Day 1 February 14th 2017
After a year of plotting, planning and saying goodbye we are finally off on our grown-ups gap year. A final dinner and farewell with the kids, handing over various items including our car. Happy, sad, and mainly excitement with a little nervousness thrown in.
Our flight to Melbourne to Beijing on AirAsia Premium Flat Bed was superb – long comfortable sleeps on a seat that rivalled business class. This lead to an arrival in Beijing after 12 hours or so feeling reasonably alert and able.
The first hiccup of the first world order was our transfer driver was nowhere to be seen and we were unprepared for other options. A helpful man in a hotel busboy style outfit offered help and tried the numbers we had to no avail. He then offered to get us a taxi – we were feeling a little dubious but went along. The further we got into the exchange the more dubious we go. Chris rang the hotel to let them know what had happened and asked the standard fare to the hotel. This enabled a reasonable price to be struck. The end of a long story was that while it might not have been a taxi we had an excellent ride to our hotel.
The lanes and roads leading to the Courtyard 7 hotel were dark and deserted at the early morning hour we arrived. We squeezed along lanes so narrow you felt compelled to breath in as the car wove its way along. Increasingly anxious, not knowing where we were going followed by the wow factor when we stepped in the door of the hotel from the dark laneway. A feeling we had stepped back in time in a perfect way. The hotel is said to be late Qing dynasty.
After checking in we were lead through a series of lit courtyards hung with red lanterns to a small row of rooms. Our room dominated by a four-posted bed was deliciously warm with underfloor heating and beautifully decorated with an original feel. It is now one of my all time favourite stays.
