The Citadel

The weather finally gave us a break and we wasted no time in heading out for the Citadel. Built by the emperor Gia Long (with help I imagine) in 1803, it was designed to resemble Beijing's Forbidden City 

First thing to note, it's an absolutely huge complex, the Imperial city alone covers 36.3 hectares. (Believe me, that's big)

It's surrounded by a moat and has four gates.

The entrance is impressive as you can see:

Once inside, we made straight for the Throne Room.

 The Chinese influence is very much in evidence here. Indeed, it put me in mind of the much missed Master Fu's restaurant in Darwen.

 

Once the last emperor had thrown in the towel in 1945, the complex quickly went downhill thanks to termite infestions, cyclones and a couple of wars.

The Vietnamese government have so far spent around £45million on restorations. (Just think, if they hadn't forced the emperor to abdicate, they could have saved that money)

The buildings that have been restored look great, those still waiting, not so great. (UNESCO obviously had the beer goggles on during inspection)

The gardens however, are lovely, and it was as we began to explore them that the rain started again.

The complex has pathways and courtyards made with terracotta tiles. Owing to the high humidity and almost constant wet weather, they're moss covered and so (as we were to discover) very slippery when wet.

We were following a path to one of the gardens when, without warning, we hit a slick spot.

Before we knew what was happening, we were sliding around, very much like Torvill and Dean. 

Fortunately, as you may know, I have the reflexes of a cat and was OK. 

JB only narrowly missed performing a triple salko and landed safely.