The Great Wall of China

OK, I either made this one too easy or someone did some sleuthing on the web for Amazing Race 6 locations...well the location is the Great Wall of China and I did originally think that this was the place the racers went on the show so that is why I took the other photo. Obviously I was sorely mistaken.

This was and is truly one of the wonders of the world. I can honestly say that I feel bad for the Chinese…can you imagine how many people it would have taken to build this 4,000 mile wall? It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall. No kidding!! They probably died from stair stepping all day!! I bet invaders took one look at the wall and said to themselves, "Don’t worry, if we wait long enough they will kill themselves off and then we can just walk in!”

As you can see from the picture, I did not need to wear my coat although it was a rather cold day in February. There were quite a few people that were making the climb, but after we reached the first lookout tower, many people turned back. I was going to be one of those people, but once I caught my breath (by exploring the tower) I figured I could do one more…and then one more after that. Near the top of our climb (this is relative because I think we reached many tops), it got very windy and it made it hard to keep going...that and I am a wimp. There I said it.

I did see some very funny signs in China and at the Great Wall, such as this one posted about cellphones ... I wonder which cell phone does this and how does it know that it is in a thunderstorm?

Now, you would think that the climbing down would be much easier. Well let me tell you that is a falsehood! I was weaving back and forth and my legs were shaking so badly on the way down you would have thought that I was punch drunk. I had to start jumping the stairs two or three at a time just to get myself down. But not to worry, ice cream and a hat was the perfect cure!

Where In the World is Bergit?

Now I intentionally did not make this an easy spot to guess. However, if any of you saw The Amazing Race 6 then this should look somewhat familiar. Note, this is not the exact same spot as seen in the show, however the spot is found in the same country. (Click on the picture for a larger view).
The locks you see were actually placed here by recently-married locals who after climbing to the top, added a lock to the chains as a symbol of their everlasting love for each other.

The Twelve Apostles

Rachel, well done! The site is the 12 Apostles which is found on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. You can actually only see 6 of the 12 apostles from the cliffs but if you fly over the water (Kids don't try this at home) you can see more of them.

It was actually a fluke that we found the place from the beginning. The whole trip I had really wanted to do something that I had never done before. Makes sense right? Well as I was reading my Australia travel book, I saw something about taking a helicopter ride to see some rock formations. Perfect…or so it could have been. So I helped convince everyone that we needed to drive from Melbourne out to the Great Ocean Road (a few hours away) so that we could take in all the sites and so I could take my very first helicopter ride. Well as luck would turn out (or maybe because we were following Mildred’s directions—more on that later) we missed the last helicopter ride of the day by only 5 minutes! I was so bummed!! However, I was able to take some amazing pictures (and yes I do have some with me in them) so the drive down wasn’t a total loss. I guess it just gives me an excuse to go back!