Day 19 - Shanghai

Day 19 – His

Well, today has been a day of rest so we really indulged in that idea. We got up late and went for breakfast. It’s not normal to serve breakfast here with hotel rooms and it seems they have to be ordered separately. Of course we didn’t know this – so when we booked the rooms we checked the little box that said breakfast? And so, for the duration of our stay at the salvo we have breakfast. To my mind the world over has an interpretation of what it calls an English breakfast and the salvo is no exception. The buffet contained those old favourites; bacon, egg, sausage, beans and toast along with ample supplies of fruit juice and coffee. At least that’s what it said on the labels of the shiny metal bins. Lifting the lid shows how interpretive sausage can be. Whatever it was i ate looked like a sausage but didn’t taste the least bit like the offal filled fat tubes that masquerade as sausages in the UK. I think they had too much meat. Having said that breakfast was enjoyable and certainly set us up for a full day of bugger all. We retired to the room to read and watch the thunderstorm break right over our heads. It thundered so heavily the building actually shook and rain lashed down. If there was a day to spend in the hotel today was certainly it.

After the storm we went out for a while to wander up and down book street – labelled as one of the places to see in our guide book and had dinner in another of those multitudinous little restaurants that seem to litter the back alleys of Shanghai. We picked up a dessert from a street stall and ate it as we walked along – it was some kind of heavily sweetened custard tart. Having said all that the main point of the day was to chill and so the highlight has to be the bath. The bath is huge and you could almost take a swim in it. Half an hour’s soaking certainly removed most of the sweat and grime i seem to have picked up in the last 9 days.

 

Day 19 – Hers

I love hotel breakfasts.  Generally, I am not much of a breakfast person – but give me a hotel breakfast buffet and I’m off and eating.  I always begin with a plate of fruit and mix of available cereals and fruit with yoghurt, then something a bit savoury – eggs with bacon or a cheese omelette – and finally some pastries, preferably local and unusual, all washed down with at least three cups of coffee.  I then waddle out, set up for the day.  It’s probably a good thing for my waistline that we don’t spend much time in hotels.....   The buffet here didn’t disappoint – and there were some very unusual things to try.  I couldn’t face the pickled cabbage (the Chinese don’t seem to distinguish much between their 3 meals) but I tried some delicious date breads and I may have a go at the dim sum one morning.

 A long, luxurious bubble bath and two James Patterson novels made up most of my day.  I briefly contemplated going to the gym or sitting in the hotel’s garden, but only briefly.  Housekeeping actually had to ring us to get us out so they could make up our room.  I was snuggled on the ornate sofa wearing my complimentary dressing gown at the time.

We did manage to go out for a stroll down ‘Book Street’ and dinner in yet another noodle bar. We shared the lift on the way back up to our floor with a Chinese mum and teenaged daughter.  Rob commented that we hadn’t seen many English-speaking people, many more Spanish- and French-speakers.  The Chinese mum clearly (even though it was in Chinese) asked her daughter if she had understood what we were saying.  The girl shook her head – oh dear, money wasted on those English lessons......