Beijing and the Forbidden City

Last stop, Beijing, known in my childhood as Peking.  The name for the city has changed, but not the name for the famous dish, Peking Duck.  I loved Beijing.  It is like other international cities - lots of fabulous shopping, great museums, crazy traffic, a sense that life is moving forward.  Friendly Planet had a lot planned for us to see, and since Sam, our guide, lives in Beijing, he was also our local guide.

One of our first stops was the Forbidden City, with its 9,999 rooms.  When we returned home, I watched "The Last Emperor," the story of Pu Li, the last emperor to live in the Forbidden City.  The story made the Forbidden City come alive for me, since when we saw it, the only people inhabiting the city were tourists - mostly Chinese.  If I were to go back, I would like to have time to sign up for a tour with a guide that would show me more than we were able to explore in our short visit.  I am looking for a video tour of the Forbidden City, so if anyone comes across one, let me know.

Also that day we saw Tian'an Men Square, the site of Chairman Mao's Mausoleum.  His embalmed body is on display mornings and afternoons, but we did not have time to go through the line waiting to pay their respects.  What I did not expect was the size of the square.  We were supposed to walk from one end of the square to the focal point, the Gate of Heavenly Peace where the portrait of Mao hangs and have our group portrait taken.  Some of the wussy members of our group refused to walk that distance because of the cold and the wind whipping across the expanse of the square.  Sam quickly adjusted to the desires of the group and arranged for our picture to be made in front of the Hall of the People, only halfway across the square.  This was the only time that there was any indication that we were in a communist country.  Sam had instructed us not to have conversations about the 1989 Massacre.  He said there were undercover police in the square and we could find ourselves in trouble if they overheard us talking about something that, officially, never happened.  The government's position is that the tragedy of the student demonstrations was simply a media event.  That the press "made it all up."

In his book, Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler describes his visit to Tian'An Men Square.

          "After a while, I began to notice that some people in the crowd didn't look like tourists.  They were men, usually in their thirties and forties, and many of them had crew cuts.  They were not well dressed: worn trousers, cheap windbreakers.  They did not look educated.  They did not look like they were enjoying themselves - they weren't smiling, or taking pictures, or buying souvenirs.  They loitered and lingered; they lurked and looked.  They dawdled.  Sometimes, a man would stand directly behind a group of talking tourists, as if trying to overhear their conversation.  Periodically, one of the crew-cut men sauntered over to another crew-cut man, said something, and then sauntered away.  Several held rolled up newspapers.  I saw one man raise his newspaper, hold it next to his face, and speak to it.  Curious, I walked past and took a furtive look.  Inside the rolled paper, I caught a glimpse of black plastic - walkie-talkie." (p. 59)

The following day we went to Badaling, 44 miles northwest of Beijing, to view the Great Wall.  Compare the photo from my climb on the wall to other pictures you've seen in magazines and brochures.  They generally show two or four people walking some distance in front of the camera.  That is not what I saw.

While in Beijing we saw a Jade Factory and a Pearl Factory, both of which were interesting because, I very rarely, if ever, have seen any product being made in the U.S.  What about you?  Have you visited factories in your hometown or on any of your travels to see how different products are made?  That is something we need to institute in our country and let people be proud of things that are "made in America."

Other sites included in our tour of Beijing were the Ming Tombs and the Temple of Heaven.  There is so much history in China, a four-year degree would barely enable you to learn about all that we saw.  A favorite excursion was the Hutong tour via rickshaws.  Though Beijing is a modern city, a visit to the alleyways shows the charm of old Beijing.   The hutongs, created by the walls of courtyard houses, were the residences of officials and the well-to-do, although now most are state-owned. Our rickshaws wove in and out of narrow streets, revealing shops of every description, restaurants, bars, and houses.  Suddenly we came upon an open space beside a lake where people were walking their children and their dogs, cruising in paddle boats, and enjoying an ice cream on this leisurely afternoon.  I could have stayed the whole day there just soaking up the feeling of actually being in the middle of a place I've dreamed about since I was a child and watched my mother read Pearl S. Buck's books about China.  She looked so enraptured, I wanted to feel that way.

