is a 20 foot tall monument on the back of a tortoise, and it was located at the end of the sacred way of stone animals.

Even though there were many other things that we wanted to see on Purple Hill, by that time we were exhausted. We also had no idea how long it would take to get home. Luckily we learned about and found a bus that took us right by our place. When it came, it was completely full, but this time we didnt care. We crammed ourselves in, stroller and all. Evelyn was not in the mood to talk with the people on the bus, so she sat perfectly still and fell asleep. Etain was a bit cranky, but she eventually put her head on some woman's arm and fell asleep herself. We made it home in time to have hotpot at a nearby restaurant, then we headed home in attempts to get a respectable night's sleep.

Here are some pictures of Dan as we headed home from the restaurant before going to bed.

The next morning the weather was damp and cool. As a result, we decided to go to the Nanjing Science and Technology Museum for Children. We again took the bus, not knowing exactly where we were heading. Jane asked the bus driver, who had no idea where the place was. We stayed on for a few stops, then getting off after she recognized the name of a street. When we got off we asked again, with most people never having heard of the place. Finally one guy said to go up the street that we were on and then turn right. He advised, though, that we get a taxi. We ended up walking a few blocks only to see a huge street sign pointing us to the museum, which was about a half mile away. It was on the bus route that we were on, we simply got off a few stops too early. It was pretty amazing that nobody had any idea where it was. It would be like being in St. Louis and asking where the Science Center was, only to find that no one knew.

As soon as we got there Dan had to pee. We found this bathroom that was perfect for him. It is a bathroom for princes, as he is known in my family.









The museum was actually pretty neat. It was, in fact, a lot like the Science Center in St. Louis. It had many interactive experiments and toys. Unfortunately many of them were not working. It was starting to get a bit frustrating, but that is just one of the things you have to deal with here. Either way, there was still plenty of stuff to see and do to fill the day.

Here are the girls playing with some other children.








Here are the girls going for rides on the square-wheeled bike, which was easy to power once you got going.

Here are Dan and Evelyn playing the air drums on the drums that had no covers. Instead they used sensors to make the sounds.

The museum also had a very large play area. Evelyn slept on our way to the museum, but Etain slept most of the time while we were there. After she woke up from a major nap, she got to play in the balls with her siblings.











I tried to download a picture of the kids watching an IMAX movie, but it wouldn't work. We missed the 11:00 showing, so we bought tickets for 2:30 p.m. We were told that it was about space, which really interested Dan. When the movie started, though, it was a Christmas cartoon called Santa vs. the Snowman. The kids still really enjoyed it, but Dan wanted space instead. As a result, Jane talked to them and got our money back.

After a full day at the museum, we took the bus back near our place. We decided to eat at Burger King, which is not available in Changzhou. It was possibly the best tasting meal ever, since we were so hungry for not having eaten most of the day. I think we were all in bed by 7:00 p.m.

When we woke up the next morning, we grabbed some quick breakfast on the street near our hostel. We only had a half day to hang out, since our train left for Changzhou at 1:30 p.m. As a result, we decided to go to see the city wall close up. It was only about 10 blocks from our hostel. I think it was the west gate, but I am not sure. Here is Dan outside (actually inside) the gate.

The gate was actually about three blocks long, and it consisted of five different gates, to provide the greatest level of protection from invading forces. Inside the gate there were performances, since it was the New Year. Here is Dan with one of the emperor's high counsel. The emperor himself was not around for pictures. (Everyone is always telling us that our children are never dressed warm enough. They constantly chide Jane as they inspect the different layers of clothing that the girls wear. This counselor, however, in his wisdom, thought otherwise. He alone said that our children had shenti hao (shen-tea how), which means that they were of good health).

Here is a picture of Dan on the steps of a landing that go up one of the inner gates.
All the brickwork joints on the wall were poured with mixed lime, water in which glutinous rice had been cooked, and tong oil because the coagulated mixture was very strong.

On top of the outer wall were 13,616 crenellations, or battlements, for defenders of the city to observe the enemy or dodge arrows. These are basically the rectangles cut out along the top of the wall. The wall, obviously, stretched for as fall as the eye could see.

