Conclusion 结束语

July 18, 2022

We started planning this trip to Europe around September/October 2021, when the coronavirus was still all over the United States. However, people have realized that living with the virus is the only way out of the shadow of the coronavirus. Two months of traveling abroad had a lot of worries and concerns, but in the end, courage and confidence allowed us to plan this long trip to Europe. Luckily, during these two months, two friends joined us in Switzerland for two weeks, and our children traveled with us for the last three weeks. Everywhere, we met helpful and friendly hosts or the front desk of the hotel, and we felt at home, the so-called "home away from home."

Although we are travelers who want to plan everything, there is never a perfect plan. We made s few minor adjustment during the trip but largely we followed our plan. The two maps below show our two-month journey in Europe, planned vs actual. The maps include the major cities we visited and the rail routes we used, the blue lines used by the Swiss travel pass and the green lines by Eurorail pass.

During two months in Europe, we visited ten countries, traveled more than 5000 km, and spent more than 70 hours riding trains. We took more than 10,000 pictures with two iPhones and Sony a7. The third map shows the locations of all pictures taken by one of iPhones during the trip.

The locations of all pictures taken by one of iPhones

结束语- 写这帖子的时候时我们正在飞往芝加哥的路上，我们离家已整整六十天了。9-10月前我们就开始计划这次欧洲游，当时新冠病毒正在度卷美国，但人们已经认识到与病毒共存是唯一走出新冠病毒阴影的通道。两个月在外旅行也是有不少担心的，最终勇气和信心得以让我们规划巳久的欧洲游成行。很幸运的是在这二个月中，先有好友相随二周同游瑞士，而最后三周有儿女陪伴。每到一地热心的房东或者旅馆的前台都让我们感受到像在家一样，所谓说的“家外之家”（Home away from home)。

到家了！

Gotthard Panorama Express 圣哥达全景观快车

July 17, 2022

We re-visited Zurich's Old Town this morning before we hopped on a train to Arth-Goldau to start one of the Grand Train Tours of Switzerland, the Gotthard Panoramic View Express. We toured the Zurich Old Town two months ago as soon as we got off the plane at the beginning of our trip. Although it was only a few hours of sightseeing, Zurich's beauty still impressed us. After visiting ten countries, we find Switzerland is the best of all.

Our European trip planning included the famous Grand Train Tour of Switzerland, covering most of the Swiss scenic train lines. However, when the two weeks in Switzerland ended at the beginning of June, we experienced most of the Swiss main scenic train lines included in the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland except the Gotthard Panorama Express. Today, we would make it up and bring our trip to Switzerland to a satisfying ending.

The Gotthard Panoramic View Express usually includes a sightseeing river cruise. Because we had taken the same river tour before, this time, we decided to take the train directly from Zurich to Arth-Goldau, where we boarded the Gotthard Panoramic View Express. We arrived at Arth-Goldau a couple of hours earlier, so we had lunch at a local café, and the spaghetti was delicious. Then we walked to Nature and Animal Park. Since we didn't have much time left to explore, with a 25 CHF admission fee each, we felt the money wasn't well spent and didn't go in. We turned around to went back to the train station.

Shortly after we got to the platform, the Gotthard Panorama Express was pulled to the station. We boarded our coach and found we were the only two on this particular coach. We wondered what was going on. Then the train tour guide walked in and asked us to move to the other coach since there were no other passengers on this coach. We agreed to move since it would make their job easier and more efficient. Because the windows in the panorama cars of the express were closed, the Gotthard Panorama Express added the photo coach in the center of the train for all passengers to use during the journey. The windows in this coach can be opened so that passengers can take better photos without reflection from the windows. While riding through the long tunnel, they projected a video of the tunnel construction's history on the tunnel wall. We thought that was cool.

The express ride took three and a half hours, climbing two mountains and passing through the longest tunnel of the 19th century. After 4:30 p.m., the train arrived in Lugano, a resort city in southern Switzerland on the border with Italy. The scenery by the lake was beautiful, but we felt a little unbearable under the scorching sun after walking for a long time. We quickly found a place to have dinner. The tour guide on the express train recommended we eat risotto from an Italy restaurant when we were in Lugano. We ordered seafood risotto, which tasted very good. The waiter was attentive and served the salad and risotto we ordered in half for each of us. We didn't stay any longer after dinner and hurried back to the train station to catch a train back to Zurich. On the return trip, we took a regular train, which didn't have to climb the mountains. Instead, the train went directly through the world's longest tunnel - 57 kilometers from the bottom of the mountain, shortening the journey to less than two hours. Our two-month tour of Europe ended here, leaving us with great memories, and we will be back soon.

欧洲游第五十八天：今天一早去苏黎世老城景区“旧”地重游，二个月前一下飞机就赶来这里，虽然当时也就是几个小时的走马观花匆匆一游，但还是对苏黎世的美丽留下深刻印象。走了十个国家之后今天再次来到这里，仍然觉得瑞士最美。

当初计划这次欧洲游是从著名的瑞士环游火车之路(Grand Train Tour of Switzerland)开始的，准备走完大多数瑞士观光火车线路。五月底六月初在瑞士的二周，很遗憾大部分都坐了，除了圣哥达全景观快车(Gotthard Panorama Express)。今天正好有时间把它补上，也让我们的瑞士游画上一个圆满的句号。

圣哥达全景观快车一般包括游船，因为我们以前巳坐过一段游船，这次就直接从苏黎世坐火车到Arth-Goldau，在那里登上圣哥达全景观快车，整个行程三个半小时，爬过二座山穿越十九世纪时最长隧道，铁路两边景色不错，典型瑞士高山风光。下午四点半后到达卢加诺（Lugano), 瑞士南部与意大利接壤的一个度假城市。湖边景色秀丽，但在烈日炎炎下，走了没多久就觉得有点受不了，赶紧找个地方吃晚餐。火车上的服务员告诉我们到了卢加诺一定要吃意大利的risotto。我们要了海鲜烩饭（seafood risotto), 味道特别好，服务员也特别热情细心，把我们点的色拉和烩饭分成两半送上来。饭后没再多留，而是匆匆赶去火车站坐火车回苏黎世。回去时不用再翻越高山火车直接从山底下穿越世界上最长的隧道-57公里，把整个行程缩短到二个小时不到，顺利回到旅馆。我们的欧洲二月游也到此结束，给我们留下了美好的记忆，在不远的将来，我们会再回来的。

Basel, Switzerland 巴塞尔

July 16, 2022

The breakfast we had at the hotel these days was excellent, and today was no exception. After breakfast, we said goodbye to the beautiful town of Bacharach, dragged our suitcases over the cobblestone street, and headed to the train station nearby. We expected a full train like yesterday; fortunately, the regional train was not crowded at all.

On the way to return to Zurich from Germany, we made a side trip to Basel, Switzerland. It was not very convenient to get there from Bacharach, where we stayed, and we had to change trains twice. However, the journey to Basel was very smooth. We arrived at Basel, put away our luggages and headed straight to the old city center just in time to see Basel Tattoo Parade. At first, we had no clue what was going on. We asked the locals about it. It was an annual military tattoo marching band parade performed by international military bands, exhibition teams, and tattoo groups, including teams from the United States, Canada, and other European countries. It is the second-largest marching band festival in the world. The crowds filled up the streets, and after done with the parades, the people filled up the bars and restaurants in the area. It was an energetic and beautiful atmosphere.

When the parade was over, we looked for a place to eat. All restaurants in the area were crowded. When we passed the city hall square, we saw a long line in front of a sausage stand. We joined the queue and patiently waited for our two sausages with bread and mustard sauce. The lunch was simple and good, but we wished we could find a place to sit and rest. As we strolled along the Rhine, we found a café by the river and got a table after waiting for a few minutes. We had our coffee break and watched the young people floating along the river. It was a needed break. When it was time to pay the bill, we realized we were again back to €5 a cup of coffee.

Basel has a unique geographical location, bordering France and Germany, at the junction of three countries. We first went to the Tri-Nations Junction Memorial Tower, walked over a small bridge from Switzerland to Germany, and then crossed the Tri-Nations Crossing Bridge over the Rhine River from Germany to France. At the beginning of the European tour, one of us didn't take a ferry to a beautiful town in France when we visited Geneva; today, he had made up for it. Interestingly, there were no French restaurants in the square of the French town, only two Italian restaurants and a small Turkish shop. We picked one of the Italian restaurants and had an Italian pizza.

Today was a record day with three meals in three countries. We had breakfast in Germany, lunch in Switzerland, and supper in France. The day was not specially planned but ended with many unexpected and joyful activities. From Basel, we took the train to the hotel next to Zurich Airport.

