Humming in the Rain on the Great Wall of China

Can't write I was ''singing in the rain" on "The Wall" because that might confuse innocent googlers who are searching for, say, musicals by those names; you know -- Gene Kelly, Pink Floyd... And also because I didn't in fact sing. But I was definitely humming with delight, despite the fog and the rain. Though the limited visibility was a bit of a disappointment, the winding wall still exerts an ineffable charm.

The Great Wall of China on a rainy, misty day, dotted with colorful umbrellas

A View from the Wall

 Michael and I had brought umbrellas along, but decided a plastic raincoat would be useful; which it was, to a certain extent, since the wind was blowing and umbrellas flipped, turning inside out, or upside down. The peddlers at the bottom of the hill were doing a brisk business selling raincoats to ill-equipped tourists. All around us were tourists with plastic raincoats: yellow, blue, red. So we didn't feel too silly. It's easy to look silly when you don the plastic thingy over your coat and backpack, making you look like a clumsy hunchback.

Nina in plastic raincoat and Pooh umbrella, on the Great Wall of China

Laura's original idea was to have a picnic lunch, complete with bubbly, on the Wall. But that turned out to be out of the question. So the "picnic lunch" (Subways and soft drinks) awaited us in the van, but we did celebrate our courageous outing with a bottle of bubbly:

Pete opening the bottle of bubbly; Michael in red raincoat & green umbrella; Laura with black umbrella; Kathy on the left with big raincoat.

Be careful if you climb The Wall in the rain; the cobblestones are extremely slippery. And it's difficult to take pictures with one hand, while the other is hanging on to the recalcitrant umbrella, or to the wall to steady yourself, or both. Also, the rain splashed the camera lens, creating an "artistic" effect, i.e., blurred and smeared. (So I bravely deleted them.)

- To be continued -