I finally made it to the last Olympic venue that I wanted to see. Darryl and I went out on Friday to see a show at the Water Cube; this is the swimming venue with the translucent bubble shaped walls. Darryl wasn't sure what the presentation was, but I was happy just to see the inside of the cube. It turned out to be a fountain and music show with a symphony orchestra playing old favorites while a network of fountains and lights played in the water. It sounds weird, but it was really quite beautiful. They also projected clips from popular movies on a sheet of water - something I had never seen before or even thought possible.

The venue itself was quite impressive; we had VIP seats and they would have been wonderful for watching the swimming events and even the diving at the other end of the pool. There was probably seating for about 10,000 - so not your average pool. The entry hall and associated areas were also quite spacious by any standards. One can't imagine many times when it could be filled. In fact, Darryl, who is just back from competing in the Greek marathon, had recently visited the Greek Olympic facilities from the 2004 games. He said the venues were deserted with weeds growing up between the cracks in the pavement. I hope that doesn't happen to the Beijing facilities. They are certainly built on a grand scale with huge open plazas surrounding them. In fact, although it is quite easy to get to the Olympic park on the subway. It doesn't seem to matter where you are going it is always a 10-15 minute walk to get to the actual venue. Friday night the wind was blowing; it was cold and the plaza was only sparsely populated - perhaps more kite vendors than actual patrons.

Darryl and I arrived without tickets and were pleased to pick up the 400 RMB VIP tickets for only 50 each. What we didn't realize was that the show had started about 45 minutes before we arrived. So we only got to see the last half, but I was still happy with our bargain evening!