Here is the emperor's royal court doing a performance in an inner gate. You can appreciate the size of the wall on the right.

Here are Dan and a random girl on top of the highest part of the wall. We bought Dan a wooden sword on this trip, and as of writing this he still has yet to have put it down.

Here is Dan at the top of the steps on the highest portion of the wall. On each side of the steps were flat inclines, which were used to quickly transport materials from bottom to top. Horses could also go up and down these inclines. This wall is famous for being a true military marvel. It was designed truly for military purposes. It did not come into play during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, when Japanese forces raped, tortured and killed rougly 250,000 Chinese in Nanjing. Japanese forces entered the city with basically no military resistance. There is a Nanjing Massacre Museum, which I would like to see, but I have heard that it is very graphic and heavy. We decided not to go there this time, but maybe Jane and I will visit it in another trip.

We left the wall and headed back to the hostel to get our bag. We walked by this mall, which looked interesting enough to snap a picture. There are tons of high end stores throughout these mall, and you hardly ever see more than one or two people in the stores. I do not know how they stay in business.

After I grabbed the bag at the hostel, we had just enough time to grab another burger at Burger King. We then headed to the train station to head back. When we got there, we found out that our train was delayed. They would not tell us by how long though. We waited around for about fifteen minutes, and the train arrived. The train was standing room only when we got on. We had seats, but it was hard to keep a one and two year old on your lap for two hours. We were about one hour into the trip when the train came to a stop. Over the speakers, in Chinese, there was a message that the train was being stopped because it needed repairs. No one was excited to hear this. I have heard horror stories from other teachers about trains that sat on the tracks for more than an entire day. This was not an option for us. Luckily, it was not an issue either, as the delay lasted only about 15 minutes, though it seemed considerably longer. We got home at about 4 p.m., gave the kids baths and got everybody down to bed.

We now have 10 more days left until school starts back up. I think we are done with trips, but it might be possible that we go to Shanghai for a day or two. As always, I will keep you updated.

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. It is the year of the Ox. To say the least, last night was a night of celebration for the Chinese. Starting at about noon, fireworks started being set off. They were going off everywhere. When it got dark at about 6:00 p.m., the real fireworks began. It was a bit like living in a war zone. For as far as you could see, the sky was being lit up, and there was a constant grumble of explosions. I tried to take a few videos of the fireworks going on near our house. I know they are dark, but I wanted mostly to get the sound. These fireworks were going of a few dozen feet from our apartment building. We could stand on our deck and see people setting of foreworks everywhere. People were shooting them out of their windows even. This morning there was firework debris everywhere. According to tradition, fireworks are set off to warn off evil spirits. We should be ghost free for quite a while now.

Tomorrow we are heading to Nanjing for a four day vacation. We are charging the camera now, so we will be sure to take plenty of pictures, and I will update the blog afterwards.

Souzhou

Here are pictures from our recent trip to Souzhou (pronounced Sue-Joe). While St. Louis was struggling with 1 degree temperatures, we were forecasted to have a weekend in the upper 50s. As a result, we decided to take a little three day trip. Souzhou is located just one hour away by train. This was nice, there are no stories to tell this time about crazy train adventures. However, when we arrived at the train station in Changzhou, there was a bit of an adventure. Our tickets were for a departure at 2:50. We got there at about 2:20 p.m. Jane asked what gate we were supposed to go to, only to find out that the train left at 2:50 a.m. We were 12 hours late. Luckily, she was able to find someone who could help her out, and we were able to get tickets (for free) for a train that left 10 minutes after we got there (there are trains between Souzhou and Changzhou every 15 minutes or so, it seems).

Souzhou is an old and famous city in China. It has a population of 7 million. It is famous for silk production, and the local dish is the "huge crab". Most notably, Souzhou is known for its canals. It is located near the end of the Yangtze River, and waterways run throughout the city. This is how it earned its name as the "Venice of the East". These canals give great views, and the city also has tons of beautiful gardens. There is a famous Chinese proverb, "Paradise above, Souzhou and Hangzhou below." Hangzhou is another beautiful place we will go, but Jane is saving this trip for spring, when the weather is warmer, as taking a boat out on the huge lake there is part of the charm.

