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.

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！