欧洲游第五十七天：今天从德国回到瑞士苏黎世，顺便在瑞士的巴塞尔(Basel)下车看一下。从我们住的小镇去那里不是很方便，要转车二次。这几天都在旅馆里吃的早餐，东西非常丰富，今天也不例外。吃完早餐，拖着行李箱还以为又要像昨天那样挤火车了，没想到今天去巴塞尔的火车并不拥挤，一路非常顺利。来到巴塞尔直接往老城中心去, 正好碰上Basel Tattoo 游行，人山人海。问了一下当地人，说这周是当地的军乐队周，参加游行的有来自美国加拿大和欧洲其他国家的表演者，据说这是世界上第二大军乐队节。看完游行后看到有个小摊排长队，我们也凑热闹买了二根香肠，面包蘸着芥末酱当午饭，典型的当地小吃。然后慢慢地走到莱茵河边，坐下喝上一杯咖啡，远望年青人在河上顺水漂游，轻松休息一会儿。结账时认识到我们又再次回到5€一杯清咖啡的地方了。

巴塞尔城市地理位置特殊，与法国和德国为邻，处在三国交界点。我们先去了三国交界点纪念塔，然后从瑞士走过一小桥来到德国，再走过莱茵河上的三国步行桥从德国来到法国。欧洲游初期当时在日内瓦那天我没和他们一起坐船去法国美丽小镇，今天弥补一下算是这次我也到过法国了。奇怪的是在法国小镇广场上没有法国餐厅，只有二家意大利餐厅和一家土尔其小店。我们晚餐在小镇吃了顿意大利披萨。

今天这一天算是创纪录，一日三餐在三个国家吃，早餐在德国，中午在瑞士，晚饭在法国。三国行后坐火车来到苏黎世机场边的旅馆，原本没有什么特别安排的一天却变得那样丰富多彩。

Frankfurt 法兰克福

July 15, 2022

The morning in Bacharach was beautiful and tranquil. We did a morning walk before the breakfast. Our son flew back to New York from Frankfurt today. Before we sent him off, we spent time together visiting Frankfurt. Because of the popularity of the €9 travel card, the regional trains were often full, especially on weekends. Today's train to Frankfurt was no exception. The train was so crowded that we couldn't even turn around. But fortunately, a few people got off the train more than half an hour later, and we found seats to sit down.

Once in Frankfurt, we walked around the old town and visited the Central Market (Kleinmarkthalle). The market was much smaller than we expected, and we did not find anything interesting for lunch. Instead, we found a restaurant near the market and had one last schnitzel and roasted pork knuckle. With no disappointment, the food was delicious. After lunch, we did a little sightseeing and visited Frankfurt Cathedral and the Eiserner Steg, a footbridge spanning the Main river. We didn't spend too much time in Frankfurt since our son had a flight to catch. The three of us went to the airport together and said goodbye at the airport.

From there, we took the regional train to Boppard, a historic town on the Rhine and not far from Bacharach, where we stayed. Visiting the archeological site of Römer-Kastell was a treat, not expected. This 4th-century fortress is one of the best-preserved Roman fortresses on the continent. Though much of it is in ruins, the romance of its 28 ancient towers and thick, high walls is palpable. We visited the Romanesque St. Severus Church and the gothic-style Carmelite Church, both beautiful and admirable.

We strolled down on the beautiful bank along the river, and we saw an Indian restaurant by the river. We hadn't had Indian food on this trip, so we just sat down at a table by the river. The food was excellent, and the river view was even better. We were glad that we made this side trip to visit the medieval town of Boppard.

We took the train back to Bacharach. We went to the riverside again, sat by the river, and ate the wild blackberries we picked yesterday as the sun was setting. The Germany tour was almost over, and tomorrow we would return to Switzerland to prepare to return to the United States. The time was flying so fast that the two-month European travel was coming to an end.

欧洲游第五十六天：儿子今天从法兰克福回纽约，我们随他一起去法兰克福转一圈，也顺便送送他。因为9€的交通卡，感觉德国人出门全坐火车了，特别是在周末，那些旅游热点区域线上的火车人满为患。今天去法兰克福的火车就是塞得满满的，都转不了身，幸好半个多小时后有人下车才找到了座位。到法兰克福后就在老城区里走马观花看了中央市场， 教堂还有步行桥。中午就找了一家餐厅再一次吃炸猪排和烤猪肘，没失望，还可以。饭后就随儿子一起去机场，然后我们从那里坐区域火车到Boppard, 也是一个在莱茵河边上的小镇，离我们住的小镇不远。时间不多也只能到此一游，结果看到河边上有家印度饭店，索性就坐下把晚餐给解决了。好像这还是来欧洲近二个月第一次吃印度菜，还算满意。傍晚坐在河边的椅子上，看着太阳落山，喝上一瓶啤酒，品尝着昨天摘下野生黑莓，德国游就此结束，明天回瑞士准备回美。日子过得真快，近二个月的欧洲游马上就要结束了。

Vineyard and Blackberry 葡萄园和野生黑莓

July 14, 2022

Today we didn't have any particular plan, not visiting castles or museums. We just wanted to stay away from the crowds and unwind in the little town of Bacharach. The hotel provided breakfast for guests, and we only had a couple of the hotels offer complimentary breakfast on this trip. The breakfast at this hotel was top-notch, including hot items, freshly baked pastries, and bread. After breakfast, we headed to the nearby vineyards, which began in Roman times, and the vines were full of grapes on the steep hillsides for maximum sun exposure. But walking up and down the vineyard with high incline slopes was not easy, and we felt tired after walking for more than two hours. The scenery view along the trail made it worth the effort.

We had a light lunch with Turkey Barbecue Pita and returned to the hotel for a short nap. In the afternoon, the three of us walked along the river and saw a lot of wild blackberries along the way. We picked them up as we walked. They were not as sweet as those bought from the store, but the blackberry taste was quite strong. We ate a lot of them and even saved some for tomorrow.

We tried a different cuisine for dinner, no more schnitzel and sausage. We had grilled octopus, lamb shark, and pork at the town's Greek restaurant. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed them very much.

欧洲游第五十五天：今天没什么特别的日程安排，什么城堡，博物馆都不去，就在住的小镇放松休整一下。一早在旅馆里吃完早餐之后就去附近的葡萄园走走，这里葡萄园早在罗马时期就开始了，满山坡上都种满了葡萄，据说这里的白葡萄酒很有名。但在葡萄园里上上下下走也并不轻松，有些地方坡度很大，走了两个多小时觉得很累,。中午土尔其烤肉皮塔简单午餐后，回旅馆睡了个午觉。下午仨人沿河边散步，沿路看到不少野生黑莓，一边走一边摘，没比店里的甜但黑莓味道挺浓的，留了不少明天再吃。晚餐改个口味，不吃德国炸猪排，镇上有家希腊菜餐馆，除了烤章鱼，还有有羊腿，猪肉一堆肉，我们挺喜欢的。

Eltz Castle 埃莱芝城堡

July 13, 2022

Eltz Castle is considered one of the top three castles in Germany. This medieval castle, located in the Rhineland-Palatinate region, was never destroyed, even during the most tumultuous historical periods. It sits within a valley surrounded by heavy forests and far away from the towns. We wanted to visit the castle, but there was no convenient way to get there. There was some information online to describe the direction to the castle. To make sure we had the correct information, we visited the tourist office in Bacharach. A lady at the office didn't know how to get there without the car since it was in the forest. But she was eager to help and called the office at Eltz Castle to find out the direction for us. With an official guide, we were ready to start our journey.

With a Germany's €9 transport card handy, we headed out early in the morning to Eltz Castle. We took the train to Koblenz, then changed to another regional train to get off at Hatzenport. Outside the train station, we boarded Bus 365 to a parking lot 1 km from the castle. The bus weaved through endless farmland, which reminded us of summers in Iowa and narrow alleys in a small town. Half an hour later, the bus arrived at a parking lot somewhere in the mountains. But the castle was still a kilometer away. There were two options to get to the castle, on foot or by shuttle, and we decided to take the shuttle because these two days were hot in Germany. Visiting the castle requires a guided tour in English or German. We waited for the English tour. The tour guide took us around the castle and told us the story of the castle. Eltz Castle is a private castle in its 33rd generation and is the only castle in Germany that has not been damaged by any war or natural disaster. Now the castle has become a tourist hotspot, and many rooms of the castle have gorgeous flowers still made by the centenarian lady herself.

Simple lunch was served in the cafe's dining room with bread and sausages. After lunch, we took pictures around the castle and returned to the city. This time we walked from the castle to the parking lot to catch Bus 365. Unfortunately, we missed the bus and ended up waiting at the parking lot for more than 50 minutes. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long at the train station and returned to Koblenzwithout a hitch.

In Koblenz, we first stopped at the Koblenz palace, where the gardens were beautiful with very few people. Then we walked along the Rhine River and noticed the cable car to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on the opposite hill. We checked with the ticket office, and it was still open, so we quickly bought tickets to ride the cable car over the river and up the hill on the opposite bank to see Ehrenbreitstein Castle. We spent about 20 minutes outside the castle and hurried to hop on the cable back before the cable car stopped running for the day.

We picked a restaurant specializing in Turkish dumplings for dinner in Koblenz's old town. It was our first time having Turkish dumplings, and we thought the taste was good. Done with the eating, drinking, and sightseeing, it was time to head to the train station and back to Bacharach.

