Wedding of Wonders – The Blog

Our second full day in London took us outside of the city bright and early.  We took the Underground to the airport to rent a car (unfortunately from Budget) so that we could drive the 60 or so miles out to Stonehenge.  Luckily the rental car office was more than a crazy Egyptian man in a glass box, so we were able to pick up the car without incident (or the need to drive 30 minutes with strangers in the back seat).

We decided to rent a Ford Fiesta since Mike’s friend Nick had told him that this car would help to save Ford from the same pit of despair that the other car companies had recently fallen into.  Although Mike is fairly proficient when it comes to driving manual cars, the good ol’ London switcheroo of having the steering wheel on the opposite side was  a new challenge.  I must say that I was extremely impressed with his ability to pick it up in only a few short minutes, making the majority of the ride smooth and free of any stalling in the middle of the road.

The drive out to Stonehenge was incredibly beautiful once we escaped the London traffic and made it out to the countryside.  The entire region is filled with green pastures and farmland, making it a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city.  Once we arrived at the exit for Stonehenge, we noticed that the wind was starting to pick up considerably.  We had read online that the area surrounding the site was subject to high winds, but we really underestimated just how strong the wind could be.  We pulled into the parking lot and headed towards the entrance.

Donning our typical outfits (which was quite the challenge due to the wind), we made our way to our photo spot. We also took a quick video of the process we undertake for each photo.

(By the way, here was the shot we were going for with that one — it’s not perfect but we wanted it to look like we were holding a stone)

Stonehenge was a really interesting location, especially since it was only a few days before the solstice. It was packed with buses of schoolchildren, German tourists and crazy nerds studying the stones. The stones are standing on a bluff out in the middle of nowhere – it is completely empty and extremely windy. It is pretty amazing that after thousands of years the true purpose of the rocks has never been conclusively determined.

After our stop at Stonehenge (2nd to last stop!), we AMAZINGLY got a table at THE FAT DUCK!!! We were on the wait list, but had never expected to get in — this call was a complete surprise that was extremely welcome. And we had such an incredible time. As we walked up it looked just like any other quaint building in a small town in Southern England… but it was much, much more.

The Fat Duck is ranked the 2nd best restaurant in the world, and any chance we get to dine at an establishment like that, we must take it. It’s a pretty fun place, very cozy and with lots of innovative food. We started off with a palette cleanser of vodka, egg whites, green tea and lime juice deep frozen in liquid nitrogen, it was amazing. Another course featured liquid nitrogen billowing over a mossy box (and our table) as we dined on our forest feast.

We then received a conch shell with headphones coming out of it and a plate resembling the ocean. We were instructed to ‘listen to the music and eat, it will all be explained later’. As we heard the sounds of the sea and enjoyed the complex flavors of the incredibly realistic seascape before us. We later found out that the dish included deep fried baby eels and tapioca sand. It was a really ingenious creation.

Then it was time for ‘breakfast’. First we had Fat Duck ‘cereal’ which was parsnip cereal with parsnip infused milk.

And what’s breakfast without eggs and bacon? Not fun, if you ask me. Next the chef came over with an egg (that had been drained and filled with eggs infused with bacon) which he cracked into a bowl of liquid nitrogen. After a few quick stirs, he dropped it atop a piece of french toast and a bacon-looking piece of sugar. Having this strange egg/bacon ice-cream (since the liquid nitrogen freezes it) with french toast was really awesome — really cool idea.

Everything this restaurant did was a show. It’s not the kind of place you would eat every day (much too over the top) but it is an incredibly innovative experience that was really a lot of fun. If you find yourself in London with time to hitch out to the suburbs, make sure to get there! It definitely deserves its spot at #2.

And it was on that, very very full note, that Mike and I vowed not to eat tasting menus for a long time (we’ve gotten quite fat on this trip). Since the wedding is just around the corner, it’s time to slim down so that we will fit into our respective wedding outfits. And since we’ve never felt fatter, it’s extremely appropriate that Rio is our next stop considering it is the land of beautiful people (in very tiny bathing suits). Talk to you soon!!!

I’ll admit that one of the best things about our stay in London was the fact that our adventures were not as mentally draining as our previous stops throughout Europe and Asia. Although we got by in most places with our limited language arsenal (Mike’s fairly extensive German skills, a few language books and my ability to nag him until he asks for help and/or directions), being back in a place where our language is the official language is somewhat comforting. You really underestimate the extra energy necessary to navigate your surroundings when you must first translate whatever it is you are trying to read/find/etc. (Cairo was especially a nightmare since both the words AND numbers must be translated from Arabic, thus making conversing, driving, exchanging money and doing pretty much anything besides hiding out in your terrible hotel room somewhat stressful.)

So, with all that said, we had a fantastic time in London. It was another brief stay for us (i.e., less than 4 days); however, we made the most of our time and saw just about everything we wanted to see. We arrived in London from Dusseldorf in the late afternoon and checked into the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel in the Knightsbridge section of the city. After dropping our luggage off in our room, we decided to scope out the area around where we were staying. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes of walking, the weather took a turn for the worst, so we ducked into a cute little pub around the corner. An order of fish and chips washed down with a few beers helped us to forget about the cold rain coming down outside and gave us a great first taste of London. Once the rain let up, we made our way back to the hotel and crawled into bed to rest up for the two full days of Wedding of Wonders excitement that awaited us.

The next day was filled with the quintessential tourist things across the city including the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, Covent Garden and numerous other stops in between. We arrived at Buckingham Palace just in time to be overrun by about a million tourists attempting to get a glimpse of the changing of the guards. Since we did not pack our German tourist coats for the occasion, we quickly moved through the enormous crowd, snapped a few pictures and made our way to the Underground en route to lunch.

