A Rush for the train!
Last night, we ate at Cafe Rouge. We asked the concierge to call a taxi but he said that it would be easier to walk and even though it was raining, he accompanied us on the 10 minute walk out the hotel car park and up the one- way street to the restaurant. Just as well as we would never have found it with no signage on the entrance. Once he had deposited us at the restaurant, he departed.
As it was Tuesday night, the restaurant wasn't busy. We had an excellent meal together with an excellent French wine. One definitely needs a respite from Chinese cuisine. I thought we were being fed by Masterchef the Professionals as my delicious starter was bathed with foam and CC had pate. The main courses too were excellent Pigs Feet for CC (not served as Crubins are) together with the best homemade French Fries, I've ever tasted ! They were cooked in some fat that I didn't recognise. I had the most excellent pasta with a lobster sauce together with a plentiful supply of shrimps and pieces of calamari.
We had been asked to choose a desert at the beginning of the meal but I asked if we could wait? There was no problem but I think it upset the kitchen as the desert of chocolate fondant with real vanilla ice-cream and a Mille Feuille with fruits were a long time in arriving. There were profuse apologies and we were offered complimentary coffee. When the desserts did arrive, they were worth the wait:
We returned to the hotel and retired.
This morning, we took our last stroll down the Bund; the promenade that had its hay day in the 1920s and 30s.
It was threatening rain so the porter offered us umbrellas. At the Peace Hotel your every need is anticipated!
The weather has slowly deteriorated as the days have gone by. On the first day it was 16• and dry, yesterday it was 14• and wet and today it was 10• and rain began to fall in the early afternoon. We were lucky as it is usually much colder here at this time of year. J is flying to Bejing this week and he informs us it's freezing there. In addition, as it is the low season, we could enjoy the city without the crowds, with the exception of the evening of our arrival when the police and army had to marshall the crowds on Nanjing Street.
We visited some of the architectural heritage buildings on the Bund - the Shanghai and Hongkong Bank. I had just taken a couple of photos of the spectacular ceiling when I was told not to do so! It reminded me of trying to take photos in The Hermitage in St Petersburg. Why here, I don't know? I was unlikely to rob the bank, such is the level of security here. On the ceiling were pictured the Old World eight financial centres - London, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich Bangkok, Shanghai, Hongkong and Tokyo.
We continued down the Street to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, formerly the members only Shanghai Club, to see the Long Bar, formerly the 34 metre long bar, where businessmen would sit according to rank, comparing fortunes with the taipans (foreign heads of business) the most important closest to the view of the Bund. We had intended to go there last night but it was too wet. The porter informed us that it wasn't open til 2000 and to come at 2145 for the Jazz. Unfortunately, we are departing this evening but we did peak in - it would remind one of Raffles old bar in Singapore, a legacy of the colonial era. It is now sadly gone. The old Raffles was built in the old colonial style, still in existence but now subsumed in a modem shopping centre.
From there, we made our way to Yuyuan Gardens. You might recall that we were here in Old Shanghai yesterday evening but the gardens were closed. I do hope the planners don't destroy Shanghai as they did Singapore? The gardens were laid out in the Ming Dynasty period and took eight years to build - 1559 -77, but were destroyed during the opium wars 1842 and again by the French as a reprisal for an attack on their Concession area. The Gardens have been restored but as it was winter, we did not enjoy the full bloom of the flowers or the Magnolia tree, the emblem of Shanghai, in all its glory.
Visit complete, we taxied back to the hotel. Taxis are inexpensive here and there is no 'rip off' as the taxi man must issue a receipt. We collected our bags and taxied to Shanghai Railway Station, a different station to the station we arrived at, as we had to allow sufficient time for a higher demand on taxis with the rain and the traffic.
Lunch!
Xiaolongbao
Shanghai's steamed dumpling
So here I am awaiting our overnight to Xian- 141/2 hours!! We have booked a First Class sleeper for ourselves- while I don't expect it to be of Rovos Rail standard, it should exceed the Tazara!! (see blog on Africa).
No comments:
Post a Comment