I Love China

Vineyard Cafe’s full English breakfast – sorry I couldn’t wait to start eating so this was taken halfway through.

Day 2 started with breakfast at Vineyard Cafe which is hidden down a hutong across from the Lamma Temple.  It’s all authentic English comfort food and in true English fashion, the 3 Brits all went for the full English breakfast.  The American, let’s call him “John”, decided to go for eggs benedict and was disappointed when all he got was an egg on a muffin with a slice of ham, while we all had had a big plate full of baked beans, sauteed potatoes, mushrooms, sausages, bacon, tomato, toast, tea and juice.

“How come I didn’t get all that stuff and you guys did?” he enquired when his small plate arrived.

I suppose to his credit, the English menu was quite confusing:

* The “Full English” Breakfast – Comes with the following:
- 2 Pork Sausages
- Sautéed Potatoes
- 2 Rashers of Bacon
- Grilled Tomato
- Button Mushrooms
- Egg (fried / scrambled / poached)
- Baked Beans
- Toast & butter

* Eggs Benedict comes with Ham

Being the true gents that we are, we each donated part of our breakfast (the bits we didn’t like) to John so he wouldn’t starve.

Chaoyang Park – You can hire paddle boats to cruise around the huge pond.

The boys went wandering around Hou Hai to frolick with cherry blossoms, while I went to Chaoyang Park, where all of the beach volleyball games were held during the 2008 summer Olympics.  It’s a huge park with amusements, boats for hire, snacks of all kinds as well as lots of green open areas for flying kites, taking wedding photos and general galavanting around.

Lots of people having pre-wedding photos taken on this glorious Beijing Sunday.

This ride looked bloody scary.  I stood and watched for a while, thanking God I didn’t try it!

There was an area where lots of people were flying kites. This looked much more enjoyable.

WoAi by the lake, just to prove I was actually there!

One litre metal flask Qingdao beer.  We had one each to start the evening off!

Dinner was at a very cheap local style restaurant that we visited twice during the Olympics, followed by a few drinks at Black Sun, before heading over to Nan Luo Gu Xiang near Hou Hai, a very cool lane full of tiny bars, cafes and shops.

Lads on tour at the Pass By Bar / Cafe where they have excellent lamb skewer (chuan’r) pizzas.

Chas (aka CP) plays one of many songs that WoAi’s never heard of.

The evening reached its climax at the Tree House bar, a tiny bar off the main lane close to July’s.  My mate Chas, a Beijing native, played every tune that James and Dingle could come up with.  We finally left long after the last customers had gone home and the owner Sophie was waiting patiently to turn out the lights while wishing she’d never left that guitar lying around.