The grounds around the Temple of Heaven are a gathering place for people to exercise, to play mahjong or other games, and to just hang out with their friends.  I shot a video of people line dancing and one of several men passing a ball around with a racquet, never letting the ball leave their racquet until they gracefully tossed it to their partner.  There were, again, so many people gathered in one place we felt a bit uneasy.  Americans are simply not accustomed to so many bodies sharing the same space.  But it made me so happy to see all these people smiling, having a good time, spending time with friends outside in the sunshine.  I wish we did more of that sort of thing in our country.  Many of our gatherings, like mornings in the park, are focused on the children, not on the adults.

Friendly Planet saved the best for last; we visited a village just outside Beijing and had dinner with a host family.  We learned much about the history of the village from our delightful tour guide, who lives there, and had a tai chi lesson from a master.  He was so beautiful to watch.  It must take years and years to master those movements.  This village is known for its hand-carved furniture and we were treated to a tour of a working shop.  Then we went to the home of our hosts for the best meal we had on the entire trip.  The wife taught us how to make dumplings, but, of course, she made 99% of them since we were so slow!  There were many other dishes and the husband did most of the cooking. They were so friendly and gracious - they truly made us feel like honored guests.

I hope I have another opportunity to visit China.  We saw only a small percentage of the country - there is a lot more to see and learn.

There are photographs from our trip on my flickr site: santanartist

Questions are welcomed.

Terra Cotta Warriors

April, 2012

Our next stop on the tour was Xi'an where in 1974, a farmer digging a well discovered some pottery shards.  Excavation began and altogether over 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots, and even weapons have been unearthed from these pits.  Many have been restored, but there is still a lot of work to do to uncover the entire army built by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.  The figures were buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and their purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife, and to make sure that he had people to rule over.

Nancy and I particularly enjoyed walking along the city wall, the largest intact city wall in the world.  Below the wall, the moat around the old city is still pleasant to walk along.  Had it not been late in the afternoon, we would have rented bikes and biked around the old city, all 9 miles of the wall.  Maybe next time.

An optional tour was a dumpling dinner and Tang Dynasty show, one of the most popular entertainments in Xi'an.  It was featured on Samantha Brown's tour of China on the Travel Channel.  The dumplings were delicious and we must have had over a dozen varieties - the ones shaped like chickens contained chicken, the ones that looked like little fish, were made with fish, of course.  One variety was very, very spicy hot, and Nancy and one other member of our group ate all the ones given to our table - they were too hot for everyone else!  The show was phenomenal.  I loved the costumes and the scenery.  The performers were excellent.  Here are two photos:

Xi'an was our favorite city.  They say it's small because it only has 8 million people.  

Next stop, Beijing.

Welcome to China

March, 2012

My daughter, Nancy,  and her husband, Mike, gave me a trip to China for my 70th birthday.  Wow!  What an amazing thing to do.  Of course, someone had to go with me, so Nancy volunteered.  In spite of her concern about not being able to sleep because of my snoring, she signed us up for a 10-day trip to Shanghai, Xi'an, and Beijing with Friendly Planet.  We left the night of March 26th and returned on April 5th.  I have traveled quite a bit, but this was by far the most relaxed and educational trip ever.  Being with this tour and its excellent staff, we felt safe and secure, and the itinerary covered so much that we never would have seen otherwise.

One of the first impressions we had was that a lot of the things we had been told about China were just not true.  We expected the cities to be so smoggy that possibly we would be issued masks by the tour guides.  As you can see by the photos, that is simply not true. It was cold and windy some days, but no matter where we went, there was little if no smog.

Another concern had been that everywhere we went there would be a lot of second-hand smoke.  We expected the Chinese to be smoking everywhere - in elevators, in restaurants, in parks.  Not true.  Of course, there are a lot of Chinese who do smoke, but not in public.  The rickshaw drivers smoked while waiting for customers, and our bus driver smoked while he waited for us to return to the bus.  But, in general, we did not have any problem with cigarette smoke.

We arrived in Beijing's modern international airport with welcoming shops and restaurants.  The signs were all in Chinese and English, so we had no problem finding our gate, the restrooms, or a beverage.  There were no pictures of Chairman Mao, although all the souvenir shops sold copies of his "Little Red Book."  We did not stay in Beijing at this time, but caught a plane to Shanghai to begin our tour.

