The last word

Well this blog is done.  Was the trip worth it?  You will know if you have been reading it that it was everything we had hoped for plus a lot more

Since we have been back someone, (yes you Aly) asked what were the three highlights. 

The first was the wonderful send off we got at Barry, the last was the wonderful welcome home we got  on Saturday and the other was the 7 weeks in between.

No one thing stands out. I just have a feeling of a trip that was so important to me for so long being so well worth it that I will never be able to tell you how wonderful it feels to have been able to do it. 

To have followed Grandpa so closely and to find that so little had changed

To have visited Warsaw where he went before the war and to find the once totally destroyed city restored as Grandpa would have seen it

To have visited Red Square and Tiananmen Square in the same trip and to feel the history of these two places and all that has happened since Grandpa went that way

To sit beside the biggest lake in the world in the middle of Siberia in the sunshine with a minus 5 degree temperature and see the same wonderful snow capped mountains that Grandpa saw

To cross the border where he did and find that the camels he saw were not there now!!

To arrive in Shanghai in the same place he did 100 years on. That  station is certainly different now

To see the places he and Granny saw, the home they lived in and the church they attended and the office he went to every day

To see the wonders of the world.  The beautiful Yangtze River, The Extraordinary Great Wall, the amazing Terra Cotta Warriors, there long before Grandpa was there but not discovered till comparatively recently,

To see the little pandas so safe at the Panda Base from where their future is ensured

To see the cormorant fisherman which was a long held ambition too and the lovely Li River and the extraordinary landscape in that area

To meet little Yang Yang and her granny living in their simple home and welcoming us when we visited

To see the rice terraces that have been cultivated for 100s of years

To meet our guides, Tatiana, Natalia, Ira, Jane, Eric, Mody, Diane, Judy, Paul, Karen, Helen and the rest who made the trip so much more rewarding

To meet Ruy and Karen and to see their lovely house and garden and to visit the places they know and love

To be so lucky. Yes it was worth it and I will never forget the people and the places.

As a final word and sorry if this is a bit soppy I want to say that no travelling companion would beat Tone. We had a great time together and wherever we go next we will have a great time again. Thank you!

There will be some more pics going on in the next couple of days