Shanghai day 2

We let the boys sleep in on our second day in Shanghai. After getting over 30,000 steps at Disneyland and getting back to the ship pretty late we figured they could use the rest. Plus it’s good for them to have some time on their own.

But Liz and I wanted to see some of the city, so we were up and out before 7:00. We had no firm plan other than to walk and see what was around. We headed southwest along the river, crossing the Waibadu bridge over a small river that flows into the Huangpu. Once across we walked along the broad walkway where many people were walking and jogging. We saw several men flying kites, folks doing tai chi, and a group practicing dancing with large dragon pennants. Most people appeared to be locals, but there were a few obvious visitors mixed in. Certainly not the heavy tourist area like others we’ve seen along the way.

We wanted some coffee, so we looked up a place and walked away from the river a few blocks to find it. It wasn’t at the spot indicated by Google Maps, but we did find another bakery/coffee place and popped in there. Google Translate allowed us to order “latte hot” and we took a couple of stools next to the window to watch the street scene. The city is amazingly quiet for such a massive metropolis. Most of the vehicles, including the omnipresent scooters, are electric so you don’t get engine noise. You also don’t get the honking that was so commonplace in Vietnam and Thailand.

After our coffee we continued our walk and stumbled upon Nanjing Street, a pedestrian-only boulevard lined with shops. We found a Polo shop offering some pretty excellent prices (real Polo? Who knows?) where I bought a long-sleeved shirt for myself and we got a couple things for the boys.

We had an 11:00 all-aboard time, so while we would have enjoyed walking around the city more we had to head back to the ship. We really liked what we did see of downtown Shanghai.

We had lunch at Waves so that we could watch the sail out along the river as we ate. This was interesting – we saw several ships in drydock, a submarine docked along the river, some fishermen, and constant river traffic. The modern sleekness of the Bund was replaced by much less picturesque scenery with power plants and cookie-cutter apartment buildings. Still plenty of bird life, though. Many gray herons and black-crowned night-herons, and I also got a lifer with ruddy shelduck.

We capped the day off with a show by a balloon artist in the Lounge. He put on a great show and the boys both received a gift. DJ’s was much cooler than Thomas’s, but such is life.Read more