Shanghai was a city of hi-rises.  Coming in over the city, it looked like Alex had been playing with his legos, just building tower after tower and he would never run out of blocks.  I cannot imagine that there is enough concrete in the world to build all those buildings.  Of course, the skyline is what you always see, with that huge onion-topped tower - the Oriental Pearl Tower - dominating everything.  Nancy and I opted out of the tour of the city on the last day we were there, preferring to explore on our own.  Unfortunately, it poured rain the whole day, we couldn't get a taxi to take us back to the hotel, and we got soaked and exhausted.  But, the rain prevented the people on the tour from seeing anything from the Pearl Tower, so we didn't miss anything!  

During the Shanghai portion of the tour we went to Suzhou, the silk capital of China.  Originally the beginning of the silk road, Suzhou is a lovely little town of about 4 million.  (4 million is a small city in China!)  We toured the silk factory, had a tour of the city's canal in a quaint little boat, and were treated to a dumpling dinner and a performance by talented dancers and musicians.  We went to the Embroidery Institute and saw an art form I had never seen before.  Of course we all know what embroidery is, but until you see the skill demonstrated by the Masters at the Institute, you have no idea.  First of all, the stitches are done in fine, fine silk threads and not one of us could imagine how small the needle must be and how in the dickens one threads such a needle.  Here is a photo of one of the pieces that looks like a photograph itself.

Next post will be Xi'an, the site of the Terra Cotta Warriors.     

Ambato? No!

August, 2011

This was Bill and Verda's last day in Ecuador.  We got a guy in Cotacachi to drive us to Quito in his van for $50, so we split it.  We got dropped off at the bus terminal so we could get a bus to Latacunga.  For a little bit, I thought we were in an episode of Amazing Race. There were no ticket windows that said Latacunga, and everyone we asked just yammered at us in super fast Spanish. It was pretty dicey until we figured out that we had to go to a different bus terminal.  

One taxi driver told us he would take us for $30.   You know me, I uttered a few choice words that I don't know the Spanish for, but another man approached us and offered to take us for $10.  It turned out that Quito is a very, very large city, and the new bus terminal in the south was about as far away from the terminal where we were as you can get.  It did, in fact, take us an hour to get there, but once there, it was a piece of torte.  

The bus to Ambato was comfortable and the views were incredible.  Cotopaxi is the largest volcano in Ecuador and it is a grand sight. Staying in a sleazy hotel for $26 per night.  It's clean and has tv and wi-fi. But scratch Ambato off the list of possibles. Loud, lots of crazy traffic-kind of a 42nd Street and Broadway feel. Not at all "tranquillo.". We will be out of here first thing in the am.

Reflections

August, 2011

We have been home for two days now, and our experience in Ecuador is beginning to be processed in our brains.  My very first thought as we drove home from the airport was how beautiful this country is.  The roads, the landscaping, the homes we pass, even the shopping centers - they all looked lovely after the concrete walls and concrete houses we saw in Ecuador.  When I drove to Sarah's house the next morning to pick up the kids, I realized that every family that lived in one of the houses in Seville lives in a house that only the richest families in Ecuador have.  

However, I truly missed the wonderful markets in Ecuador when I went grocery shopping today.  Pineapples were $1.00 for three in Cotacachi.  In Queen Creek I paid $3.99 for one!  Bananas were 79 cents a pound here; there they were 5 cents each.  But I could buy everything I needed at one store rather than going to several different shops.

It will take a bit longer to decide whether the lack of government interference in people's lives in Ecuador works better than the overwhelming intrusion of the government into every facet of our lives here.  It is pretty clear that when people are spending so much of their time just providing for the necessary basics for their families they don't have time to worry about a lot of other things.  They also don't have time for leisure activities.  We never saw a single movie theater in our entire time in Ecuador.  Nor did we see any professional baseball stadiums, basketball arenas, or football stadiums.  I am sure there are soccer stadiums somewhere, but probably only in the largest cities.

Horrible Bus Ride

July 28, 2011

What a day!  Wouldn't do it again for anything.  We had arranged for a moto-taxi to come pick us up at 9 am to take us to the "prettiest beach in Ecuador." It was a longish ride in this little rickshaw affair, and not even a pretty trip.  The landscape isn't very attractive.  And it's cluttered with trash and tumbled-down shacks.  People are cooking right out on the street, or selling bottles of soda and water from a styrofoam cooler.  