On this particular day, we had plans to meet up with Mike’s friend Jim Vint from the FTI London office. Jim was one of the first people that Mike met when he started at FTI, so it was nice to catch up with him since he moved to London almost two years ago. We had a nice, delicious lunch at The White Swan in the Holborn section of the city where we reminisced about how quickly the last 5 years have simply flown by.

After lunch, we said goodbye to JV and continued east towards the Tower Bridge. Along the way we stopped to see St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge.

Although the clouds looked slightly ominous, the weather held up and made for an absolutely beautiful walk along the water. We passed the London Bridge (which is not at all attractive) and approached the beautiful, much more spectacular and freshly painted Tower Bridge.

We arrived just as a large boat entered the vicinity, causing the bridge to open in order to allow it to pass through. Since the bridge opens only 2-3 times each day, we were lucky to witness this considering we did not hang around for too long.

We climbed the steps leading up to the bridge walkway and headed north towards the closest subway stop.

A few stops later and we emerged next to the Parliament building which is home to the famous Big Ben.

Just across the water from Parliament is the super cool-looking London Eye. Although we did not have the opportunity to take a ride, I thought it was pretty awesome that you could actually rent out one of the bubbles and host parties inside as you look out over the city, drink champagne and hang out with your friends. That is something that we will definitely put on our list of future activities.

After we had our share of super touristy attractions, we hopped back on the train and went back to the hotel for a quick nap.  A couple of hours later, we woke up, got dressed and walked back to the nearest Underground station so that we could grab some food.  Once we arrived at the station, we noticed that all of the entrances were blocked off by gates.  There was one gate slightly open, with an employee blocking the opening, so we decided to ask why the train was closed so early.  He broke the unfortunate news that there was “a person under the train.”  Yikes.  He told us that it would be a few more HOURS until the train would re-open (double yikes), so we would have to walk around the corner and catch the bus to Piccadilly Circus.

For dinner, we made our way through Piccadilly and over to Covent Garden and wandered the cobblestone streets until we found a little restaurant on the main square.  A pot of mussels, a bottle of wine and a warm brownie later, and we were already tired and ready to call it a night.  The next morning we would be off to Stonehenge for a photo-shoot and The Fat Duck for a marathon tasting menu, so we needed all the sleep we could get.

The second half of our trip to Rome was the perfect medicine after our less-than-relaxing visits to both India and Egypt.  Waking up around 11:00AM without having to worry about what types of bugs might be crawling either in or around the bed was extremely refreshing.  (Not sure if we mentioned this before, but we had a major bug infestation in our hotel room in India that caused both of us to jump onto our couch like little girls and call the front desk for help…not the best.) 

Our second full day in the city was filled with little more than a casual walk through the streets andback to the little cafe we had found the day before.  More gelati, wine and people-watching was pretty much all we had on the agenda since the following day would be filled with a fair amount of exploring, in search of the perfect place to take our wedding photo.  We headed back to the hotel fairly early and indulged in a nap, which turned into a marathon 12-hours of sleep and erased any plans that we had for grabbing dinner. 

We woke up the next morning and prepared for the long day ahead of us.  Not only did we need to visit the inside of the Colosseum and find a good place for our photos, but we still had to venture out to the Vatican since Mike’s inner-Catholic-schoolchild-guilt would most likely eat away at him for years if we did not at least take a walk through St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square.  (I, on the other hand, grew up with a Christmas tree topped with a Star of David – a perfect example of me and my brother’s less-than-religious upbringing.)  We packed our bag with the usual wedding of wonders arsenal (still camera, video camera, tripod, map, water, wedding dress and tuxedo) and ventured out into the warm Rome air.  First stop?  The Colosseum.

Just as we expected, the area surrounding the Colosseum was completely overwhelmed by tourists from all over the world.  We quickly made our way past the souvenir stands and greasy Italian men dressed as gladiators (seriously) and into the long-ish line to buy tickets to see the inside of this colossal structure.  While many of the American tourists (including one super classy 20-something couple from New Jersey) were whining about the somewhat lengthy wait to purchase tickets, the line seemed like a piece of cake to us after all of the waiting that we had done over the past few weeks (airports, bathrooms, restaurants, etc.).  Eventually we purchased our tickets and made our way to the interior portion of the arena. 

To call this structure impressive would certainly be an understatement since the sheer scale of the building coupled with the fact that a large portion of it has really withstood the test of time (had it not been for numerous earthquakes stone-robbers, the majority of the structure would still remain today),  makes for an amazing sight, especially considering it was completed in 80 A.D. 

We made our way throughout the two existing levels of the structure and quickly realized that a photo here 1) would probably be impossible considering the overload of tourists 2) most likely would not capture the impressive size and recognizable features of the structure and 3) could possibly get us escorted out by security.  We snapped a few more photos of the inside and moved onto Plan B – finding a place on the outside where we could change into our outfits and take a good picture without turning into a huge spectacle in front of thousands of tourists.

After leaving the inside of the Colosseum, we made our way to the surrounding area known as the Palatine Hill, where there are numerous ruins as well as ongoing archaeological dig sites.  Since this particular area sits on the hill directly above the Colosseum, we were convinced that we would find at least one good photo location somewhere along the way.  We walked and walked and walked.  Nothing.  Most of the decent spots were either obscured by large trees, overlooked a less-than-stellar view of the Colosseum or were closed off to visitors by large gates and/or “pericolo” (aka danger) signs.  Feeling slightly defeated, we climbed a hidden set of stairs along the path and hoped for something promising once we reached the top.  We were in luck!  We had stumbled upon the back entrance to a fantastic lookout point with views of the Colosseum as well as most of Rome. 

