A Day at the Great Wall

As may have been mentioned in previous posts, sometimes driving in China is an adventure. On this particular day, the driving adventure was assisted by the fact that not only were the directions incomplete, the road signs would randomly stop providing English subtitles and only give the options at critical turns in Chinese. Normally, when the navigator does not read Chinese, this is a problem. But not today! That's right, in the scant time spent reading and re-reading the woefully inadequate directions, Laura not only managed to memorize 3 of the characters you see in big red paint on the left, she was also able to pick them out on signs rushing past us as we circled the roundabout... again. (Look kids, Big Ben).

But safely and speedily did we indeed get to Mutianyu, our chosen section of the Great Wall. And it was a beautiful day! We were also there early enough that we had the wall almost to ourselves, as you can see by the lack of random strangers in the background.

We even had enough space to enjoy a bit of a snack while relaxing in the shade up there. We enjoyed some lychees, oranges, and a spicy popcorn/nut mix that was created for last Saturday's dinner (and about which we have not yet blogged). The lychees (or litchi) are the green things in Cara's right hand. Apparently their lighter color indicates that they are from the Mauritius family.

The last thing we checked out before leaving the wall was some sign that said "Stalactite Cave". Expecting nothing of the sort, we checked out a small opening at the bottom of the hill and found this!