欧洲游第五十四天：今天德国的9€交通卡还真派上大用场了。一早出门去埃莱芝城堡(Eltz Castle)。这城堡躲在山里，交通很不方便，特别是像我们没车的。先坐火车到Koblenz，换乘另一辆火车到Hatzenport下车，然后又换乘大巴，穿梭于一望无尽的农田，让我们想起爱荷华的夏天。大巴一会儿又转入狭窄的小巷，半个小时后来到了山里的一个停车场。可城堡还在一公里之外，有二个选择，徒步或者专车，我们选择坐专车，因为这二天德国又是高温临下。除了专车票必须另外买之外，火车和大巴的车票都包括在9€的月票中。在城堡里导游带着我们转了一大圈。埃莱芝城堡是私人城堡，到现在已经是第33代传人，是德国唯一未受任何战争和自然灾难破坏的城堡。当然现在这城堡已成为旅游热点了，城堡很多房间中摆放着非常漂亮的鲜花都还是家里百岁老太自己弄的。午餐就在城堡的餐厅里吃，面包夹香肠，很简单。饭后在城堡里照几张像后就赶着回城，这次我们徒步到车站，没赶上大巴，结果在车站等了五十多分钟。幸好在火车站没等多久，顺利回到Koblenz。先去看了Koblenz宫殿，那里的花园很漂亮，人也不多。然后沿着莱茵河边漫步，发现去对岸山上艾伦布赖特施泰因城堡（Ehrenbreitstein Fortress)的缆车还开着, 赶紧买票坐缆车过河上了对岸的山头看了一眼城堡🏰，赶在缆车停止前又匆匆赶回。在老城区一家专做土尔其饺子的店吃了晚饭，第一次吃土尔其饺子，觉得味道还可以。吃饱喝足坐火车回住地。

Rhine River Cruise 游莱茵河

July 12, 2022

This morning we returned to the back hills to walk through Steeger Tor and climb up Postenturm, used as a water reservoir and now a beautiful observation tower. From the tower, we had a unique panoramic view over Bacharach. The vineyards on the steep hill were well-known, and it would not be hard to imagine how hard to work in those fields. We continued to climb up the steep fortification wall to Spitzer Turm to have an even better view of the Rhine River. We wanted to continue our hike, but we had a sightseeing river cruise scheduled at noon.

The middle section of the Rhine River from Bingen to St. Goer is the most beautiful portion of the river, with countless ancient castles on both sides and the hill slopes overlapped with grape terraces. We boarded from Bacharach and disembarked at St. Goar. We had lunch at Italy café there, then hiked to the Rheinfels Castle on the hill. We didn’t have time to go inside and turned around to walk back to the terminal to catch our return cruise boat. On the way down to the cruise terminal, we strolled through a tiny downtown dotted with beautiful little shops, restaurants, and ice cream stores. We had our first Riesling flavor ice cream, which was good.

The returned boat went upstream to Bingen and disembarked there, and we skipped the stop at Bacharach and went all the way to Bingen for a short visit. The round-trip ride took more than four hours, and the sightseeing river cruise was very comfortable. Most important, the ticket was €24 per person, which was the most affordable way to visit the Rhine. We had taken several river cruises by now, and today was the best. We used to say that we would come to Europe to take an expensive cabin river cruise on the Rhine River and Danube River. After this experience, we were not sure that taking a costly cabin river cruise would be our priority anymore.

The dinner at Bingen was Chinese food, and they were okay. After dinner, we went sightseeing and walked to Klopp Castle, the Bingen civil administration center. Stairs could access the top of the tower, and it was not an easy walk but well worth the effort. We could see almost the whole town, and it was beautiful.

We returned from Bingen to Bacharach by a regional train. The street of Bacharach at night was tranquil. Since the weather was so lovely, we decided to go to the river bank to relax and to write our travel journal for the day. It was a full moon night. As we stared at the beautiful full moon hanging in the sky, we were thinking of our families in Shanghai, hoping that they would no longer be anxious and suffering from Covid soon.

欧洲游第五十三天：今天早上先去后面山上走一走，然后坐船游莱茵河。莱茵河中段，也就是说从Bingen到St. Goer 那段是最漂亮的，两边有无数古城堡，斜坡上重重叠叠都是葡萄梯田。我们从Bacharach 上船，在St. Goar 下船，在那里吃了午餐后去小山上的城堡看了一眼就又回到船上，然后往上游走到了Bingen 下船，前前后后坐了四个多小时的游船，船很不错，非常舒服，船票也就每人24€，这是游莱茵河最经济实惠的方式。以前一直说要特地来欧洲坐游轮游莱茵河和多瑙河，那些船票价都特别贵，有过这次的经历，不会再去坐那种贵的船了。在Bingen吃的晚餐是中餐，味道一般。晚上回到住的镇上后在河边写着自己游记，突然抬头看见圆圆的月亮挂在天空，思念着在上海的亲人，希望他们早日不再为清零而焦虑受难。

Bacharach

July 11, 2022

We left Nuremberg this morning for the little town of Bacharach on the Rhine River, the last stop of our German visit. After riding the high-speed train from Nuremberg to Koblenz, we transferred to the regional train to Bacharach. Thanks to Germany's €9 national pass, the regional train was packed with tourists and locals. But fortunately, it took only thirty minutes to get from Koblenz to Bacharach. Bacharach is a historic town of less than two thousand permanent residents, with a castle built in the 12th century. Nowadays, this town is mainly a tourist place, but there are not too many overnight tourists.

Arriving in town in the afternoon, we walked from the train station to our hotel, which was only five minutes away. But dragging our suitcases over the cobblestone street made our walk a little harder and longer. Too early for check-in, we found a restaurant next to the hotel to have lunch and had German schnitzel and green salad. When we were done with lunch, the hotel was ready for us. After check-in, the three of us went up the hillside to see Stahleck Castle. It was a 12th-century fortified castle in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, which was destroyed in the late 17th century but rebuilt in the 20th, and is now a hostel. We had our afternoon coffee break with German cheesecake and ice cream at the castle café at the top while admiring the panoramic view over the Rhine River. The area is also known for its white wines, harvested from the vineyards on the steep hills along the river. Walking through the vineyards definitely was a treat. We knew we would return here to hike on another day.

Dinner was delicious paella, grilled calamari, and local white wine at the restaurant next to the railroad track. It was an unique experience with the train coming and going every few minutes when we were eating, and we didn't expect to have such good paella in a small town like Bacharach. After dinner, we strolled along the Rhine River, watching the trains passing on both sides of the river and the cargo ships and cruise ships that slowly moved along the river. We loved the town, and it was an enjoyable day.

欧洲游第五十二天：今天离开纽伦堡来到在莱茵河上的小镇-Bacharach，也是我们德国游的最后一个住宿点。一早坐高铁从纽伦堡到Koblenz,然后换当地火车到Bacharach. 因为德国9欧元的全国通行票，小火车挤满游客，幸好从Koblenz到Bacharach 只需三十分钟。Bacharach 是一个不到二千人的历史小镇，镇上城堡建于十二世纪。如今这个小镇主要是旅游的地方，但是小镇上游客不多，很安静，是个值得去的地方。下午到达小镇后，在旅馆边找了家餐厅吃午饭，德国炸猪排，蔬菜色拉。安顿好后，仨人就上小山坡去看当地古城堡，土坡上都种酿酒葡萄，据说这里葡萄酒还有点小名声。在城堡上喝上一杯咖啡加上德国的奶酪蛋糕和冰淇淋，欣赏莱茵河上的美景，真的是非常享受。晚餐是西班牙海鲜饭和烤鱿鱼，挺好吃的。有点没想到这么个安静小镇里能吃上海鲜饭。饭后又在莱茵河边漫步，看望着河两岸上来来往往的火车和慢行在河上的货船和游轮，美好的一天这样结束了。

Munich 慕尼黑

July 10, 2022

This morning we took the hour-long high-speed train from Nuremberg to Munich, where we were reunited with our son. We had a cup of coffee in a neighborhood coffee shop and then headed to the Munich central square, just in time for Rathaus-Glockenspiel to chime at noon. Many people watched the clock show lasting more than ten minutes, which was the best we had seen on this European trip.

After the show, we tried to find a place for lunch, but most restaurants were packed. We walked around the area and found a relatively high-end restaurant with many empty seats. We decided to give it a try, but it turned out that the food was not as good as we expected for the price. Maybe that's why nobody dines there. We ordered a sausage salad, and we thought it was a few pieces of sausage in the salad, like chicken salad. We didn't expect the whole plate to be full of sausages with salad dressing. The lamb dish and fish&chip were pretty good, just too expensive.

After lunch, we strolled around the central square and visited a few tourist attractions. Since it was the weekend, the area was crowded with tourists and locals. We left the main square and went to the English Garden. The park was vast and beautiful, with many people walking, biking, and sitting on the benches or grass. We walked across the park to the Munich Royal Palace. Since it was late afternoon and we didn't have enough time to visit the palace, we had our coffee break at the café nearby before we caught a train returning to Nuremberg.

For dinner, we took our son back to the same restaurant we had Nuremberg Sausage before. Besides the tasty sausages, we also ordered beef tongue this time, which was very good. The music festival was over, and most musicians had already left town. Compared to last night's live music and crowds, the old town was much quieter and empty tonight.