Although this area was also filled with tourists (who somehow got the memo about the great view before we accidentally stumbled upon it in a more haphazard fashion), it was much less crowded than the area directly surrounding the Colosseum itself, so we decided it would be the perfect spot for our photo.  We found a grassy area off to the side (although my dress is slowly getting destroyed, I am trying to avoid dust and dirt as much as possible) and changed into our outfits as inconspicuously as possible.  Once we were in full wedding attire, we spotted a friendly-looking couple and asked them to take a few pictures of us since our tripod was not high enough to reach up over the railing encasing the perimeter of the overlook.  They kindly agreed and took a bunch of pictures as we once again became a spectacle with tourists pointing and snapping pictures of us. 

Once we had the perfect shot, we changed back into our street clothes and made our way to our next location:  Vatican City.  Since my toe was once again giving me issues (ugh), we hopped on the metro and arrived at the “Musei Vaticani” stop in no time.  A quick walk past the main gates and we emerged in the center of St. Peter’s Square. 

Wow.  We never thought we would set foot in a place that rivaled the grandeur and opulence of the Palace of Versailles, but this was certainly a contender.  The Vatican certainly got the memo about marble columns and decided to put them pretty much anywhere they could find room.

We explored the square for a few minutes and then made our way into the line for the metal detectors that would allow us to enter St. Peter’s Basilica.  After passing the security checkpoint, all visitors must then make it past the decency checkpoint.  You probably think I’m kidding, but I’m not.  If you come dressed in anything shorter than capri pants or 3/4 length sleeves, the Vatican decency police will turn you away, thus making you feel like a huge slut.  One girl in front of us was wearing a skirt that was too risque for the church andwas turned away.  She had a black tank top on under her shirt, so she decided to pull it down around her waist so that it would sit below her skirt and would cover the portion of her legs down to her knees.  Although she could barely walk with her shirt pulled down so far, she went back towards the decency policy and made her 2nd attempt at entering the facility.  One of the guys at the door attempted to turn her away again, but then realized that she looked soo utterly ridiculous, that he took pity on her and let her through…laughing at her as she hobbled along like a baby deer.  (I’ll be honest, it was pretty hilarious.) 

Once inside the building, we decided to head over to the Vatican grotto first to see the more than 100 tombs beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was pretty incredible to see one place where so many historical figures (not only past popes are buried here) have been laid to rest.  Perhaps the craziest thing we saw here was the handful of visitors sobbing hysterically over the tomb of John Paul II.  While I understand the importance of religion to many people and the impact that a figure such as the pope has over them; it was incredibly awkward to walk through such an intimate moment in these people’s lives (especially considering there was no other way around them besides walking directly between them and the tomb).  Maybe a private mourning area, away from the main walkway? 

After visiting the grotto, we made our way to the main floor of St. Peter’s Basilica.  Our jaws nearly dropped to the floor when we saw the elaborate artwork, sculptures and marble-work covering every single inch of the basilica.  The space was absolutely enormous and 2 amazing rays of sunlight shining through the windows made it nearly impossible for anyone to enter without feeling a sense of awe regardless of their religious affiliation. 

After a quick walk throughout the exceptionally expansive space (the basilica can hold nearly 60,000 people), we began our trek back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  It had been a long day in the hot, humid air and we were ready for a nice, relaxing dinner. 

Once back at the hotel, we got ready for dinner and traveled down a whopping 2 floors to Vivendo, which was conveniently located in the lobby of the St. Regis.  Dinner was absolutely delicious and was complimented perfectly by the wonderful service and fantastic wine pairings of each course.  The best part of the night was definitely the fact that our room was only a 2 minute walk away, making it very easy to collapse into bed after what ended up being an extremely long (albeit productive) day. 

Our extra two days in Rome was definitely one of the best decisions we have made during this trip.  Although the city is extremely walkable, thus making it easy to see everything very quickly, it was wonderful to take our time and enjoy such a beautiful place with an impressive history of art and culture.  I certainly would not recommend only spending 4 days here, but our visit gave us a taste of what we will see once we return. 

Arrivederci, Rome!  Here we come, Brussels!!!

So, as you could probably tell from our last entry, our trip to Cairo did not exactly start off on the right foot.  We arrived at the international terminal to dozens of hecklers attempting to coax us over to their various storefronts so that they could rip us off with tours, hotel shuttles, etc.  We did our best to ignore their aggressive tactics and finally found the Budget Rent A Car “office” hidden in the far corner of the arrivals area.  Our rental experience was pretty much the most atrocious thing we have ever encountered since the rental “agent” was chain smoking and talking on his cell phone throughout the entire transaction and made us wait around for nearly an hour while he took his good old time preparing our rental forms (there was no computer, printer or modern technology anywhere in sight, so everything had to be written out by hand).  Once our paperwork was complete, the agent locked the “office” and took us to the airport shuttle so that we could ride 10 minutes to a shady off-site parking lot where the car was parked.  It was completely unnecessary to note the existing damage to the car aside from simply noting that it was the biggest piece of crap on the road.  Since the agent did not have any maps available for customers and laughed at us when we asked if he had a GPS, he offered to have 2 of his friends accompany us for the first part of our drive until we reached the main road that leads to Giza.  We agreed since we did not have much of a choice and watched as two grown Egyptian men squeezed into the one remaining back seat.  Although they were rather friendly, we were beyond frustrated at this point since you really shouldn’t have to bring random strangers with you in order to find your way in a car that you just paid over $200 for.  After about 20 minutes, we dropped off the men in the middle of the highway (as they requested) and continued to our hotel.  The drive was absolutely ridiculous (to say the least) since the highway was a virtual free-for-all between the non-existent driving rules and pedestrians attempting to cross the sprawling lanes of traffic regardless of the various medians and barriers erected to prevent such activity in the first place. 

