Amsterdam->Shanghai- The big journey- 26th and 27th September

Sooo... I haven't been very good at updating this. To be fair, we spent the first week in China, where blogging, Facebook and searching Tienanmen Square are blocked!

So we flew to Shanghai with an afternoon's stop in Amsterdam. We were delayed at Schilpol airport for 45 minutes waiting for our backpacks... it turns out that when you're flying that far they get held over to the next flight. We are proper international bumpkins! Amsterdam center looks lovely, with big old and beautiful buildings, but sadly has very little other than expensive beer and weed cafes in the center. The red light district was amusing though.

Absolutely charming sights...

Then back on a plane for the 5000 mile flight. Having never flown long haul before, we were more than happy with the amount of booze they are willing to give you. The food was surprisingly edible, and we both slept most of the way.

On arrival in Shanghai we got their Metro, which is like our tube, but clean and efficient. Amazing what you can do with the employment communism brings! However, on coming out, the roads are manic, and not signposted at all.

Basically, this is Embankment, but mental and Chinese, with a salubrious bar called Spicy Girl across the road

The hotel itself was very nice and overlooked the river and the Bund, and somehow we checked in in spite of us not speaking a word of Chinese, and they not speaking a word of English (a recurring theme through our time in China!) and they sent a nice almost English speaker down to show us how to use the washing machine. Or to point at it and tell us 'It goes swoosh', which did the job.

As it was pretty late by this time, and Pudong alone is HUGE let alone all of Shanghai, we went to a corner shop and bought some hot tofu snacks in very hot chilli sauce for tea, followed by a 'Pot Ramen'.

Couldn't find Chicken and Mushroom Pot Noodles