欧洲游第五十一天：今天一早从纽伦堡坐一小时的高铁到慕尼黑，与儿子在那里再次团聚。先去了他们的中央广场，正好赶上午时钟楼准时敲钟，这次钟楼雕像秀前前后后持续十分钟，算是这次欧洲行中看到的最好的。中午在附近找了一家算是比较高挡次的餐厅，但味道并不怎么样，要了个香肠色拉，想是生菜里放点香肠，没想到整盘全是香肠，放了点色拉酱。饭后去了英式公园，从那里走到慕尼黑皇宫，也没时间进去参观，就在旁边喝上一杯咖啡就匆匆赶回火车站回纽伦堡，慕尼黑算是到此一游。晚餐让儿子尝尝纽伦堡香肠，另外试了牛舌头，还不错。与昨晚上人山人海相比，今晚的纽伦堡游客寥寥无几，安静多了。

Bavarian Trombone Festival巴伐利亚长号节

July 9, 2022

We visited the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg in the morning. In the Middle Ages, Germany Kings, also Holly Roman Emperors if they were coronated by the Pope, stayed from one castle to another since they didn’t have a capital. Nuremberg Castle was one of the Imperial Castles for the kings/emperors. The castle was damaged severely during World War II, and the restoration took 30 years to complete. The Imperial Chapel inside the castle was interesting. It has two chapels, one above the other and connected only through an opening in the ceiling, thus representing the hierarchical classes in the society. Visiting the 50-meter-deep well also reminded us of the tremendous engineering skills of the people in the medieval period. The staff showed us that water was still down there. We also enjoyed some live music activities as we strolled around the castle.

Before noon, we each had a Nuremberg sausage sandwich for lunch and waited for the Frauenkirche church on the square to ring the clock while eating. The mechanical clock on the church wall has the figure of Holly Roman Emperor sitting in the middle. At noon, a series of little wooden men coming out of a door on the right walked passing the emperor and went into another door on the left.

Done watching the clock, we took an underground Nuremberg guided tour in the afternoon. Hundreds of years ago, the city government required that all beer breweries build a specific size of cellar underground and also made strict laws on the composition of beer. Therefore, many beer cellars are underneath the old city, and some places have four floors deep. Those ancient cellars became bomb shelters during World War II. The tour was in German, but they gave us an audio guide to listen to. We knew we missed a lot of what the tour guide said, but the tour was still fascinating. We were amazed at how extensive and well-constructed the cellars were. We saw some of the cellars were still in use today for liquor other than beer. In the end, the tour took us to a brewery, and we had the famous Nuremberg’s red beer at one of the cafes in the area.

We did not go back to the old town directly; instead, we walked along the old city walls to see more of the old town. Dinner was at the Ramen restaurant next to our hotel again.

When we arrived in Nuremberg two days ago, we saw the stage was being set up in the square. Occasionally, we watched the music being played on the stage. Yesterday, suddenly, a lot of long yellow benches appeared in the square in a peculiar way that the benches didn’t face the stage. Last night there was a live concert in the square. The light blue posters in Germany were everywhere, and we started to see many people coming to the town with Trombones and Brass. Our curiosity took us to Google Search, and we found it was the Bavarian Trombone Festival 2022. With an expected turnout of about 2800 players from Bavaria and beyond, according to the online news. Today the old town street was filled with musicians, and live music was everywhere. Tonight, Nuremberg’s old town square turned into the stage for a gigantic brass festival. This was something we had never experienced before.

Our son would join us in Nuremberg from Berlin tonight. However, the train stopped miles away from Nuremberg for more than one hour for the reason we didn’t know. He fell asleep during the stop. Once the train moved again, he didn’t wake up until it passed Nuremberg when we called him. He missed the stop and headed to Munich. He could return with another train once arriving in Munich but decided to stay in Munich for the night since we would go to Munich tomorrow for the day trip.

欧洲游第五十天：今天就在纽伦堡老城里转转，上午去了皇家城堡, 中午每人买一个纽伦堡香肠三明治，边吃边等着广场边教堂午时准时打钟，看着钟楼上的小木人午时敲打出来走了一圈。下午参加了一个地下纽伦堡游。好几百年前，市政府就立法规定，所有酿制啤酒的酒庄都必须在地下建造一定大小的酒窖，还对啤酒的成分作了严格规定，所以在老城地下有不少地窖，有些地方还是有四层的。二战时这地窖可派了大用场了。纽伦堡的红啤酒🍻是当地最传统的啤酒，当然不能错过，所以地下游结束后我们就直接在酒庄坐下品尝了一下，然后沿着老城墙走一圈。

这个周末，正好碰上德国长号节在纽伦堡举行，白天城里到处是一个个小型音乐会，晚上据说有2800个长号手一起在老城广场演奏，规模宏大，“号”声动听。

Nazi Rally Ground and Nuremberg Trial

July 8, 2022

Nuremberg was the center of the Nazi regime, and it was Hitler's favorite city. Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions – the Nuremberg rallies we saw in the films. Several facilities were constructed solely for those rallies, some of which were not finished. Before World War II, they began to build larger and more spectacular gathering places, but before these works could be completed, World War II ended. Many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city. We went to see the sites this morning. Some buildings were demolished after World War II, and the rest are still abandoned. For example, the Congress Hall was never completed, but it is the biggest preserved national socialist monumental building still in existence. After the war, the question of what to do with the unfinished shell was raised. Converting it into a leisure and shopping center was proposed but was too politically sensitive to start. The northern wing of the Congress Hall is now home to the Documentation Center, a part of which opened as a permanent exhibition we visited. The southern wing houses the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. Our walking tour started with visiting the permanent exhibition in the northern wing to pass by the courtyard of the Congress Hall. The courtyard looked like a construction dump site. However, we managed to get to the other side of Congress Hall and walked a U-shape 400-meter-long archway alone. On the granite walls, we still could see the bullet holes.

The round tour of the main areas of the rally ground was probably three to four miles long. Halfway, we were hungry but couldn't find any shops in this massive rally ground. Google Maps showed a couple of food options, but they were either closed or not there. Walking on the Great Road, we passed by the lake to head to the Zeppelin Field and hoped to find a place to sit and eat. We finally saw a restaurant next to the lake, and we walked in only to be told that it was closed for a private event. Near the Zeppelin Field, we found a food truck selling sausage and drinks. Since this was our only option, if we did not want to continue looking, we ordered the food and drink from the truck. We saw a picnic table with chairs beside the truck. When the guy saw us walking towards the table with food, he shouted, "no sit," in an unfriendly voice. We couldn't understand why we couldn't sit down to eat the food he had just sold to us. We didn't bother arguing with him and just walked away to find another place to sit down and enjoy the sausage.

After lunch, we visited Zeppelin Field and the Grandstand, where Hitler addressed his followers during the annual Nazi Party rallies. Both structures are massive, and the site is in the process of converting into a museum.

Done with the rally ground, we went to the Nuremberg Trial Museum, a significant landmark worth visiting. With the audio device, we walked through the exhibit, and there was a lot of information. Unfortunately, due to renovation, we could not visit the famous court No. 600. It took us six hours to see the rally ground and the Nuremberg Trial Museum, and we learned a little more history.

Because Nuremberg was the center of Nazi rallying and their military stronghold, it was one of the most bombed cities during World War II, and almost 90% of the buildings in the old city were destroyed. Unlike other German cities, Nuremberg decided to rebuild the old town after World War II by keeping the original traditional style. The old town we see today was rebuilt after World War II, which is exceptionally new and beautiful.

The downtown market was open every day from eight am to eight or nine pm; there was street food, vegetarian fruits, meats, etc., and we bought some green beans, mushrooms, and strawberries in the morning. We also had a pretzel with butter for breakfast from a stand in the market. The strawberries were fresh and sweet, and we stir-fried green beans and mushrooms with a bit of bacon for dinner in the evening.

After dinner, we went to see the Beautiful Fountain at the square. According to a local legend, if you turn the "golden ring" on the grille three times and make a wish, your wish will come true. The ring is relatively small and not immediately noticeable. We found it, turned it three times, and made a wish.

When visiting Nuremberg, the Nuremberg sausage, which has a history of hundreds of years, is on everyone's must-eat list. Tonight, as we strolled on the street, we were attracted to the charcoal smoking from the chimney of the Bratwursthausle. We could not control ourselves and had the second dinner,  having a beer and a glass of white wine, more than a dozen Nuremberg sausages grilled on charcoal, and a sausage sandwich. It had a unique aroma and tasted really good. It was our first time trying the sausage, and we knew we would return for more. There was a live concert in the square at night, and we discovered that tomorrow would be a big music day.