We finally made it to our hotel, but there was no sense of relief as we had hoped for.  We were greeted by armed guards and bomb-sniffing dogs who had to search our vehicle before we could enter the premises.  Luckily there were no drugs or weapons hidden in our 2003 Daewoo POS and we were ushered past the main gate.  Once inside the hotel, another checkpoint with a metal detector stood between us and the check-in desk, but luckily we made it through without incident.  We checked into the hotel and finally got on the elevator that would finally take us up to a clean, quiet place to decompress.  Or not. 

Although we were placed on a non-smoking floor of the hotel, they must have made the switch fairly recently since our entire room smelled like an ashtray.  Not only that, but the furniture and carpeting appeared to have been purchased from a third world thrift store more than 2 decades  ago and probably hadn’t been washed since.  I looked at Mike (who also looked shocked that Le Meridien would put their name on such a dump) and finally broke down.  Not only did I feel completely vulnerable since we had arrived at the airport, but our hotel  did not offer any amount of calm or comfort to improve the situation.  Mike quickly got on the phone and called Star Alliance.  If there was any possible way to get out of Cairo, we would do it.  Fast. 

After almost an hour on the phone, Mike had us on a flight to Rome the next morning and notified the hotel that we would be checking out early.  I was already having major anxiety about the drive back to the airport the next morning, but I didn’t care.  I just wanted out of Cairo as soon as possible. 

Unfortunately, there was one slight problem with our new plan.  Since it was after 4:00pm, the pyramids were already closed for the day and they would not open until 8:00am the next morning.  There was no way for us to take our wedding photos at the pyramids.  We went down to the Concierge and asked if there was any way to get close to the pyramids that night or early the next morning.  He told us that there were 3 “Light and Sound” shows each night (1 each in English, German and French), but that they did not begin until after sunset.  We decided to book the earliest show (which was in German, to Mike’s delight) and keep our fingers crossed that there would be enough light to get our photos.  At 7:45pm, we met the bus in front of the hotel and made our way to the pyramids with our wedding outfits in tow.  Unfortunately, we made it to the pyramids slightly too late and there was not enough light to capture the shots before the show began.  We hoped that the pyramids would remain lit after the show so that we could try to snap some shots of us in the dark, but they turned the lights off immediately after the show.  Bummer. 

The light show itself pretty much cheapened the whole pyramid experience for us.  It started off with a group of men marching out in traditional outfits, playing the bagpipes until the main show began.

The light and sound show itself was a glorified third grade history lesson involving the story of the pyramids and the kings buried beneath them.

It combined projected images (such as a face on the Sphinx) with colored spotlights and laser lights in order to effectively ruin any ideas of grandeur that our teachers instilled in us about the pyramids during our youth.  Oh, and there was a pack of wild dogs that ran in front of the audience during the show as well – nice touch. Long story short…it sucked.  Luckily, we managed to get some decent pictures of the whole area lit up, but there was no opportunity to get a picture of us in front of the pyramids.  Oh well.

The next morning we debated trying to walk as close as we could to the pyramids to get a photo, but the delayed sunrise and heavy fog quickly quashed that idea.  Instead, we snapped a few shots from our balcony and packed our bags (which took about 2 seconds since we had barely unpacked in the first place). 

Luckily we left ourselves plenty of time since it took the garage nearly an hour to find our car.  After paying off 5 guys who were standing around “helping” us, we got in the car, locked the doors and started the drive to the airport.  Somehow we managed to make it back without incident (even without a map, GPS or 2 Egyptian men in the back seat), but once again, we encountered another bump in the road.  The Budget guy was nowhere to be found.  We had called ahead to let him know that we were leaving 2 days early and would arrive at the airport within in the hour, but once we go the office, the door was locked and no one seemed to know where he had gone.  The agent from the Hertz “office” agreed to accompany us to the shady parking lot and fill out our return paperwork (even though he did not work for Budget and had no affiliation with the company at all) since the Budget guy was not around.  He hopped in the backseat of the car, directed us to the parking lot, jotted down our mileage and rode the shuttle with us back to the terminal to complete the “transaction”.  Once we returned to the Budget “office,” the shady “agent” had returned and was back to “work,” talking on his cellphone and chain-smoking cigarettes.  He looked extremely thrilled to see us (NOT) and almost managed to acknowledge us while he chatted to whatever shady friend he had on the phone.  He once again took his sweet time filling out our paperwork even though he knew that our flight was leaving shortly.  After a good 45 minutes of waiting, we finally made it back onto the airport shuttle so that we could check-in at the international terminal.  Free at last!  Or not. 

Once we made it to the check-in counter, the agent told us that they had no record of our tickets.  Fantastic.  She told us to go to the far end of the terminal and ask the ticket desk for our ticket numbers since her records only showed up as “Paper Tickets”.  We ran across the terminal and got in line behind a 70-year-old Egyptian man who didn’t seem to understand that the agent could not accept his wad of cash (that he pulled out from what appeared to be his undergarments) in exchange for a ticket right there on the spot.  Our anxiety was building at this point since we still had to check-in, make it past security and find our gate in a very limited amount of time.  After we talked to the ticketing agent and got our actual ticket numbers, we ran back across the terminal and handed the numbers to the check-in agent.  Still no luck.  She told us to sit down while she called her boss to come over and resolve the problem.  Another 30 minutes or so of waiting and we finally had 2 tickets out of the chaos. 

We ran to the passport counter and waited another 20-minutes for the agent to figure out what a computer was and finally made it to our gate just in time to wait in line for another 15-minutes to get past security so that we could wait in another line for another 20-minutes in order to board the shuttle to the plane.  Once on the plane with the door shut and the wheels up off the ground, we almost felt a sense of relief.  Until the announcement.  A passenger was ill and needed a doctor.  Any doctors or nurses on board should hit their call button and notify the flight crew immediately.  Crap.  With 3 hours of flight time ahead of us and only 30 minutes behind us, we began to worry that we would have to turn around and head back to Cairo.  Please, no.  There was no doctor or nurse on board, but the crew decided to continue onto Rome.  Thank goodness.  We finally caught a break.  Until the puking began.  The sick passenger began vomiting violently for the last 2 hours of the flight.  Although the crew attempted to clean it up and spray as much air freshener as possible, the stench on the plane became almost unbearable as the flight finally began to descend. 

