Arrived in Hanoi

Left Hue at 5:30 am and flew to Hanoi. After checking into the Hanoi Tirant Hotel, we explored our new neighborhood. We’re in the heart of the old city and it’s bustling like crazy with activity. Shops line the narrow streets selling everything from chickens to I-phones. We saw a craft gallery with gold colored statues. In the afternoon we visited The Temple of Literature, which is a Confucius temple and includes the Imperial Academy, Vietnam’s first national university. Many students go there after graduation to pose for photos. Lots of young women were dressed in stunning traditional gowns. Then we went to the Hỏa Lò Prision, which was used by the French in Vietnam for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for prisoners of war during the Vietnam War when it was sarcastically known to American prisoners of war as the "Hanoi Hilton". The prison was demolished during the 1990s, though the gatehouse remains as a museum. John McCain was a prisoner of war there in 1967 after his plane was shot down in Hanoi.