欧洲游第四十九天：纽伦堡是希特勒最喜欢的城市，影片里看到的纳粹集会就是在那里举行的，希特勒把纽伦堡祢为纳粹党集会市。在二战前，他们开始建造更大更壮观的集合场所，但这些工程没有完成前，二战就结束了。今天上午就去看了一下那些遗址，因为政冶上的敏感性有些建筑在二战后就拆除了，剩下的至今还废弃着。有些地方刚开始准备对外开放。看完这些后又去了纽伦堡审判博物馆和当时的法庭，很可惜因装修的原因，我们未能参观著名的600号法庭。正因为纽伦堡是纳粹的集会中心，也是当时他们的军事要地，所以二战期间是被炸的最历害的城市之一，旧城的建筑几乎90%被毁，与德国其它城市不同，纽伦堡在二战后决定重新复造老城区。保持原来传统风格，现在所看到的老城区都是二战后重建的，所以特别新且漂亮。看集会中心及审判博物馆前前后后花了五，六个小时，博物馆里许多语音介绍还根本来不及听。

在市中心的集市每天早上八点开到晚上八，九点，有街头小吃，素菜水果肉类等，我们早上买了点四季豆，蘑菇和草莓，草莓很好，晚上炒个四季豆蘑菇加了一点培根。到了纽伦堡必须要尝尝纽伦堡小香肠，有几百年的历史。晚饭后去街上散步，找了一家饭店要了一杯啤酒一杯白葡萄酒凑个热闹，吃了十几根在木炭上烤过的纽伦堡肠，有种特别的香味，味道真不错。

Erfurt & Nuremberg 埃尔福特及纽伦堡

July 7，2022

After a brief family reunion in Berlin, our daughter flew back to New York today. Two of us headed to the next destination, the city of Nuremberg in southeastern Germany, while our son stayed in Berlin for a few more days to enjoy city life. We left Berlin early in the morning since we were going to have a side trip to Erfurt on the way to Nuremberg. After about a two-hour train ride, we got off the train at the central German city of Erfurt for a half-day visit. Erfurt has a rich history and is beautiful. Unlike most old towns in Germany that were destroyed during World War II and rebuilt after the war, Erfurt's old town was largely intact during World War II. It was one of the best-preserved medieval city centers in Germany. From the Erfurt train station, we took the bus to the town square. The weather was not in our favor, and the sky changed from cloudy to drizzling. The farmer's market in the square had just started, and we glanced at the market but quickly headed to the Cathedral. On the way to the Cathedral, we heard a beautiful voice singing behind the tall fences around the Cathedral. When we got closer, we saw a man singing opera on the 70 steps open-air stage on the cathedral hill while it was raining. Then a couple of other guys went up and sang. We did a quick google search. It was Erfurt Theater at the backdrop of the Cathedral. Probably, the guys were rehearsing or trying the audio system. We watched them practice for a while and wished we could stay for the night for the concert, whatever it was. Cathedral Church of St. Mary is on the hill overlooking the town square. Right next to the Cathedral was the St Severus' Church. Both churches together form the city's landmark. The inside of both churches was beautiful.

After walking around the churches, we headed to Petersberg Citadel. On the way there, mother nature called. But the restroom required a coin to enter, and one of us hadn't carried cash for months, so he jumped over the gate so he could take care of the business. We don't understand the justification for paid toilets in tourist areas. Can they raise the fee to cover the cost of maintaining the facility? It was not the first time we had a toilet issue during our Europe trip, and we learned from the experience to always carry some coins for an emergency. Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt is one of Europe's largest and best-preserved town fortresses. The citadel was built on Petersberg hill overlooking the city. The garden and fortress were well-maintained and beautiful. As we walked around the fortress, the rain stopped, and we enjoyed the view of the city and the stunning Cathedral.

The lunch was at a restaurant next to the square. Of course, we had Thuringian sausage. Thuringian sausage is a unique sausage from the German state of Thuringia, which has protected geographical indication status under European Union law. The sausage has been produced for hundreds of years, and we like the delicious sausage too.

Erfurt was where Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation movement, completed college. The city has many historical buildings, such as the Augustinian monastery, where Martin Luther lived, prayed, and worked as a monk. St. Michael's Church was where Martin Luther regularly attended mass and preached. However, the most famous attraction in the town is the Merchants' Bridge, a medieval arch bridge lined with shops and houses on both sides of a cobblestone street. It is one of the few remaining bridges in the world with inhabited buildings. We walked back and forth over the bridge a couple of times.

We returned to the train station in the afternoon and headed to Nuremberg. Our hotel apartment was in the old town center. Next to the hotel was a Japanese ramen restaurant, and business was booming. Luckily, we got seats at the noodle bar and had ramen and sashimi salad, which were excellent.

After dinner, we wandered around the old town area. Our first impression was that Nuremberg’s old town was a bit like Prague's old town, but it was quieter and more beautiful than Prague’s old town.

欧洲游第四十八天：一家四口在柏林短暂相聚之后，今天女儿飞回纽约，我们俩前往下一站德国东南部城市纽伦堡市，儿子则继续留在柏林。一早坐了二个小时左右的火车先顺路在德国中部城市埃尔福特（Erfurt）下车来个半天游。小城历史悠久，很漂亮，与德国其它一些城市相比，算是在二战期间受损不太严重的城市，所以很多漂亮的旧建筑还在。埃尔福特是基督新教发起人-马丁．路德求学的所在地，在那里读完了大学。而埃尔福特最著名的景点是商人小桥，桥上两边是小商店，楼上还住着人家。午餐是当地的香肠,很好吃。在欧洲共同体里，这些著名的当地特产品都是有严格规定的，所以质量完全有保证。

下午再上火车来到纽伦堡市，这次又住酒店式公寓，带厨房的，就在市中心，非常方便。酒店隔壁就是日本拉面馆，生意兴隆，我们也去凑热闹，拉面🍜和生鱼片色拉🥗都非常棒。晚饭后还是老样子先在住的附近转一下，感觉有点像布拉格的旧城，但比布拉格更漂亮。

Painting and Photography 看油画和摄影

July 6, 2022

With the two-day museum passes, we returned to Museum Island this morning to continue our museum tour while our daughter visited her company's Berlin Office. We didn't spend much time outside on the island yesterday, so we went to the island early before the museums opened. The island was quiet and beautiful, and we took many pictures. Then, we went to the Alte National Galerie, where 19th-century oil paintings and sculptures were displayed. We didn't know much about art history, so we rented an audio guide to help us learn more about the art collections in the museum. As we slowly strolled from one collection to another, we appreciated the displayed art collections and the stories behind them. Our next stop was the famous Berlin Cathedral on the island. We climbed over 200 steps to the top and the panorama view was breathtaking. By this time, we had seen countless large and small churches in Europe, and we considered Berlin Cathedral one of the best.

We wanted to visit the Museum of Photography. We took the subway to Berlin Zoo station. By then, the weather had turned windy and chilly, and we did not dress appropriately for the weather. After a quick lunch at a nearby shopping mall, we returned to our hotel to add more layers of clothes. Then we hopped on a bus to the museum, and our son met us there. The Museum of Photography in Berlin is a museum of Helmut Newton's Photography, funded by the Helmut Newton foundation. The collections displayed in the museum were mainly his works. He is one of the twentieth century's great photographers, but we didn't know him at all, and we found many of the pictures displayed in the museum were just too disturbing. We do not mean to discredit his work in any way, just the photos were not what we expected to see, and we were a little disappointed.

Our daughter joined us for dinner after work. We found a restaurant serving Vegan schnitzel. Surprisingly the vegan schnitzel tasted better than the pork schnitzel we ordered, and our daughter was pleased with the restaurant's choice.

We were told at the hotel that all AC units were working now. It was a cold night, and we did not even need the AC to cool down the room tonight.

欧洲游第四十七天：昨天买了博物馆的联票，今天去博物馆岛继续参观博物馆。先去了艺术馆，那里展示了十九世纪的油画和雕塑，反正我们是外行看热闹，听听语音介绍，了解一下历史，觉得那些展示品都很不错。然后又去了在岛上的著名的柏林大教堂，这次来欧洲已经看了大大小小无数的教堂，这个应该算是我们见过的天主教堂中最好的之一。下午回旅馆稍微休息一下就又坐公交车去摄影博物馆，展览的作品不是我们所期待的，有些失望。晚上找了一家有吃炸素肉排的餐厅，没想到他们店的炸素肉排比炸猪排还好吃，女儿也算是没遗憾了。

Family Reunion 一家团聚

July 4, 2022

It was the first time the four of us traveled together in Europe. This year, the German government issued 9 euros monthly travel pass for the summer months, June, July, and August. The monthly travel card was available to anyone, including the tourists like us, and could be used nationwide and include all local transportation, bus, ferry, and regional train. It was convenient and inexpensive to travel around Germany with this card.

After reuniting with our son, we spent the whole day exploring the city of Berlin, mainly visiting several attractions related to the Berlin Wall. Much of the Berlin Wall has been dismantled, leaving a small part as the Berlin Wall Memorial. We strolled around Bernauer Street to see the walls, old houses along the wall, and the information stalls to know that part of the history. We had lunch at Zum Schusterjungen, a homemade-style German restaurant. Then we continued sightseeing, including Checkpoint Charlie, a landmark boundary marking East and West Berlin with a white sentry guard house & cobbled border line was the best-known crossing point of the Berlin Wall and a symbol of the Cold War.  

