Day 4 and on my own again

Had a lazy morning pottering about the suite! Eventually decided to do something so jumped on the subway and went to the zoo to see the giant pandas - aaaahhhhh! They're sooooo cute (obviously I wouldnt want to meet one in the dark :-) )

Had a wander round to see the monkeys and the lions - bit depressing really. Dont know if its the time of year or its always like that but everything seemed really run down - flaky paint and the foliage was dead - I expected more seeing as the Olympics was last year.

Speaking of which, I then went to see the Birds Nest and the Water Cube - am-ay-zing. As it was very smoggy, you cant really see them when you get out of the subway and then all of a sudden these huge structures appear out of the smog and they are wonderful.

I even got to go in the Birds Nest as they have a visitor ticket for £5 which means you can go inside and sit in the seats and have a wander round - inside was a bit of a let down as it doesnt seem to be as striking as inside but maybe thats me.

Back to the hotel via the subway. Unfortunately the subway station nearest is 2km from the hotel and I couldn't find a free taxi so thought 'I know roughly where I'm going - I'll walk!' Oh dear - I was seriously getting worried at one point as I was away from the main roads - I knew I was in the right direction didnt know where to go next and my Chinese isnt too good (bearing in mind that if you read the blogs, my english aint to clever either!). Had to ask at the local garage and luckily I was about 10 minutes away round the corner but I was getting to the point of retracing my steps and trying to get a taxi.

Got back to the hotel a lot later than planned so room service and beer in the bar followed by bed!