Unfortunately it's our last day in Shanghai. It was certainly a short night last night and the 6:30am alarm seemed much too early, but I heeded it's noisy interruption to my dreams at 6:30am.
We met Rosie and Ozzie up in the Ocean Bar at 8am. There were supposed to be 8 of us on the tour, but one couple had some sickness challenges and elected not to come along. So the 6 of us headed off the ship and out to catch the subway train #12 from the International Cruise Terminal Station to Qufu Road where we caught the #8 line to Laoximen, where we met our guide, Harris Gu. The tour was intended to a markets tour and it certainly lived up to its billing. This early in the day the subway cars were packed, but we were able to get on and off with little issue.
We met Harrison at Exit #1 at the Laoximen Station and he led us in old town to some really interesting markets primarily located in the older part of the city. Clearly the most interesting of the markets was the first one: a pet market. There one could buy any manny of pet: cats, lizards, frogs, turtles, crickets, grasshoppers, bonsai trees, rabbits, birds, chipmunks, and the like plus all of the necessary feed and accessories to care for them. Did you know that cricket fighting is a big deal in China? It is principally for the betting. We also visited an antique market, tailoring market, food market, toy and dry goods market, and we passed by the Yu Garden where we ended the tour at a noodle shop. The noodles we terrific.'
2 members of our group walked back to the garden, while Rosie and Ozzie and us walked back to the ship via the Bund which was very crowded with tourists.
On board we relaxed for a while before watching the 3:30pm showing of "Birth of the Dragon" about the early life of Bruce Lee before getting some dinner and then watching the ship traffic and colorful light displays on the buildings. The evening show was "Listen to the Music" which we've seen 4 times this cruise. It's used to introduce the entertainment staff. Afterwards we went up to the Crow's Nest to watch the boat traffic and possibly see the ship's departure. About midnight, I looked outside and we were still moored with a gangplank deployed. So I knew we weren't going anywhere soon, but there had been no announcement of any change of plans.
Would we leave tonight as scheduled? Stay tuned to find out.
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