We returned to our hotel for a short break and then went to the hostel with our son. He preferred to stay at the hostel alone, not with us at the hotel. As he was checking in at the hostel, we sat at a Chinese restaurant nearby to wait for him to join us for dinner. But he chatted with his roommate at the hostel and forgot about the time. Eventually, he joined us when we were almost done with the dinner. The restaurant claimed to serve some traditional Chinese cuisine, but we thought the food was so-so. After eating and drinking, we took a bus to the presidential residence. It was a quiet place with no tourists around, except a lawn mower robot working hard on the lawn. Then we wandered around Tiergarten Park to see the Victory Column and returned to the Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe. We went back to the Brandenburg Gate a third time with a family photo in front of the Brandenburg Gate for the Berlin gathering.

欧洲游第四十五天：儿子今天一早飞到，一家四口在柏林团聚，很开心。这次来德国碰到了好事，今年夏天德国政府发放九欧元一月的交通卡。这交通卡是全国通用，包括所有的地方交通。有此卡后外出就很方便，今天一整天就在柏林城里转，主要去一些与柏林墙有关的景点。柏林围墙大部分已被拆除，留了很小一部分作为纪念，包括查理检查哨等。午饭是以当地的大肉为主，有人还没吃厌😀。晚上在一家中餐店里用餐，说是传统的中国菜，味道很一般，感觉就是骗老外的。吃饱喝足继续溜达又去蒂尔加藤公园看了胜利纪念柱，然后再次回到欧洲被害犹太人纪念碑区及勃兰登堡门。一家四口在勃兰登堡门前照相留念。

Berlin, Germany, 柏林,德国

July 3, 2022

Germany was the last country to visit in our two-months Europe travel plan. This morning we said goodbye to the beautiful Prague old town and headed to Germany. The train from Prague to Berlin took about four hours, and the train was so packed that even some people in the first class could only sit on the ground. Thank god we made our seat reservations for the ride. Since we didn't have time to eat anything in the morning to catch the train, we ordered breakfast as soon as we got on the train. The food on the train was not bad at all and was reasonably priced with an early bird discount. We even ordered the schnitzel for lunch. After the train entered into German, we saw a few policemen hopped on the train and questioned some passengers.

Our hotel unit in Berlin had one bedroom, a living room with a sofa bed, a small kitchen, and a washer/dryer. When we arrived, the front desk staff told us our room AC was not working and should be fixed the next day. We didn't realize that the entire hotel AC was down and the power was off for the AC. The room was warm but bearable. No complaining.

After settling in, we headed out and walked to the Brandenburg Gate. Many people were around the Brandenburg Gate, including a heavy police presence. We were unsure what was happening or if the police were simply for the security of several Embassies nearby, such as the US Embassy and the British Embassy. We did not stay too long, took a few pictures, and went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It's a vast area with thousands of concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. It was a compelling memorial.

There was a long line for getting into an attached underground information center, and the lady monitoring the waiting line was very strict about the face mask. Not only everyone had to have the face mask on, but they also had to be the right type. Those fabric masks, which were very popular in the US, were not allowed at the museum, and the lady asked anyone with the wrong face mask to change it, including our daughter. Luckily, we brought extra N95 with us. This was our first encounter regarding the face mask in the last 40+ days. In all the countries and places we had visited so far, nobody cared about wearing face masks anymore. The underground information center holds the names of approximately 3 million Jewish Holocaust victims. It had many exhibition halls displaying informative videos, audio, pictures, and letters from the victims to their loved ones. It took us a long time to walk through, and it was a very sobering experience.

Before coming to Germany, we read an article about Berlin's Doner Kebab and thought we wanted to try it on this trip. Although we had already had a simple breakfast/lunch on the train, we could not resist the temptation of Berlin's Doner Kebab and went to one of the popular Kebab places with celebrities' and politicians' pictures all over the walls. The gyro we ordered was good indeed.

After relaxing and recharging, we continued exploring the city. As we walked around the Potsdamer Platz area, we were constantly reminded of the Cold war. Potsdamer Platz was divided between West and East Berlin, and the Berlin Wall cut through the square. A few panels of the Berlin Wall in the Potsdamer Platz provided a history of the Cold War, and many street surfaces were marked with divider lines. We walked past the Brandenburg Gate again. The crowds were gone, and it was much quieter compared to the early afternoon when we were here. The blue sky and white clouds were perfect for taking pictures. We did not have a chance to go inside the Reichstag Building. The roof terrace and dome of the Reichstag Building opened to the public, and admission was free, but advance registration was required, and the space filled up quickly. We just wandered around the area instead.

In the evening, we went to a vegan Thai restaurant. It served various small dishes on ceramic-coated plates, which was very special. Berlin was very Vegan friendly. We had a first good impression of Berlin.

欧洲游第四十四天：二个月欧洲游正在接近尾声，德国是我们计划中最后一个国家。从布拉格到柏林火车大约四个小时，火车上乘客爆满，既使是一等舱也有人只能坐在地上，亏得我们有订位。因为早上为赶火车没来得及吃任何东西，一上火车我们就点早餐，之后又要了简单午餐，觉得火车上的伙食还可以并且也不贵。在柏林的旅馆也是带厨房的，安顿好后就去勃兰登堡门附近走走，参观了欧洲被害犹太人纪念碑和纪念馆。虽然火车上已吃过简单午餐，但挡不住柏林的土尔其烤肉皮塔饼的诱惑，又吃了第二顿午餐😋。晚上去了一家全素的泰国店，很有特色，中晚两餐都还算不错。对柏林的第一印象很好。

Kutna Hora, Czech

July 2, 2022

Today we made a day trip out of the city to explore more of the Czech Republic. We went to a small historical town - Kutna Hora, about an hour by train from Prague. It was a silver mining town and was very rich during the medieval. But the life of miners was full of uncertainty and danger, so many churches were built there to ask for God's blessing. The Historical Town Center with the Church of St. Barbara, the Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady and St. John the Baptist at Sedlec, the Sedlec Abbey and its Ossuary (Church of the Bone) was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We first visited the Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady and St. John the Baptist and then went to the more popular and touristy Church of the Bone. It sounded scary, a church with nothing but bones. At first, we hesitated to go. But curiosity overcame the fear, and we went inside. The ossuary church was extraordinary. Here does the story go. The abbey cemetery was a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe before the mid-14th century, with many thousands being buried. Around 1400, a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery, and a chapel was used as an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction or simply making room for new burials. After 1511, a half-blind monk was tasked with exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel. Later in the 19th century, a woodcarver put bone heaps into the art form of church decoration. It was an entirely different way to deal with the overcrowded burial site than Jewish did. Taking pictures inside was not allowed; if interested, you can check them on the Internet.

After seeing the Ossuary, we took the bus to St. Barbara's Cathedral. Before heading inside the cathedral, we needed to find a place for lunch since all of us were hungry. We picked a restaurant in the town nearby the cathedral and sat outside with a nice view. Here came a little story about our lunch at the restaurant. Everyone placed orders inside, and the server would find you and bring the food to the table. We ordered sausages, Falafel, and pickle cheese, a famous Czech snack. As we sat at a table in the courtyard waiting for our food, two young guys found a table next to us. As we waited and waited, a waiter brought three dishes just like ours to their table. We thought those might be our food since those two guys came to the restaurant later than us, so we asked the waiter if he might deliver the order to the wrong table. He was agitated a little and asked us to wait. In the meantime, two guys took pictures of the food and enjoyed it. We wondered what the chance was of two guys ordering the same three dishes as ours. After another 15 minutes, our food still didn't show up. We went inside and inquired about our order. A manager-like lady checked our order receipt, then asked the cooker in the kitchen and the waiter who delivered the food to the table. They then realized a mistake had been made and expedited our order. All three dishes were excellent. Interestingly, as we were enjoying our delicious food, the same waiter brought two more dishes to the next table, totally different from the first three dishes. Our guess was those were actually what the guys ordered in the first place. The two guys looked confused. The guys and the waiter did not speak much English, so some effort was needed to explain the situation. In the end, these two guys happily enjoyed all five dishes.

The gothic style Cathedral of St. Barbara was stunning and magnificent from the outside. It was gorgeous, with many frescoes and sculptures inside, which were from the medieval.

After seeing the church, we visited a few minor tourist attractions in the town, and we loved this place. Before taking the train back to Prague, we found a lovely cafe for a break, having a cup of coffee, beer, and lemon tea, freshly roasted almond and fried potato chips were particularly delicious. Today's outing was very relaxing and enjoyable.

We learned from our tour guide the other day that two percent of the general population in the Czech Republic was Vietnamese, the third largest ethnic minority. We decided to try Vietnamese food tonight after we returned to Prague. We found a top-rated restaurant on Google Maps, which offered excellent food but didn't seem like the traditional Vietnamese food we were used to.

After dinner, we slowly walked back to the flat. On the streets and buildings of Prague, it was common to see sculptures hanging in the air and on the walls. But if you were in a hurry and did not look up, it was easy to miss them. We saw quite a few of them. On our way back, we were attracted by a shop specializing in Czech desserts, just like our glutinous rice balls, which can be filled with various fillings, salty or sweet. We had one salty and one sweet. Both were delicious, and what a perfect ending to our Czech tour.

