The McLellan Experience: Bike touring, walking home and dinner out

Today was awesome. I'm finally home and soaking my feet to relax from my big day. I started out by getting up early enough to talk with a friend, always a good way to start the day. I then got invited out to join Mark and his wife, Edie, on a walking tour that they were going to do from this amazing series of books called " Six Shanghai Walks". We rode bikes from the east side of the French Concession to the upper east corner of the People's Square area. Yes...I rode a bike in the city!! It wasn't as scary as i thought it would be but I also had two well-practiced city riders to follow and felt a little more confortable since I had a helmet to wear.

Here's a little taste of the architeture that i saw.

This is a great example of a 'lilong'

(a gated lane neighborhood with a hierarchy of lanes and buildings, often south facing courtyards or gardens)

We saw many of these along our walk and they are everywhere in the city.

The Ohel Rachel Synagogue. One of 2 still standing in Shanghai, not in use. This building was gated off but thanks to

Mark's sweet talking the guard at least us step inside the grounds for a picture.

Here's another situation where Mark's sweet talking got us into another gated off building. I think it's a game to him, a negotiation of sort.

This was a very cool octagonal building and apparent residence of Liu Huizhi (not that interesting but the building was cool).

There was a lot of basket weave tile work along the outer "porch". Mark and Edie in the center photo.

This is another home to a famous Chinese person built in 1934 of Art Deco styling. The grounds were very beautiful!

Trisha, note that I want to do a couple simple pots like you see in the middle picture.

Me after learning how to ask for left-overs to go! Now I won't have to waist food :)

Fresh made yogurt with Hemi melon and mango! Yummy!

This was our desert after the walking tour.

This is the only picture proof that I have to show I was on a bike in Shanghai!

Mark unlocking our bikes, getting ready to ride home.

After the bike adventure out I went home to rest up so I could head out later in the evening, maybe even do dinner in a new restaurant alone. I stayed quite close to home, maybe a 10 minute walk, and found the Taikang Rd shopping and eating alleys. There is some awesome shopping to be had here! I think i might be in trouble...

Lots of shops, bars and restaurants to check out here.

I'm sure that I'll have some daytime pictures eventually so you all can have a better look.

I found a restaurant called Origin that i've been wanting to try since getting here. I read about it in the Lonely Planet book that I brought with me. LP calls this place "an upbeat Italian run cafe that uses seasonal ingredients to create a clever menu". I got a lot of fresh veggies and they serve veggie juices so I know i will be back. Not the most flavorful but felt good to eat the fresh vegetable instead of rice and noodles.