Once we landed in Rome, we parked as far as possible from the terminal and waited for another bus to shuttle us to freedom.  As the passengers loaded onto the bus, things were fairly calm until Queen Pukes A Lot decided it would be a good idea to join us.  Quickly, the same stench that had haunted us for most of the flight filled the shuttle and caused a near riot.  The other passengers, already furious that the flight had been such a disaster, began shouting at the sick woman in Italian, asking her to get off of the bus and take her puke smell with her.  No luck.  Another 15 minutes of the horrible odor and we were at the terminal.  Free at last. 

We made it through customs in record time, collected our luggage, hopped in a cab and arrived at the St. Regis Grand Rome in less than an hour.  Although the hotel is absolutely gorgeous, I didn’t even care at this point.  There was no shady rental car to deal with, no metal detector, no bomb-sniffing dogs and no cigarette smell in our hotel room.  We had clean sheets, a shower without stains from wall-to-wall and finally felt safe in our surroundings.  I love Rome already.

Like most of our trip thus far, our stop in China came and went at the blink of an eye. As you can probably tell from our delayed posting, we ran around Beijing for three days attempting to see as much as possible before moving onto India. Our first stop in China was the unbelievably enormous Forbidden City which is located right in the heart of Beijing. Since the recent Olympic Games greatly increased the number of English-language signs throughout the city, we opted for public transportation instead of hopping in a cab. The transit system, albeit incredibly crowded, was perhaps the cleanest system we have ever encountered and much easier to navigate than the train lines in New York or Philadelphia. For only 2 Yuan (approximately $.30 USD) a passenger can travel the entire distance of the line and get to pretty much any location throughout Beijing. Only a few short stops from our beautiful hotel (more on that later) and we were right in the heart of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

We made our way through the throngs of (mostly Chinese) tourists and past the main gate (aka The Meridian Gate) to the sprawling courtyard. Once inside this first gate, you are almost guaranteed to be swarmed by handfuls of locals attempting to sell you anything and everything from popsicles and traditional breads to paper fans and trinkets. One young lady attempted to sell Mike her services and we’re still not exactly sure what those services were, but the proposal did end with a wink. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Once we made it past the tourist trap area (i.e. into the area that required an admission fee), we entered the interior portion of the Forbidden City and into the heart of the Emperor’s Palace.

It is simply impossible to put into words just how absolutely enormous this entire compound looks when you are standing in the center of everything. As you pass through each gate, you think that you’ve reached the end, but it continues even farther to another section even larger than the previous one. Once we reached the opposite end of the Forbidden City, we indulged in a couple of red bean popsicles (quite interesting) inside of the Emperor’s garden and enjoyed watching the crazy characters that passed us as we people watched.

After a few hours in the summer sun and scorching heat, we were beginning to get a little too red (no pun about communism intended) and decided that it was time for some shade. We found our way out of the Forbidden City (after another run-in with the girl that tried to proposition Mike earlier in the day), made it to the nearest subway station and headed back to our hotel. Now, I must say…after staying in some fabulous hotels along the way, this one definitely takes the cake thus far. The JW Marriott Beijing is an amazing hotel just steps from a high-end mall, a subway station, and a few great restaurants. Our room (we were kindly upgraded to a suite) had 2 bathrooms, high-end L’Occitane bath products and an enormous cushy king bed. But what really blew us away was the kindness of the staff. Each time we entered or exited the hotel, we were greeted with a warm smile and enthusiastic ‘hello’ or ‘enjoy your day’. Security was on high alert since numerous United States officials were visiting for a meeting about energy consumption and the impact of the US and China on global warming, but the staff did whatever they could to limit the hassle of having to go through the metal detector before entering the building as well as the excessive amount of security on site throughout our stay. Once we made it back to our room, we decided to go online and book our visit to the Great Wall. There were a number of options through the government-owned tour agency, but we decided to avoid the most popular section of the wall (the Badaling section) and book a visit to the less-crowded section known as the Mutianyu section. We scheduled our tour for the next morning and went to bed completely fried after our day out in the heat.

The next morning we went down to the lobby to wait for our tour guide Alice and we stopped to chat with the Concierge about where to find some good Peking duck once we returned. He made us a reservation at a place called China Lounge where the chef used to work at one of the most famous Peking Duck restaurants in China. Before we left for our tour, he asked us if we had seen the Acrobatic show in Beijing before. When we told him ‘no’, he insisted that we squeeze in a show before leaving the next morning. We agreed and added it to our long list of things to see and do that day. Shortly thereafter, Alice finally arrived with the rest of the tour group and we made our way out of the city and into the more rural area on our way to the Great Wall. Almost two hours later, we pulled into a small parking lot and next to a small building (also owned by the government) where workers produce Cloisonné pieces pretty much around the clock.

We were given a quick tour of the facility where they showed us the numerous (and extremely labor intensive) steps necessary to produce items ranging from vases and bowls to bracelets and chopsticks.

We were then escorted into the “gallery” where we were welcome to purchase (of course) some of the items that we had just seen throughout the production process. We grabbed a few souvenirs and then hopped back on the bus for the remaining drive to the Great Wall.

Once we arrived at the wall, we made our way through a throng of kiosks where people once again tried to sell us more souvenirs and past one sad looking camel until we finally arrived at the cable car that takes you to the top of the wall (and thus avoiding 1400 steps which my still swollen toe certainly could not handle). The ride to the top was slightly scary (I’m a huge baby when it comes to heights), but it was certainly worth it.