We arrived in Souzhou at about 4 p.m. Immediately, you could tell that it was an older city than Changzhou. Souzhou was established in 514BC. The train station was not that old, but it was much older than Changzhou's. It also seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. When we got off of the train, we asked where our hostel was, to find out that it was just up and over a couple of streets. It turned out to be about 25 minutes away, but probably due more to the pace you walk when everything around you is new rather than distance. The walk gave us a nice opportunity to look around. I am still fiddling around with the picture arrangements, but here are pictures of Dan and I sitting on a bridge overlooking a canal, as well as a picture of Dan and Jane on Tangshan lu, one of the most famous streets in Suzhou, lined with shops and restaurants.

When we checked in to the hostel, we did not have enough cash. I had to run to the bank, which ended up being good because I got to know where we were in relation to things. After I returned, we all went for a walk and to get some dinner. Here is a shot of Dan imitating a Jade statue, of a traditional chinese merchant.... it was pretty cool.

The Chinese New Year is coming up next week. As a result, many decorations were up, including lights and paper lanterns. Below is a picture of the kids and I; in the top left corner you can see the tip of a pagoda, a better picture of which is below.

We walked for a while and finally came to a very nice restaurant that we all knew: Pizza Hut. We don't ordianarilly do this, but thought it would be a nice treat for everyone. The Pizza Huts here are gourmet dining, it is pretty funny. We had fruit smoothies, potato salad, waffle fries, pork ribs, sole with dill sauce, shrimp and cheese pizza, and chocolate ice cream cake for dessert. As you can see in the picture, Etain was a fan of the ribs.

One store that we walked past sold nothing but swords. This was right up Dan's alley. Though he asked for one religiously thereafter, I didn't see any good coming out of that. We did let him get a picture with one of them though.

Here is a night shot looking down one of the canals, showing all of the Chinese lanterns that were lit.






When we returned to our hostel, women were out front dancing (exercising)complete with indian techno music. Dan joined in for a bit.

Etain also walked in and out of the dancers, who were glad to stop and play with her. Etain is extremely comfortable with Chinese people; she will let anyone hold her, as long as that person is Chinese.

I mentioned in a prior post that Jane gave a Rolex watch to me for Christmas. Here is a shot of my actual watch. When we were walking in downtown Souzhou, we passed a Rolex store. Outside was a picture of my exact watch, which should serve as proof that mine is authentic.

The next morning we woke up and headed downtown again. We bought a few boudzas to snack on, but also made the very neccesary stop at McDonalds for a good, cheap and fast cup of coffee. Outside of McDonalds, in the main square, there were a bunch of basketball machines. Here are the kids trying them out. Dan did great! getting a pretty high score. One kid, who I think worked there, had a score of about 1900 (2 pts. per basket). He kept playing and playing, never missing a shot, earning bonus round after bonus round.

In one area downtown they had a small bridge that went over a small waterway. Here is Evelyn on the bridge, dressed in her outfit that she received from Santa; she also insisted on donning a gold visor, sent by Gokie, for most of the trip. She is quite the fasion plate. I think the picture is funny because the bridge was wavy; I was on the top of a wave and she was on the bottom, with the result being that she looks a bit like a midget.

After walking around downtown for a while, we decided to go to a place called the Lingering Garden, known as one of China's most beautiful gardens. On or way there we bought the kids some gloves from a woman selling them out of a box. Grandma sent us the Power Rangers movie, which Dan has watched plenty of times. The gloves looked like Power Ranger gloves, so for the next two days Dan did fighting stances. Evelyn acted right along, imitating her brother at every opportunity.

Here are the Power Rangers in one area of the Lingering Garden. The Garden was originally built in 1593. It fell into disrepair later, and it was used as a breeding ground for Chinese war horses during the Sino-Japanese War. It was then taken over by the Souzhou government, rebuilt and repoened in 1954. The garden was pretty amazing, it was like a maze of gardens, rock sculptures, building and lakes.

