The Summer Palace (颐和园) and Puke!

The second missing blog post from when our computer was blocked in Beijing
August 16th

You don’t usually hear those two in the same sentence but that sums up the day. Katrine woke up this morning saying that her tummy hurt and she didn’t want to eat breakfast. We didn’t push the issue but she wanted to see the Summer Palace as long as she could sit with Baba on the bus. No problem, Elspeth is liking me more so she rode with me. Poor Glenn. About half way there, puke. Get that cleaned up and off the bus. She is saying that she is feeling better and there are really no taxis there. Okay, in we go. Lily takes the other families to look at the residence, marble boat and then to take a dragon boat ride across Kunming Lake. We walk the gardens beside the lake slowly.

Katrine is not her usual bubbly, energetic self but she is enjoying the scenery – giant water lilies or lotus flowers (one or the other not sure which), minnow darting her and there in the water, pagodas, boats, bridges and buildings on the far shores. She says she is getting hungry so we find some shade. While Glenn gets the girls popsicles we find our third Chinese mushroom which is a big deal to Katrine, my little mushroom girl. Peach popsicle stays down!!! No more complaining of our tummy.

I actually enjoyed just walking beside the lake. It feels peaceful. The shiny lake with a backdrop of rolling green hills. An impressive palatial residence set in one hillside overlooking the lake; what views they must have. A variety of bridges over masses of flowers leading to small islands with quaint pavilions. Chirping birds and whirring insects as nature’s music. I am sure that the palace, furniture and marble boat (which is actually wood painted to look like marble) are beautiful, but so are the grounds.

Thought that perhaps we should head back to the hotel. While asking about the taxis, they were amazingly overpriced, and Katrine said that she was feeling better. Back onto the bus we go and she falls asleep in the cool of the AC. Lily has arranged for our group to have Peking Duck at lunch when the kids will eat the most. She has also got Katrine her own can of Sprite to help her feel better. Takes a few small sips of Sprite while sitting in mom’s lap – PUKE! All over mom and the restaurant chair. Now it helps to have a sick child in a restaurant over here because they will go out of their way to get you a taxi and haggle over the price just to get rid of you before there is more puke.

Glenn and Elspeth stayed behind and enjoyed a variety of delicious dishes while Katrine and I journeyed through Beijing to our hotel without further puke. A bath and some medicine later, they joined us. I think that we all had the nap to end all naps – four hours in the middle of the afternoon (unheard of isn’t it?). Katrine woke up feeling great back to her old self. She ate some dinner and is keeping her fingers crossed that she will feel even better tomorrow morning because we are heading to the Forbidden City in the morning and then the Olympic stadiums in the evening and she REALLY wants to be there.