The view from the top of the Great Wall was absolutely breathtaking. Unlike other wonders we had visited, the actual wall is free from tourist traps and sales pitches and you are able to appreciate the beauty of everything around you. Although we stumbled upon other tourists from time to time, there were large chunks of time when we had a piece of the wall all to ourselves. It is difficult to describe, but the entire experience was amazing. We took advantage of the privacy and found a good place to take our wedding photos. Mike had to completely change into his tux (I thought it would be pretty funny if he got arrested for stripping down on the Great Wall), but I decided to put my dress on over my clothes. Aside from a small group of Chinese tourists who passed us at one point (and giggled at Mike getting changed), it was a rather successful photo shoot. Since the timer on the camera is only 10 seconds, it is pretty hilarious watching us attempt to get our necessary photos. I typically stand in place (since my dress is long and difficult to run in) while Mike hits the button on the camera and quickly runs (sometimes a decent distance away) into the frame. As we were taking our photos, a large crowd started to form on the steps leading up to the guard tower closest to where we were looking absolutely ridiculous. At one point, a guy from Holland finally came over and said “I’ve laughed at you guys enough. Would you like me to snap some photos for you?” So, yeah… we caused quite the scene. Long story short, we got some absolutely amazing shots on the wall.

Once we were finished taking our photos, we changed back into our street clothes and walked back to the cable car so that we could meet the tour group back at the bus. We were somewhat accosted by a handful of women attempting to sell us T-Shirts that said “I Climbed The Great Wall” on our way back down, but we made it through the market without buying anything, which was pretty impressive considering the overly aggressive selling tactics.

The bus snaked its way back through the small farming and fishing villages until we finally arrived back in the city. Since we were cutting in close on time, we were dropped off directly in front of the theater so that we could catch the Acrobatic Show before dinner. As we entered the theater, we were quickly ushered up to the front of the auditorium and into the “VIP” section at the front. (VIP = Western tourists who bought their tickets through the hotels that pretty much keep the acrobatic show in business.)

After listening to quite a few tracks from a traditional Chinese music CD (okay, maybe it was actually more than half of the Hilary Duff album), the lights finally dimmed and the show began. We expected to see something very similar to the acrobatic show in Epcot, but boy were we wrong. The gymnasts, contortionists and acrobats who performed were unbelievable and pulled off some pretty incredible stunts for a somewhat small stage.

At one point, there was a guy standing on a rolling board with a table on his shoulders that held another guy on top of it who was also standing on a rolling board who managed to fling multiple bowls onto his head without falling 20 feet to his death.

After the Acrobatic Show, we made our way to dinner at China Lounge. The restaurant was somewhat buried off of the main road and not exactly in the heart of the city, but when you walk inside, you feel as if you are right in the heart of everything. The decor was über modern and the vibe incredibly upbeat, which was a good sign of what was to come. The hotel called ahead and ordered our Peking Duck in advance (since it takes an hour to prepare), so we ate almost immediately. All I can say is: Oh. My. Gosh. The duck was perhaps one of the best dishes we have ever eaten. It was certainly a fabulous (and yummy) way to cap of an exciting and fast-paced visit to China.

The next morning we packed our bags and headed to the airport. It was an extremely quick stop on our trip, but we will definitely be heading back to China again in the near future. India here we come!

In response to the thousands of concerned emails (okay, maybe just one from Mike’s mom), we just wanted to let you all know that we are alive and well.  We have been running around like crazy people in China and India (we are waiting to board our flight to Egypt now) and will upload our trip stories from Beijing and Delhi shortly.

We are having a fantastic time so far and appreciate all of the comments and supportive emails from all of you, so keep ‘em coming!  We look forward to filling you in our recent adventures once we arrive in Cairo.

xoxo,

Katie & Mike

In true Katie and Mike fashion, our trip to China started off with quite a bit of excitement.  Since we knew that there was a problem with my entire around the world ticket, we made sure to arrive at the airport as early as possible just in case there were any major issues at check-in.  We arrived at the Air China counter at 6:51AM (3 hours and 4 minutes before our 9:55AM flight) and waited for a check-in attendant to acknowledge us.  After a few minutes, a rather obnoxious woman told us that check-in did not begin until 3 hours prior to boarding.  Mike glanced at his watch, noted the time of 6:53AM and replied “so, in 2 minutes, then?” and smiled at the woman behind the desk.  She responded with “yes, 2 minutes” and proceeded to flirt with the male attendant behind the desk for the full 2 minutes until she was officially on the clock.  After a (thankfully) uneventful check-in process, we made our way to the airport lounge so that we could grab some breakfast (the automatic pancake making machine was pretty awesome) and take advantage of the free wireless for the next 2.5 hours until our plane was scheduled to board.

While boarding our 10-hour flight to Shanghai (en route to Beijing) from Sydney, we watched as the people in front of us were stopped by crew members and scanned with infrared “guns” on their foreheads.  It was incredibly confusing at first, but apparently this is standard practice in China so that they are able to monitor each passenger’s temperature and check for sickness (H1N1/Swine Flu in particular) before allowing each person on the plane.  We too were subjected to the scanning process as we approached the airplane door and tried our best not to laugh at how ridiculous the entire process appeared since the infrared gun looked almost like bar-code scanners at the grocery store checkout.  After it was determined that we were not in fact attempting to smuggle the next big pandemic on-board, we were permitted to make our way to our seats and prepare for the extremely long flight ahead of us.  I must say, even with the language barrier between us and the Air China crew (some announcements were made in both English and Chinese while others were made in only the latter), the service was absolutely fantastic and the flight crew made us feel at home for the entire flight (the warm towels scented with cucumber were a nice touch before and after meals).