Once we arrived at the beach, it was as advertised.  Very pretty, no people at all, and hordes of little crabs scuttling from their holes to the water and back again.  Bill and Ron hiked up to the lookout at the top, while Verda and I sat on the beach. Then we rode the moto-taxi back to Puerto Lopez.  We picked up our luggage at the hosteria and all piled back into the taxi for the ride to catch the bus to Manta.  What a miserable ride for 2 1/2 hours!  And without food!  I had some fruit and a roll for breakfast, then nothing for lunch.  By the time we got to Manta, I was ready to scream.  We checked into our hotel and pretty quick went to eat.  Found a restaurant, and everyone had something good.  I had fried shrimp and it was yummy.  Good French fries, too.   Now, it's time for bed cause we have to get up at 5 to get our flight back to Quito.  It will be good to get back to our condo.

Humpbacks and Boobies

Thursday This morning we had reservations to go out on a boat tour, guaranteed to see whales.  I was a bit unnerved to see that we had to wade out to the boat to get on board, but it turned out that it was only calf deep, so no danger of the cameras getting wet.  It took about a half hour of pretty fast motoring to get out to where the whales were hanging around.  It was really exciting when we saw the first spout and the humpback breached.

We took a lot of photos, and we each got one terrific shot;  a whale in front of one of the other boats, and a fluke. After about an hour or so of chasing whales, we turned around and zoomed back toward Puerto Lopez.

The captain drove the boat right up to a rocky cliff, and pointed out all the blue-footed boobies on the rock.  There were thousands of them!  I must have taken 100 shots.  A few are framable.  A few people on our boat went snorkeling, but not us.  It turned out to be a very nice tour.  The people were great, and we met a girl who is in the Peace Corps here in Ecuador.  Her name was Nickie and we saw her again at the hot dog place for dinner. When we got back to the hostel we asked for a blanket.  The guy brought us a quilt and we slept so much better. Don't know why we were too stupid to not ask them for one the night before.

Puerto Lopez

July, 2011

What an unending dump!  Why would people choose to live this way?  What is the education level of the population?  Long stretches of roads look like the slums of India or Mexico.  Mangy dogs running around in every town we go to.   

There are two things I like: they don't drink and they don't smoke.  Apparently they don't have enough disposable income to be able to do either one.  Liquor is phenomenally expensive.  Ron had a scotch in the place at the beach and it was $5, but my small (Coke-sized) bottle of wine was $11.  There were two glasses of wine in it, so that's more than $5 per glass. 

A 200 year old house in Beijing is better maintained, cleaner and nicer than a house here that may only be 25 years old.   These people seem to have no pride whatsoever.  In Cotacachi the shops are neat, clean, nicely lit and the goods are well displayed.  And our condo is up to American standards.  Must be the money that flows into Cotacachi. I guess I shouldn't be so harsh. Maybe all these people are just scrambling to get enough money for today's food. We can't figure out whether paint is something they think they can do without because it is expensive, or whether they just never get around to finishing a building. Whatever, it is not very attractive when all you see is concrete block.

Off to the Coast

July, 2011

Got up when the alarm app on my iPad sounded out the cuckoo's song.  Had two cups of coffee and a banana and we were off. The bus ride to Otavalo was routine, now that we have done it so many times.  One of the dozens of bus hawkers came to fetch us for the bus to Quito.  It was a comfortable bus, and I actually slept a bit on the way to Quito.  

When we arrived at the bus terminal, there was a taxi line and we had no trouble getting a taxi to the airport.  The Quito airport is small and we easily found the Tame Airline desk.  However, we were told that there was a problem with our reservation.  We had to go outside and get in a different line to get it straightened out.  When we gave the agent our ticket, she explained that the travel agent had failed to confirm our reservation, so we had seats on the way to Manta, but not to return.  So now we will have to fly back to Quito on Saturday morning at 8 am instead of at 1:30 pm.  Which means that we will have to go back to Manta Friday evening. 

The flight to Manta was only about 30 minutes, but I can't remember when a flight hurt my ears so much.  It took hours for them to pop enough that I could hear.  Once we landed, there were taxis, and we got a driver to take us a Hosteria so we could make a reservation for Friday night.  Then he took us to the bus terminal.  