Here are Jane, Dan and Evelyn atop one of the stone hills.

Can you spot Dan in this picture?

Again, they are ready for any sudden attacks.

This picture was taken in one area of the garden, separated from the 20 or so other areas of equal beauty.

Here is Dan on a stone bridge in a maze of pathways.

Trips and falls are not that uncommon for the three O'Toole kids.

They always bounce back.

Evelyn apparently has noticed that Dan does the peace sign when taking pictures. She has been trying to do it as well, though she does not quite have it down. She instead holds up five fingers, and she usually puts her hand directly in front of her face.

Here is Etain walking along one of the many gardens.

One area of the Lingering Garden was full of nothing but potted plants. There were hundreds of banzai trees throughout the garden. Often, they would have rocks placed in the pots as well, in order to make the rocks look like mountains with the small trees looking like trees on the mountain. They sometimes try to make the individual pots look like actual scenic areas throughout China.

I took this picture of one such pot, only to notice later that Jane's head was sticking out of the top of the mountain.

When the kids got their Power Ranger gloves, Jane bought a knitted hat for herself. After wearing it for a while, she decided it looked better on the kids. Here is a good picture of Evelyn wearing the hat. Again, because I crouched down to take the picture, she crouched down as well.

The girls and I walking along one of the paths.

When we left the garden, we headed back downtown for some food and then to head home. We walked by one electronics shop that was having some huge sale. To advertise, they had a full drumming band out front. Dan went up and inspected the drums and then they started playing....... Apparently Dan thought it was too loud.

He had no problem however, when they allowed him to join in with the band. This is one of the perks of being a foreign kid in China; I dont think they would let just any kid come up and do this. It actually probably draws more of a crowd than just the band alone.

Here is Dan at the entrance of the walkway near our hostel. This was a cool street that sold everything from silk to swords to food to statues to paintings to any other nic-nacs. Jane thinks that cars are going to be the downfall of China, in that they are unnecessary with such good public transportation, and they really hurt the character of places. This street did not allow cars, though it did allow motorbikes and motorcycles. It would have been better had it banned all motorized vehicles.

Instead of going to a restaurant, we decided to get street food, which is what we usually do. We found one small block that sold many different kinds of food, and it had benches to sit and eat. I ate fried noodles, while Evelyn and Dan had fried rice. Jane ate something else, which I am not sure of. I think it was large fat noodles, though the noodles were made of rice.

Here is a shot of Dan and Etain that captures a lot of what current China offers. In the back is a statue dedicated to Souzhou workers, on the far right is a McDonalds, surrounded by cars, then with a few rickshaws here and there. It is a real blend of old and new.

Here are Jane and Evelyn on a main street, leading to downtown, full of shops and restaurants. Far in the background on the left side you see a towering building. That famous monument is a Holiday Inn.

This is a picture of the band's area for outdoor concerts. Souzhou is also apparently known for concerts, especially opera. This was music only, with string and wind instruments. It was great and leant a lot of character to the street.

The two oldest heading home for the evening. Our hostel is on the left. Jane, again, did a great job picking the place. It was cheap, full of character, and located right in the heart of the active parts of Souzhou. It is the former residance of Mr. Wu Yi Peng (1460-1542), the Prime Minister of the Ceremony Department of the Ming Dynasty. For any interested visators, I have full confidence that Jane can help you plan an awesome trip!

Here is Etain in the hostel's courtyard, with a Chinese admirer following along. Thankfully, even though he was Chinese, Etain did not go running to him, hoping he would pick her up.

Peace...

Here are Jane and the kids outside the door that lead to our courtyard and our room. As you entered the door, there was an outdoor seating area made up of stone tables and stools, with the individual hostel rooms around the perimiter. There is a picture of the courtyard later on.

I tried to find out, but I could not get the name of this pagoda. It was probably about 8 blocks from our hostel. It is not that big, but this picture is pretty cool (as far as I am concerned).

