En Route to Beijing

Tuesday, 12 Sep 2017 – We just embarked on our first river cruise tour.  Viking Cruises refers to our cruise tour as the “Roof of the World,” because it includes a visit to Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.  At an altitude of about 12,000 feet, Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world.

We started our trip with a 3-hour drive to a ParkSleepFly hotel in Chicago.   The cost of staying there one night included parking our minivan in their parking lot until our return on 30 Sep 2017.  A little more luxurious than we usually choose, we enjoyed the in-room hot tub.

Wednesday, 13 Sep 2017 – After enjoying a wonderful, complimentary breakfast, we took the hotel shuttle to the airport.  Although we thought we had plenty of time, we soon discovered that we had both misread the itinerary as a 3:15 PM departure from O’Hare Airport for Beijing, when the departure was actually scheduled for 12:30 PM.  Needless to say, we missed our flight and were forced to rebook on the same flight a day later.  However, the first day of the tour in Beijing included the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, both of which we had toured previously in 2013.  Most important to Sally was the fact that we would not have access to an aisle seat, as we would have on the original flight.  We booked a motel for the night.

Thursday, 14 Sep 2018 – After breakfast, we took a 9 AM shuttle back to O’Hare Airport.  This time we checked in with no problems.  We were served two meals and a snack during the flight and watched several movies between our naps.