Upon landing in Shanghai, we were told that the H1N1 Hazmat Crew (not actually what they were called, but the name seemed rather appropriate to us) would come on board and take every passenger’s temperature once again before allowing us to leave the plane.  We parked at the gate and watched as 3 men wearing full biohazard suits entered the plane with the same infrared guns we had seen when we boarded the plane in Sydney.  They proceeded to test the pilots and flight crew before moving onto the passengers.  After scanning the passengers sitting in the rows before us, they finally moved on to Mike.  He got the all clear.  Then it was my turn.  After scanning my head with the infrared gun, the Hazmat Crew looked at each other and called out to their partner who had the regular thermometer.  Crap.  This hadn’t happened to anyone else before us.  The entire Business Class section of the plane was now staring at me as if I was diseased.  The Hazmat worker with the thermometer made his way over to me and told me that I had not passed the infrared test and that he would have to perform the second test just to make sure I was okay.  (Aside from the fact that the plane was 100 degrees, I felt totally fine.)  After a minute or two of panic, they decided that I was not an incubator of plague and moved onto the next potential pandemic-carrying passenger.  After about 30 minutes of waiting, the Hazmat Crew found a potential problem in the back of the plane.  Everyone in our section was pointing, staring and gossiping about what was happening in the back, but we could not see what was going on or understand what everyone was saying.  After another 15 or so minutes, they decided to let the Business Class section exit the plane, but kept the entire Coach section for further testing.

We made our way to customs at the Shanghai airport and up to the customs official.  After thumbing through Mike’s passport for a few moments, the official noticed the Mexico stamp towards the back.  He looked up at us, looked back at the passport and asked Mike “When go to Mexico?”  Thankfully we had scrapped our Mexico plans for this trip and were able to diminish the fears of the official by letting him know that it had been more than 3 years since Mike had last been to Mexico City and thus was not subjected to the recent H1N1 outbreak.  We made it past customs and back to our gate (and back to our same plane) to wait for our 2-hour flight to Beijing.  The back of the plane (which had been left behind for further testing and possible quarantine) was still waiting for the results of the H1N1 testing and had been given masks to wear while remaining in the jet-way so that the crew could prepare the plane for the second leg of the journey.  After more than an hour of waiting, they were finally cleared and were permitted to make their way to customs as well.  Phew.  We weren’t all going to die of the Swine Flu after all.

Our second flight was somewhat uneventful.  Mike and I slept most of the way and woke up just before landing in Beijing.  No more infrared scanning this time around, so we quickly made it off the plane and into the Beijing International Airport to retrieve our bags.  After a quick baggage scare (we didn’t know that we had to get our baggage from the opposite side of the terminal), we finally made our way into a cab.  We had the information desk at the airport translate the hotel address into Chinese, but our cab driver still did not understand where we needed to go.  A quick call to the hotel (so that the hotel staff could give the driver directions in Chinese) and we were finally on our way after an exceptionally long day.

Stay tuned for more from China!!!

Our long-awaited meal at The French Laundry in Yountville, California has come and gone and we (barely) lived to tell about it.  That may sound ridiculous since it’s only food, but considering the fact that we decided to go with their extended tasting menu, it was more like a marathon than a meal.  We spent the morning sleeping in and recovering from our Yosemite torture trek and woke up in time to blog for a bit and head up to Yountville for our 5:30PM dinner reservation.

Now, I’ll say up front that we had extremely high expectations for our meal at TFL, but I do not think that they were unrealistic expectations at all.  While we have had the opportunity to dine at some of the best restaurants all over the world, we are pretty easy to please when it comes to food (from diners to Denny’s to Daniel, we can enjoy meals across the restaurant spectrum).  Long story short, it pains me to say this, but we were somewhat disappointed by our experience at The French Laundry.

Considering all of the things that we had read and heard about TFL paired with the extremely difficult reservation process, we expected one of the best meals of our lives.  The overall meal fell short, not because of the quality or preparation of the food, but the quality of the experience.  Once you get a reservation at TFL (that is, IF you can get a reservation), you have a choice of picking from the 2 daily menus (Chef’s Tasting and Tasting of Vegetables) or living large and going for the extended tasting.  Since we are definitely doing our best to make this the trip of a lifetime, we went for the extended tasting.  After making this decision, the staff asks if there are any types of ingredients that you really love so that they can tailor the meal to YOU.  We told them about our trip around the world and asked if they could try and incorporate international flavors into our dining experience.  I’m not sure if they simply failed to deliver the message, but nothing about our meal seemed tailored to us AT ALL.  Don’t get me wrong, the food was well-prepared and beautifully presented; however, the overall menu seemed to be cut and pasted from menus past in an almost haphazard fashion.  It was wonderful to have the chance to taste some TFL staples that we had always heard about (salmon cornets, “oysters and pearls,” salt tasting, bread and butter, “coffee and donuts,” etc.), but the rest of the dishes (especially the heavier meat courses) lacked the very creativity and passion that we flew across the country to experience.  One of the biggest problems of the meal was the portion sizes (too large, too many starches) and rushed service.  About half-way through the meal, I had to start eating only half of my courses in order to make it through and even then I started to feel sick to my stomach from the amount of food being placed in front of me in such a short period of time.

I must say that had it not been for the amazing waitstaff, the general manager (Nicholas Fanucci is funny, approachable and awesome) and the executive chef (Timothy Hollingsworth was super friendly, welcoming and, not to mention, pretty easy on the eyes) at TFL, we would have left feeling almost used and abused.  While some guests around us chose to follow a more formal approach to their dinner, we always enjoy talking to the staff and getting a glimpse of each person’s personality instead of giving him or her the cold shoulder.  The warm and welcoming demeanor of the staff was certainly the highlight of our entire night.

