Last rainy day in Xi'an

We awoke to another dreary day.  Rain, drizzle, chilly..but beats the pollution of Beijing any day.

We needed water, and some snacks so headed across the street to, wait for it, Walmart!  Yes, Virginia, there are a couple of Walmarts in China.  This one was in the basement of another department store.  There were food areas, drink areas, beer areas, home goods, etc.  We picked up a couple of things and here is the proof that Bill carried it for us back to the room.

The strange part is that the store did not open until around 11, this was Saturday, so totally confused.  There were outside concession shops covered over, food stalls were not open, security guards shoo-ing us away from the doors, so we sat and waited like good consumers.  Finally, people were allowed in and we went inside.

The bag in the photo is from my purchase of Speith and Wensky shoes (I never heard of that brand either) in Beijing and Bill mocked me for keeping it....who's laughing now!

We went for a wander over to the Bell tower as Wendy had mentioned she had seen it so many time from the outside, she'd like to see what she was going around and around!  It was raining, did I already mention that, and you have to enter from the underpass.  There are about 8 off shoots of this underpass each going to another mall or group of shops.  We paid our 30 or 40 yuan and off we went down this hall way that had posters of vistas from around China.  Once inside the tower, there was a narrow walkway around the tower with some overhang shelter.  People were darting out to have their photos, smiling stiffly and hoping that the rain will miraculously stop while they are out there.  

We decided to show Wendy the Muslim Quarter, and get lunch there.  Wendy can't eat pork because she is allergic.  

 Look in the background, there are 2 guys with huge mallets pounding some sweet taffy, until it was malleable and it would then be cut into small rectangles and sold.

 There were several outdoor Boucher shops.  Here is a lamb carcass which was just hanging in the rain.  These guys were very good, there is NOTHING left on the bones above!

 We were amazed that there were so many people out on this rainy Saturday.

These breads were in different shapes, but all were coated in sesame seeds.  They were crisp-ish inspire of the rain and humidity!

There was this huge caldron of lamb parts boiling away to make stock outside one stall.

this is the cleverly disguised minaret of the mosque.  What a wonderful way to blend cultures.

At this point we exited the area looking for some food. We did see a Halal restaurant at the beginning of the walk, but it seemed silly to walk all the way back to it.  We could see places across the street, but it turned out they were closed. We finally found a halal place that was also a hotpot place.

After we ate we walked down to the wall so that Wendy could get the view from the top.  In the rain it was not so spectacular.  We ended up heading back to the Three Daughters for dinner.