What unbelievable chaos!  We were so recognizable as "rich American tourists" we were almost trampled by men trying to get us a room, or a bus, or a tour, or something - I never found out what exactly, that it was almost frightening.  I yelled at Bill that we needed to eat - it was 1:30 and I hadn't had anything since that banana in the morning.  You know what that meant - hangry!  We found what looked like a restaurant, but the selection was pretty slim.  The other three ordered fish, which they said was good, but it was fried, and I didn't know what they might have used to fry it in, so I ordered chicken and fries.  The chicken was so-so, the fries were mediocre, but they can't mess up Pepsi in a bottle. 

We went back into the bus terminal and didn't have too much trouble buying tickets to Puerto Lopez, our final destination.  Our plan is to take a boat tomorrow to do some whale watching, go to Isle de la Plata, and I guess they take you snorkeling, too.  Then, we have Friday morning here at the hostia Nandu before we have to check out and go back to the madness that is Manta. 

This part of Ecuador is beyond ugly.  The shacks that people live in are maybe one step up from mud huts.  The kids are running around in the dust, the starving dogs follow anyone in hopes of a scrap of food, the most sturdy buildings are concrete block, no paint, no decoration at all,  might as well be a prison.  I could never live here.  It amazes me that in China, where people have lived for thousands of years, there are modern buildings going up everywhere, world-class shopping, education for everyone, and a feeling that everyone is moving forward.   There is nothing modern about Ecuador.  America has nothing to fear from Ecuador!

Tena is Hot and Humid

July, 2011

Friday-Banos to Tena

Breakfast was included with our room, and it came with good, delicious coffee for a change.  Not Nescafé.  Also a glass of some sort of red juice that we couldn't identify, but that tasted yummy.  Their idea of a pancake, however, is what we call a tortilla, and mine came filled with fresh pineapple, strawberries, cantaloupe, and watermelon.  My favorite kind of breakfast.  We checked out and the total was $55.   

We took a taxi to the bus station and found out how to get a bus to Tena.  Had to wait a while, but Ron found a couple from Calgary to chat with.  The bus was late, the first delay we have experienced, but soon we were on our way.  The buses are comfortable, the seats recline, and on any ride long enough they show a movie.  The other day we saw "Desperado" with Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek, and today "Pulp Fiction" was playing.  The sights out the window were more interesting than the movie, though.  

The bus route follows the course of the river, but winds along a serpentine road, through mountain tunnels, rocking back and forth so that my iPad screen keeps switching views.  I almost killed Ron trying to give him a bite of banana.  He had his mouth open and I held the banana up just as the bus lurched around a curve and the banana disappeared down his throat!  He has adopted the little camera and is snapping shots like crazy.  He loves digital, but between the photos I take, the ones he takes, and the ones we downloaded from Bills camera, we easily have over a thousand shots so far. 

We noticed that the people in the Oriente province that we have seen are taller and thinner than the people around Imbabura.  Wonder why?  Also, we saw a lot more men smoking in Ambato.  maybe the city folks have more money than the people in the country or small towns do.  But there are some things that just seem unusual to us.  For instance, in the bus stations, they have people yelling, "Quito, Quito, Quito," or "Puyo, Tena" rather than loudspeakers making announcements like we are used to. After a long bus ride (the last hour of which some woman's stomach was pressing on my shoulder shoving me into Ron who was by the window because she and a bunch of others had to stand up for lack of seats) we finally pulled into Tena.  

OMG!  The worst bus station yet. Crumbling concrete benches, no restrooms at all, people selling food all over the place (there are apparently no sanitation standards in Ecuador), and grubby little children trying to entertain themselves by climbing on some abandoned pipe structure.  The guidebook says that the bus station is in the less attractive part of town and not to be put off by first impressions.  Oops, too late.   

At least La Casa del Abuelo is a nice, clean, welcoming hostel.  Has a patio, AC, wifi, and TV.  The beds are comfortable, and if we have to just stay in this room until time to leave tomorrow, then that's what we will do. Unfortunately, a bunch of other Americans thought this was the place to stay, and they were in the room next door.  At 2:30 am, the baby woke up.  They must have been trying to get him to give up his bottle because he screamed like Willie used to when we were trying to wean him.  He would scream for 10 minutes, quiet down for 2 minutes, then scream for another 10 minutes.  This went on for about an hour before they finally shut him up.  Then the dogs started barking.   