This is Pan Gate, built 2500 years ago. It is at the entrace of the "city". In 514BC, a wall was built around Souzhou, as was done for many cities throughout China, for protection. This gate was the only way in and out of the wall. Because of its location on land and near the major canals, it is also known as the Land and Water Gate. Directly behind us, when we took this picture, was downtown.

That night we again hit the basketball hoops. This time they played techno dance music, to which Evelyn enjoyed a groove. It was not raining but there was a bit of moisture in the air. We changed the flash on our camera as a result, which ended up creating a glow effect.

On our way home we bought a few sparklers for the kids to play with. Here they are playing in the courtyard.

Because of all of the street food that is offered and bought, you can go an entire day to realize you did nothing but snack all day. At the end of the day, Dan and I finished off the rice before going to bed. One nice thing about the hostel was that everyone was in the same room. This was nice only because we all went to bed at about 8:00 pm., which was welcomed after a day of sightseeing.

Here are the girls, up and ready to head out the next day for more family fun.

On Sunday, we decided to head the other direction down Tang Shan Lu, the famous street. This section of the street was full of food vendors. Above is a picture of Dan standing next to a plentiful source of hot peppers as well as cinnamon sticks and other spices.

Here are all of the different types of marijuana that China has to offer. Just kidding, they are different types of tea. Drugs are extremely rare here, due to very harsh punishments. Tea, on the other hand, is quite common.

Birds were also for sale. This one is intended to be a pet, not a meal.

Here is Dan in front of one of the many fruitstands that we passed by. There are at least two or three fruitstands on every block. Sometimes you cannot believe that they could ever turn a profit with all of the competition.

Here we are at a very dead section of the street. You constantly have to keep a look out, one wrong step could put you right in front of a motorcycle. Dan is a habitual offender of making Jane yelp in fear, though nothing has ever happened. I guess she yelped a lot in the U.S., now that I think about it.

Dan along a canal. He is eating a fried bread that tastes just like a doughnut.

There were a lot of dogs and cats running around the street we walked down. Actually they didn't run, they just sat there. All of the animals here are quite docile. Dan named this section of China "Pet villiage".

Here is a door to a house, not so interesting on its own, but notice the picture of the Pope. Being that this is China, this made it picture wrthy. These houses will only have one or two rooms. One street that we walked down had a community bathroom, that every house on the block used.

A nice scenic spot along the canal.

Here we are at Tiger Hill. According to legend, the Wu emperor was buried here roughly 1000 years ago. Three days later, a white tiger was spotted crouching on the hill where he laid. Far in the background is the Huqui Tower, built in 959AD. It leans 3 degrees, roughly 2.32 meters. This is because the foundation is half concrete and half soil (the foundation was stabilized in later years).

We did not make it to the tower because we were running short on time and we wanted to take a gondola ride down the canal.

A personal gondola cost too much, but Jane was able to negotiate a ride in a bigger mass water taxi. It just so happened though, that we were the only people in the boat, soit ended up being a personal taxi after all. Evelyn was not all that excited when boarding, but she actually really liked it once inside.

Etain spent the entire boatride asleep.

Here are some of the views that she missed.

Houses sat right alongside the water. People washed their clothes in the canals, hanging them outside. Right along with the clothes you would find chickens hanging as well, drying out.

Here is a dog guarding a few live chickens, ready to meet their fate.

Evi flashing peace on the boat.




Deboarding and watching our boat head back downstream.

After getting off the boat, we had about an hour to kill. We again went downtown and grabbed some street food.

This time, one store was having a sale and they used two Mickeys to draw attention. Again, pairing our kids with them drew even more attention.

Dan enjoyed the cotton candy, the taste of which is pretty universal.

A parting shot of the nearby pedestrian walkway.

A nice picture of Etain after inheriting the hat.







We got back home at about 5:15 p.m. after a quick train ride. We then had to take a bus from the train station, which was another 25 minutes. By the time we got home, the kids were pretty happy to be done traveling. I have to say, Jane and I have to have three of the best little travelers in the world. They just go with the flow and take everything in, they are really loving all of our adventures. We got home with just

enough time to get a quick dinner, get cleaned up and get in bed for a solid night sleep.

So ends one of the longest posts in the history of blogdom.