欧洲游第四十三天：今天去了捷克的一个小镇-Kutna Hora，从布拉格过去大约一个多小时的火车。这小镇中世纪时是白银矿，很有钱，但矿工的人生充满不确定的危险，所以在那里造了不少教堂以求神的保佑。其中圣芭芭拉大教堂，圣母和圣约翰洗者大教堂和人骨教堂是入选世界遗产名录的。先去了圣母和圣约翰洗者大教堂和人骨教堂，人骨教堂很特殊，教堂里装饰全是用人骨做成的，听上去很可怕，真去了也没什么。不让照相，感兴趣可以上网查一下。

看完人骨教堂后就坐公交车去圣芭芭拉大教堂，先在大教堂所在的镇上找了个餐厅吃午饭，我们点了香肠，泡菜奶酪和中东素菜球。哥德式的圣芭芭拉大教堂是非常美丽壮观，里面的壁画和雕塑都是中世纪的。看完教堂后，又去镇上几个小景点扫了一遍，很喜欢这个小镇。离回去的火车还有一个多小时，找了个地方休息休息喝上一杯咖啡啤酒柠檬茶，他们现炸的土豆片特别好吃。今天的郊外游很轻松很开心。

昨天听说在捷克有百分之二的越南人，是第三大少数民族，今天决定去尝试一下这里越南美食，找一家网上排名前列的店，味道不错但好像不是我们想象中的传统的越南菜。饭后又慢慢地走回住所，在路上被一家专卖捷克甜点的店给吸引住了，就像我们的糯米团一样，里面可放有各种各样的馅，说是甜点，但也有咸味的，甜咸各要了一个，真好吃，算是给捷克游画上了一个完整的句号。

Jewish Old City 犹太人旧城

July 1, 2022

We went to the city square in the morning before the most tourists showed up. The square was tranquil and beautiful. One or two cafes on the square opened for breakfast and coffee. We had a cup of cappuccino costing 8 euros, including the currency exchange and tip. It was the most expensive coffee on this trip. But enjoying a peaceful time in the square was worth the money.

The 48-hour Prague tourist card we purchased would expire at noon today. Before it was over, we stopped by the Powder Tower, one of the 13 city gates in Prague, used to store gunpowder in the 17th century. It was difficult climbing up since the staircases were very narrow and steep. The view from the top was fantastic, and there were metal plaques in the tower to help recognize all the city's significant buildings.

Then we visited the Jewish Quarter, one of the unique places in Prague. The Jewish Museum was composed of several synagogues and an old Jewish cemetery. Jewish had settled in Prague as early as the 10th century. Jews' life in the Czech had been terrible, discriminated against, and persecuted greatly throughout history, except for just a few years after World War I and after the decomposition of the Soviet Union. The names of 80,000 Prague Jews who died during World War II are inscribed on the walls of one of the synagogues. The old Jewish cemetery, one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, from the first half of the 15th century until 1786, was the most remarkable of its kind. During the more than three hundred years in which it was in active use, the old cemetery struggled with the lack of space but was not allowed to expand beyond the existing plot. Jewish tradition didn't allow to abolish the old graves, so many soil layers were added to the ancient tombs for burial. The grave surface was raised several meters higher than the surrounding streets. Several old synagogues presented their experiences, Judaism, and culture. This was our first time visiting the Jewish community, and it was a great way to see the city of Prague and learn the history of the Jewish people in Prague and Czech. On the way to the Jewish Quarter, we spotted an old Coffee maker in the store window, which was the largest one we had ever seen.

Lunch was Chinese food and tasted average, but it was the first time in 40 days that we had stir-fried bok choy, the authentic Chinese veggie. We did not even take pictures before it was all gone. Every time we visit a new country, we like to try Chinese food if it's available. Sometimes the food would be surprisingly good, but not this one.

Seeing the Infant Jesus of Prague, highly recommended online, was our afternoon activity. A little disappointed as the Infant Jesus was just a tiny wooden/wax statue in a small church. But at least the church was beautiful. On the way back to the flat, we were surprised to see a large crowd in front of the old town hall, a clear contrast comparing to the morning.

After we returned to the flat to rest, wind/percussion music was on the street, and a group of people marched through the street, shouting and singing. We didn't know what religion it was, but they looked happy.

We had tomato, mushroom, and egg soup again. We planned to go out after dinner, but the rain kept us in the flat for the night.

欧洲游第四十二天：买的48小时观光卡今天中午要过期。赶在作废之前又去爬了另外二个城楼，然后就来到犹太人旧城参观。在捷克的犹太人很不容易, 几百年来，除了第一次世界大战后短短几年和苏联分解后，他们一直受到歧视和迫害，几个旧犹太教堂都介绍他们的经历，犹太教和他们的文化。二次大战期间死去的犹太人的名字都刻在其中一个犹太教堂的墙面上。第一次参观犹太人社区，了解了不少。午餐是中餐，味道一般，不过算是四十天来第一次吃上炒青菜。反正每次去一个新的国家总是要尝试一下那里的中餐。下午去看网上推荐的婴儿耶稣，没什么意思，不值得特地跑去一次。回到旅馆休息一下，楼下传来吹打声，没搞清楚是什么教。晚上本想要出去转悠，结果因为下雨就只能乖乖地呆在旅馆了。

Tram Tour 观光有轨电车

June 30, 2022

Unlike yesterday afternoon's pouring rain, it was a little drizzling outside this morning. We made bacon/eggs breakfast and coffee at the flat, then went to the Jewish Old City early. But after buying tickets and knowing the tickets were valid for seven days, we decided to see some other outdoor attractions first since the sky opened up and the clouds were gone. We would return to the Jewish Quarter tomorrow.

Prague has a special sightseeing tram, Line 42, that circles the city center, running from Thursday to Sunday, and the ticket is valid for 24 hours, with unlimited hop-on and hop-off. The trams in use are all old antiques. The first one we boarded was more than 90 years old, and the driver stood up to drive and had to honk his horn with his foot. A young girl conductor, dressed in the 1930s, shouted the names of the following stops and punched a hole in the tickets. It was like a travel back in time as we rode past Prague's most iconic sites.

After circling in a half loop around the city, we got off at Petrin Hill Station. Located at the base of Petrin Hill was this disturbing series of statues we passed by, dedicated to the political prisoners from 1948-1989. We took the funicular up to the top of the hill. Petrin Hill is one of the largest urban green areas in the center of Prague, a favorite spot for local families with children and young couples. The Rose Garden, or rosarium, at the top of Petrin Hill, Nebozízek Garden, and the Seminary Garden were particularly magical. We took the elevator to the Petrin Lookout Tower, a popular tourist attraction for its incredible city views. We also went to the mirror maze and had fun, reminding us of "haha" mirrors at the famous entertainment place called "Big World" in Shanghai when we were young.

We had a quick lunch with the Turkish pita bought from the small cafe near the bus station while waiting for the bus and got onto the sightseeing tram again. This time it was a different car, which was more modern with colorful seats. The historic tram took us to the Dlabacov station on the outskirt of the city. There was not much to see in that area, and we had to wait for 30 minutes to get back on the tram. Before we boarded the tram, we found a lovely coffee shop nearby and had our coffee break. After completing a loop, we arrived at the boat terminal and boarded the river sightseeing boat. Before the tour started, coffee or beer and chocolate-coated ice cream were served. Some trivia facts about the Vltava River in Prague were described during the one-hour tour. The river sightseeing tour was informative and scenic. But the day was not done yet. We had another guided tour at six o'clock in the evening.

We returned to the residence for a quick early dinner, our favorite tomato, mushroom, and egg soup. When we arrived at the tourist office where our tour would start, because only just three of us signed up for the tour, it became a private guided tour. After knowing that we had participated in a large group of old city hall guided tour yesterday, the tour guide lady slightly changed the focus to the things we didn't know from the last tour. She first explained to us some of the histories of the old city government hall that we didn't learn yesterday, and then took us to the streets to some famous places in the ancient city. Having a private guide accompany you to see the place was much better than just self-guided walking. She also explained that the old town center was the city on the top of the ancient city, and under the current road surface, there was the ancient Roman city. It took about 70-80 years to add Gothic architecture to Roman architecture slowly. Most of the Gothic buildings, built after the Middle Ages, we saw today were built on the top of the ancient Roman city. There was often an old Roman church buried underneath the beautiful Gothic church. We learned a lot today.

