The hotel situation in Beijing is so tight and we feel blessed to stay at a friend's apartment, located in the center of the city...

This is the apartment building, where the new Park Hyatt will open on the upper floors. The lobby is luxurious and modern with a whole team of welcome staff and security personnel.

The view from the apartment is awesome.

The place is so well appointed with contemporary decor and state of the art kitchen and bathrooms.

All major rooms have a grand view of the city...

In the evening we go to Hua Hai lake district. It's like a huge party city with all sorts of restaurants, pubs, discos, lounges...

The whole area is buzzing with Olympics frenzy. There are little stores selling iconic communist posters. People are celebrating in the streets...

Most restaurants and pubs have an outdoor seating area, with giant screen TV showing the Olympic events...

There are jazz clubs, oldies clubs, live music, karaoke, dancing lounges, discos, you name it!

Aside from beergartens, there are vendors of exotic drinks, such as panda foaming punches...

Locals and foreigners mingle in this party city, a festive mood is in the air...

There are even Hookah lounges, in Beijing of all places!!!

The next day we are going to our first Olympic event, table tennis in the Beijing University Gymnasium... Security is very tough...

This is the 2nd round of team and individual table tennis tournaments. There are 8 matches going on at the same time... Lots of excitement and cheering from the crowd for the Chinese players...

The Nigerian team was pretty amazing, as well as the Singaporean team... I was cheering at first for the Hong Kong team, but they didn't go far unfortunately.

It is an entirely different experience to watch an event live!

We walk around Beijing, over the last 3 years, many modern skyscrapers have mushroomed in Beijing, it's an amazing infrastructure development!

At every street corner, there are volunteers helping you find your way or give you information. These young people are so enthusiastic and some have given up a year's study to train for this historical event.

The next day, we attend the judo championship at the Beijing Science University Gymnasium.

We are watching the gold medal tournament for men's 100 kg and women's 75 kg.

The matches are very exciting, with cheering from the crowd. There are a lot of French and Japanese fans. We are seated next to Mongolian fans cheering for one of their country's female contenders... and we also cheered with them... It's great fun.

In the woman's category, China ends up winning the Gold (in the last 8 seconds), it has been a very exciting and tactical match. The Chinese crowd goes frantic!!!

In the men's event, Japan ends up winning the Gold and France gets the bronze...

The next day, we visit the Olympic city, it is enormous, covering several subway stations.  Security is very strict. There are many sponsors' pavilions open to visitors...

We pause with the famous Beijing Olympics cartoon characters...

The Olympic city is just awesome. It's exciting to see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube with our own eyes...

This is the tower used by TV stations to cover the events and to conduct interviews...

The water cube is a huge structure, it's quite an impressive sight, especially when illuminated at night...

Even the street lights are shaped like the bird nest...

The food and drinks in the Olympic stadium are very reasonable, like 80 cents for a beer or soft drink... At least spectators are not taken advantage of...

There is a huge artificial lake shaped like a dragon, with a dancing fountain show to the tune of Carmen of Bizet...

Below, in the background on the right, one can see the Olympic village where the athletes are staying. It is a huge complex with games room, gym, restaurants, coffee shops, that will be sold as condos after the Olympics.

The next day we go to the tennis tournament, women's semi finals, men's bronze and men's double gold medal.

The crowd goes crazy cheering of Chinese player Li Na, but unfortunately she loses.

The next match is the Bronze medal where James Blake has lost to Djokovic.

Finally we watch Federer and his partner win the Gold for Switzerland in the men's double final, with the Swedish settling for Silver. The matches have been long but exciting, it's past midnight as they end...

The day before Guido has traded his soccer jersey for an official Olympic polo shirt (which are given to officials and volunteers but are not for sale).

Tonight, I successfully convince a volunteer to trade shirt with me (on the way back, in the subway station!)... We are very proud to be owners of the official Olympic shirts!!!