Hue - the Citadel

After breakfast today we got a cycle taxi (which Solana loves!) across the river to the old Citadel. Hue was once the capital of Vietnam and had it's heyday during the 1800s-mid-1900s during the reign of the Nguyen Emperors, who lived in the Imperial Enclosure of this citadel. Today, the citadel is a mixture of ruins (bombed in WW2 and in the Vietnam-American War) and beautifully restored palaces, halls and gateways. We all quite enjoyed exploring the site on foot - even Solana (who we had feared might get a bit bored). Solana tried her hand at taking a few photos with our camera for the first time - with results not too bad (the photo of me & Laura included here was taken by Solana!). Solana's favourite bit was feeding the koi carp fish in the palace moat - there were loads of them and the looked ravenous, clambering over one another to try to get to the food! On our way in to the citadel we saw a military training exercise; Solana tried to join in the marching - we feared she may be arrested but she emerged unharmed. We got another cyclo back into town, enjoyed a big lunch of local speciality dishes (plus calamari for Solana), then spent some time planning the next leg of our journey, helping Solana to make another "puppet" and enjoying the bath in our hotel room (the 1st bath we've had in a hotel room either here or in Costa Rica - it made Solana happy).Leia mais