Qingdao

We were up early again today for another tour. The ship docked about an hour early at 7am but due to delays in receiving clearance we were an hour late leaving on the tour. The terminal was enormous and I would estimate it was about a kilometre just to walk out. We had a lovely young girl called Sophie as our guide. Little did she realise what was to come. Her English wasn't the best but she was trying hard. Unfortunately, she had to deal with a vocal minority of guests (Americans of course!) who were extremely rude. "Turn on the air", "we can't hear you", "you're too loud ", "why are we stopping here" and "when are we stopping at a rest-room" were some of the many comments. Of course please and thank you don't exist for these people! The first stop was at St Michaels' Cathedral which seemed a bit unusual but this area was occupied by the Germans. There were lots of brides and grooms having their photos taken. The weather was perfect which may have explained their presence. After the church we went to Zhaoqiao Pier which is used as the symbol for Tsingtao Brewery and Qingdao. We then drove through Badaguan another favourite spot for brides and full off more European style buildings. Lunch was at a rather grand hotel and then on to the Zhanshan Buddhist Temple. The last stop was the Tsingtao Brewery for a whirlwind tour and tasting. Sophie sang a traditional Chinese song at the end of the tour. Not long after boarding the ship the Captain announced that a guest had to leave and we would be late leaving. We watched proceedings from the promenade and saw a lady and all her luggage loaded into a waiting ambulance. While we were waiting to depart a car turned up and two ladies got out one of whom had a bandaged eye. They were both wheel-chaired on and we set sail. About half an hour later we could hear the bow thrusters and the First Officer announced another guest had to be disembarked. We did a 360 and headed back to port. We left port for the second time at about 8:30pm. We didn't go to the show tonight. It was Annie Gong. We have seen her 3 times now. We are starting to sound like Bill and Mary-Ann!.Read more