欧洲游第四十一天：没像昨天下午那样倾盆大雨，今天早上起来外面有点濛濛细雨，在住所吃完培根鸡蛋后早早出门，来到犹太人旧城，但买了票后知道参观票七天内有效，加上那时雨过天晴，我们决定先去一些其它室外景点，明天再回到犹太区参观。

布拉格有专门的观光有轨电车围绕市中心转，从周四到周日，车票是24小时有效，可以无限上下，而且电车都是老古董。我们坐的第一辆车像是有九十多年的老车了，司机按喇叭必须用脚踩。坐着车转了半圈后在Petrin小山站下然后坐索道缆车到山顶再坐电梯上了Petrin 塔，在塔顶上将布拉格全城美景尽收眼底。山顶上有个镜子迷宫，匆匆进去走一圈，有点像小时候去大世界看里面的哈哈镜。午餐是在车站附近买了个土尔其烤肉皮塔饼，这种烤肉摊城里到处都是，既便宜又好吃😋，从来吃不厌。吃完又坐上了旅游观光车，这次是不同的车，比较现代化。转了一大圈后来到游船码头，坐上了观光船。一小时游程中，又送咖啡啤酒还给紫雪糕，还讲解一些有关布拉格这条伏尔塔瓦河的琐事。傍晚六点有个导游讲解游，先回住所吃了个很简单的早晚饭，还是老规矩-番茄蘑菇鸡蛋汤，洗洗昨晚上大块肉的油脂😀。没想到预约的导游讲解游，因为只有我们三位报名了，就变成了私人导游游👍。知道我们昨天有参加过大组的老城市政厅讲解游后，导游先是给我们讲解了一些昨天没学到的有关老城市政厅的历史，然后带我们上街去了旧城里一些有典故的地方。有私人导游陪着讲解要比自己随便看好许多，了解不少事。其实老城中心是城上城，在现在路面下面，有着古老罗马城。后来大约花了70-80年的时间慢慢地在罗马建筑上加哥德式的建筑，在现在所看到的中世纪后所建的哥德式大楼大多数都建在罗马古城上，漂亮的教堂下常常有一个罗马旧教堂埋在底下。

Prague Castle 布拉格城堡

June 29, 2022

It had been forty days since we came to Europe, and we didn't seem to want to go home yet. The weather in Prague was much more comfortable than in Budapest by now. We didn't want to rush today, so we went out for breakfast and wandered around the farmers market nearby. Those fresh fruits in the market looked very good.

We purchased a 48-hour Prague tourist card for each of us from the tourist office and started our sightseeing near noon. Our first tour was the free guided tour to the old city hall, covered with admission to the hall. The tour guide took us around the old city hall and told us how the city hall and the town had evolved over time. The entire old town has been raised by more than five meters over the years. The street floor from seven or eight hundred years ago has now become underground basements or cellars. There was an underground city under the present town. He took us to the basement and showed us various rooms under the hall. The underground structures were only open to the guided tour. But the highlight of the city hall visit was to see the astronomical clock tower and twelve Jesus apostles from the building inside, just behind the clock. After the guided tour, we went to the city hall tower to have a panoramic view of the square.

For lunch, we bought smoke sausages at a stall in the square to make our stomachs happy and then took the bus to Prague Castle on the other side of the river, not far from the Old Town. The castle is home to the most famous and largest Catholic church in the Czech Republic, St. Vitus Cathedral. The Prague Royal Palace in the castle was not as impressive as Schonbrunn in Vienna. Still, some of the other buildings in the castle have some unique characters, including the Golden Lane, where the former bars and the houses of the lower classes were, not too far from the castle.

The private Lobkowicz Palace of the Prince Lobkowicz family is inside Prague Castle. The visit to Lobkowicz Museum was rewarding. The family lost the palace and the valuable collections twice, the first during World War II and the second under Communist rule. The family fled the Czech Republic and went to the United States during the communist period, and of course, all the real estate and collections were "raided." After the fall of the Communist Party, they moved back to the Czech Republic and began to rebuild and restore the former palace. The country even passed a new law allowing their family and others to get the raided treasures back. The collection in the museum was unique and worth the visit.

After a whole afternoon of sightseeing, we eyed a big Czech dinner, a large crispy pork knuckle, a traditional Czech dish at Pork’s. The knuckle was tender inside and crispy outside, very, very tasty. It was ten times better than the last time we had in a German town outside Seattle. We also had pork schnitzel, one of the best schnitzels on this trip. This restaurant knew how to cook the meat. The food was amazing and service was excellent. With the local beer, fried knuckle, and pork schnitzel, the fatigue of walking and sightseeing in the afternoon quickly went away. In addition, we also learned a few things about beer ordering in Prague, Snyt, or Mliko. Snyt beer has 50% foam and Mliko 90% foam. We had one Pilsner beer with 90% foam and a black beer. The Prague beer tasted delicious. Of course, we couldn't finish a big pork knuckle and brought half of it back to our apartment. After we paid the bill, the waiter gave each of us a shot of honey whiskey. Although it was sweet and tasted very good, all we could take was just one sip due to the very high alcohol concentration. While we liked our knuckle, schnitzel, and beer, our daughter enjoyed her Vegan dish too.

After dinner, the sky got dark, and suddenly the rain poured down when we walked across the Charles bridge. We got all wet but found the Old Town Bridge Tower was still open, so we climbed up the tower and got a panoramic view of Prague's old town.

欧洲游第四十天：来欧洲已有四十天了，好像还没有想回家的念头😜。布拉格的气候比布达佩斯舒服多了，今天不用赶路，安安心心地出去吃了个早餐，近中午时才开始外出观光。第一件事是每人买张48小时旅游卡，开始我们布拉格游。先去了老城市政厅，跟着导游转了一圈，包括上到天文钟楼，近距离看到那整点报时出来的十二个使徒。了解了不少事，整个老城区提高了五米多，七，八百年前的底层现在变成了地窖。午餐就在小摊上买了根香肠充饥，然后就去了河对岸离老城不远的布拉格城堡。城堡里有着捷克最著名，最大的天主教堂-圣维特大教堂（St. Vitus Cathedral) 。城堡里的布拉格王室宫殿比起奥地利的要差一些，但城堡里其他一些建筑有些特色，其中金色小街是以前的酒吧和下层人居住的地方。最后参观了洛布科维奇宫，是私人宫殿，属于以前亲王贵族家的。先后失去了二次，第一次是二战期间，第二次是在共产党统治下，全家逃离捷克去了美国，当然所有的房地产和收藏品都被＂抄家＂。共产党下台后，他们搬回捷克开始重建修复以前的宫殿。看了整整一下午的景点后，晚餐是捷克餐。一大个脆皮猪肘子里嫩外脆，非常非常合胃口，比上次在西雅图市外的德国小镇上的好吃多了，再配上啤酒，把一下午走路看景的劳累全带走了😜。另外学了新的东西，啤酒可以要大杯但沫多酒少的那种，他们的黑啤很好喝。当然一个大猪肘子一个人是吃不完的还带了一半回去。

Prague, Czech Republic 布拉格,捷克

June 28, 2022

We were very exciting going to another new country - the Czech Republic. But it was a long travel day, and the train ride from Budapest to Prague, the Czech Republic, took more than seven hours. Since it was raining in the morning, the taxi took a while to show up. Fortunately, the train station is not very far, and it didn't delay that much. We had booked a direct train from Budapest to Prague, but a section of the railway in the middle was washed away by a mudslide a few days ago, and the bus transferred the passengers to bypass the damaged railway section. As we got off the bus, a policeman shouted "passport, passport" to the crowd. We didn't have the passports in hand. When we tried to get our passports, the police officers just waved to let us go without checking the passports. We saw two passengers get arrested because they didn't have the documents. It was the first time we had witnessed such an event in the past 40 days in Europe, and we had crossed the border multiple times. It seemed that the border inspection was profile targeting.

We arrived at Prague's central train station after five in the afternoon and called Uber to get us to our hotel apartment in the old town center. Part of the old town area was pedestrian-only, and no cars were allowed. After getting off the Uber, we had to drag our suitcase through the cobblestone street, which was not easy. Besides the bedroom, the apartment had a large living room, small kitchen, and washer machine, but we later discovered it didn't have AC, and they gave us two fans to cool the rooms down. The apartment was next to a busy alley and was noisy during the day. However, the location was perfect.

After settling in, we walked to the old town square nearby, just in time for the Prague Astronomical Clock to announce the hour. The clock was a medieval astronomical clock attached to the Old Town Hall and was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest clock still in operation. There were hundreds of people anxiously waiting for the twelve Jesus apostles to appear one by one out of two small doors on the clock. The whole sequence lasted about a few minutes.

After another vegan dinner, we went to the famous Charles Bridge, which was overcrowded. We were uncomfortable with the large crowd, so we left the bridge and returned to the square. There were several food booths, and when we saw big ham being grilled on the stall, our appetite was up again. The ham was sold by weight, starting with 100 grams. We couldn't hold it back and asked for some, which tasted good. Our first impression of Prague was good.

Charles Bridge

欧洲游第三十九天：今天又要去一个新的国家-捷克🇨🇿。从布达佩斯坐火车到捷克的布拉格(Prague)要七个多小时，早上起来下雨了，下雨天叫出租车有些难，还好没耽搁太久，且火车站也不是很远。我们订的是直达的火车，但中间有一段铁路前些天被泥石流冲毁了，只能用汽车来代替。铁路公司安排了大巴🚌将我们从一辆火车送到另一辆。有点吃惊的是刚下大巴就有二名乘客因为没有护照而被抓，来欧洲近四十天还是第一次碰到，但并没有查我们，看来边境检查是有针对性的。下午五点多到了布拉格，叫Uber 来到老城中心的小旅馆，也带厨房的。在安顿好了之后就走去旁边的老城广场，正好赶上天文钟整点报时，精彩点是十二位耶稣使徒们一个个在两个小门里出现。饭后又去了著名的查理大桥，桥上人满为患，匆匆走了一遍。回到布拉格广场看到小摊上正烤着火腿时，食欲又来了，实在是憋不住，要了一百克火腿，味道还真好。对布拉格第一印象不错。