One of the biggest let-downs of our entire TFL experience was our interaction (or lack thereof) with its owner, Thomas Keller.  One of the other tables in the dining room asked if Keller was on-site so that they could get him to sign their menus.  The head waiter told them “unfortunately, Mr. Keller is not in the house this evening.”  This was understandable considering Chef Keller has another successful restaurant in New York City (Per Se); however, we later learned that this was not the case.  We were ushered to the back of the restaurant after our meal for a kitchen tour and there was Thomas Keller himself, standing in a little glass booth overlooking the kitchen.  The executive chef was kind enough to pause between plating to take a picture with us, but Keller barely gave us a glance or a nod.  This seemed slightly rude to us considering 1) we had just spent way too much money at his establishment 2) I had asked the restaurant months earlier for a picture with Keller if he was in town and 3) they were aware that we had gone out of our way to make TFL a stop on our trip (the executive chef said “Hey! I recognize you guys from your website!”) and were huge Keller fans.  I totally understand if chef Keller was in no mood to greet an entire dining room of guests; however, to give us the cold shoulder when we are standing no more than 3 feet away left us with a bad aftertaste.  When you have guests coming from across the country to eat at your restaurant, I do not think that a “hello” is too much to ask for, do you?

The next morning we drove back to The French Laundry with our wedding ensembles to pose for our official Wedding Of Wonders photo in front of the restaurant (although, to be honest, we talked about skipping this altogether).  Once again we saw Thomas Keller there (he was sitting in the garden less than 15 feet away from where we were posing for our pictures) and he looked just as friendly as he had the night before.  We considered asking him to take a photo with us, but decided against it.

Overall, our experience at The French Laundry was not the meal of a lifetime that we had hoped for.  The staff did a fantastic job of making us feel as if we were being welcomed into their home, but the lack of personalized attention to detail (it would have been nice to leave with a copy of a menu listing the food we had just eaten) and seemingly generic menus selections made for a disappointing night.

Today was our first full day in California and let’s just say that things did not exactly go as planned.  After arriving in Mammoth Lakes late last night, we planned on waking up as early as possible to hike around Yosemite and check out some of the amazing waterfalls that Mike had read about after the Swine Flu insanity altered our plans.  We scheduled a tour at 10:00AM that would take us up to Glacier Point and then we would hike to Yosemite Valley.  According to Google Maps, we were about 90 minutes away from the Yosemite Lodge where we were supposed to meet our tour bus, so we left the hotel around 8:00AM with (what we thought was) plenty of time to make it to the bus.  We stopped at the front desk just to double check our planned route and the exchange with the concierge sounded something like this:

Katie:  “Hi, can you tell me the best wayto get to Yosemite Lodge?”

Concierge:  “Sure.  Let’s take a look at the map. [Pulls up map on the computer]”

Katie:  “Great, we are scheduled to take a tour up to Glacier Point and we have to meet at the Lodge.”

Valet Guy:  “What time is your tour?”

Katie:  “10:00AM”

Valet Guy:  “Um, I hope you mean 10:00 tomorrow.  Route 120 is closed so it will take you at least 5 hours to get where you need to be.”

Katie:  “Crap.”

So, needless to say, Mike was not a happy camper once I broke the news to him that there was no possible way that we were making it into Yosemite in time for our tour.  We decided to start driving and see where we ended up.  Mike was slightly stressed at this point so he began to speed down Main Street only to be stopped 2 minutes later by Officer Swartzkopf of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department for going 55mph in a 35mph zone.  Oops.  Luckily we were able to avoid a speeding ticket, but not before being subjected to the usual police lecture consisting of:  “I’m really tempted to give you a ticket right now, you know that, right?”  ”Do you usually obey the law, son?”  “You can enjoy the scenery much better when you obey the speed limits.”   We sat through it like real champs, but it was not the greatest start to our day of adventure.

After our chat with the police officer, we were able to reschedule our Yosemite tour until the following morning at 10:00AM, so we decided to explore the area around our hotel.  Our first stop was at the overwhelmingly beautiful Mono Lake where there are these crazy rock forms called “tufa” sticking up out of the water.

After exploring the area and finding ourselves pretty much in the park by ourselves, we decided to grab our wedding ensembles from the car and capture our first official Wedding of Wonders photographs.  Although this particular location is not considered to be a “world wonder” per se, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to capture the beauty of the scenery for our wedding album.  We set up our tripod about 40 feet away from where we wanted to stand and then changed into our outfits.  Since the timer on our camera only lasts 10 seconds I’m sure we looked absolutely ridiculous having to run back and forth from the camera to our photo position, but somehow we managed to get a few great shots.  So, without further ado, here is our first official Wedding of Wonders photo:

Obviously you can’t tell from the picture, but it was almost 100 degrees when we were taking our photos [I have the sunburn to prove it], so Mike was ready to pass out wearing his tux.

After completing our photo shoot at Mono Lake, we continued driving along Route 395 and stopped along the way when the scenery warranted the production of parking, setting up the tripod and braving the heat.  Here are some of our favorite shots of the day:

Even though things started out a little rocky, we ended up having an amazing day of exploring Mono Lake and the surrounding area.  Tomorrow we are heading to Yosemite at 4:30AM so that we can make it in time for our 10:00AM tour (yikes!)  and after that, we’ll be heading to Napa Valley to prepare for our meal of a lifetime at The French Laundry.  Since we will be on the road for most of the day, our blogging may be delayed depending on how late we make it to Napa, but be sure to stay tuned for the second half of our California adventures!

Dear Officer Schwartzkopf,

It was great meeting you this morning in your beautiful town of Mammoth, CA.  While our time together was brief, we will certainly remember our impromptu get together.  Thank you very much for deciding to let us go with a warning instead of actually writing us a ticket for going 55 mph in a 35 mph zone.  Although our wedding reception is more than a month away, we appreciate this thoughtful gesture and shall consider it to be our very first wedding gift.  As per your suggestion, we did “slow down and enjoy the scenery,” but please note that the view was equally spectacular at 80mph.  Thanks again.

xoxo,

Katie and Mike