Breakfast was another surprise.  This time it was lukewarm water, instant coffee and eggs I didn't order.  Soon the young man brought some boiling hot water, and some hot milk, so eventually we got a halfway decent cup of coffee after I poured two other attempts on the potted plants.   After breakfast we walked across the bridge to Cafe Tortuga where we had heard they had a bus schedule.  Sure enough, we found that there was a bus to Quito at 10:00.  Grabbed a cab to the bus station and didn't have to wait long for the bus.  Ron made a gallant effort to ask the bus driver if there was a place we could get off and catch a bus to Otavalo without having to go all the way to the Quitumbe (southern) terminal.  We thought he understood, but weren't sure.  Happily, four young American students got on the bus, and we talked to them for the length of their ride.  One of them spoke fluent Spanish and so Ron asked him to ask the driver where we could get the Otavalo bus, so we were sure that the driver understood and would tell us where to get off.   

So you know, of course that they didn't stop and let us off anywhere, but continued on to the station an hour across Quito.  Ron was steaming.  However, the bus drivers assistant was so sweet - he went with us into the station and even went upstairs to the tickets windows to make sure these demented old people who couldn't understand Spanish could get on the damned bus to Otavalo.  Bought tickets and only had to wait 20 minutes for the bus.  The worse part of the trip home was the bus from Otavalo to Cotacachi.  One bus was pulling out when we paid our taxi driver, so Ron ran and caught it, barely stopping it in time for me to climb ungracefully on board.  There were no more seats on the bus, so we had to stand, until enough people got off and freed up some seats.   It is funny how a place you have been in only two weeks can seem so familiar and welcoming.  Strolling down Leather Street felt known and comforting after four days away.

The Baths at Banos

July 21, 2012

We stayed at the somewhat seedy hotel in Ambato, but it had the most comfortable bed we have found in Ecuador, with a heavy quilt to keep us toasty.  We had breakfast at C'bastian's.  I had a waffle with yogurt and honey, no butter, no syrup.  Even the waffles are a healthier version.  Ron had huevas rancheros, but when it came, it looked like French onion soup.  

After breakfast we took a taxi to the bus stop to take a bus to Quizapincha, where they supposedly make a lot of the leather goods that are sold in Cotacachi. I tried on a few leather jackets, but they were made for the smaller Ecuadorean people and felt tight, not comfortable.  And the prices were much more than the guidebook had promised.  I did see a bag that I liked, mainly because it had a woven pattern that was similar to the bedspread on our bed in the condo.  At the same shop I saw a pair of sandals that were only $13.  The owner sold us the bag and the sandals for $22.  We then hopped a bus back to Ambato. 

We thought we would go from Ambato to Tena, but I started reading about Banos, a town on the way to Tena.  There are many mineral baths in Banos, heated by the nearby volcano which is only 5 miles away to the south.  The guidebook advised to check the status of the volcano before going there since there is a risk of another eruption.  I ignored that advice and we got off the bus in Banos.  Found a lovely hostel, Isle de la Banos, just blocks from the mineral springs.  There was a restaurant, Cafe Hood, where we went for lunch.  I had yet another great burrito, with some of the worlds best guacamole.  Ron had enchiladas and claimed they were the best he had ever eaten. Plus he ordered a drink that was hot passion fruit juice with the local cane liquor.  Oooh, it was delicious!  

We strolled around the pretty park and took some photos, then went back to our room until time to go to the hot pools around 7 pm.  we watched the US national team play Great Britain and win.  I saw my boy, James Harden, playing with all the big-time stars. As soon as it was dark, we walked the few blocks to the baths.  We paid the "tercera erad" or senior rate so it was $1.50 each.  It was really crowded, mostly with locals, but felt wonderful.  There was a light drizzle falling, but the water was like a hot, hot bath, with steam rising into the cool air.  We left that pool and went to the pool that was "medium" hot, but right under the waterfall.  What a treat.   Am so glad we stayed in Banos.  It is a lovely town and there are quite q few ex-pats living there.  Our hostel is owned by a German, and we saw many restaurants that cater to foreigners. Watched The Big Bang Theory and went to sleep in a hard, firm bed with another of those heavy quilts that kept us warm.