Costa Rica 哥斯达黎加 (1)-Osa Peninsula

The custom process in Costa Rica is also quick and convenient, not as complicated as it is discussed online. The border station in Costa Rica is a hundred meters away from the Panama border station, and it is easy to find. We don't need to fill out any form or pay any fee to enter the country. They asked for information about the hotel we would stay in Costa Rica and the booked tickets to leave Costa Rica. They then stamped our passports, and the process took about a few minutes for the four of us. It was a big relief for us since we had prepared for more complicated procedures and difficult situations arising. We would say that going through the land custom is faster and more convenient than at the airport.

The Alamo rental place is nearby, another 100 meters from the customs station. The staff at the station was English-speaking and accommodating, even waiving the fee for adding an additional driver. The Toyota RAV4 we got was new, only over 2,000 kilometers. After signing all the necessary documents, we took the car and happily drove away. The highway is also well-maintained. At noon, we had lunch at a local café, Soda Samuel. Soda means a small café in Costa Rica. We had no idea what to order. We saw the locals all having some kind of big bowl of soup and a bowl of rice, so we ordered the same. The beef bone soup, Olla de Carne, was delicious. People in Costa Rica seem to eat more rice than we do. We also stopped at a supermarket, Maxi Pali, to get bottled water and fruit. Having a car makes travel more flexible and convenient.

Our destination is the Osa Peninsula in the Puntarenas Province of southwestern Costa Rica, with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Golfo Dulce to the east. The peninsula is home to at least half of all species living in Costa Rica. The villa we booked through booking.com is in a remote village called Palo Seco. The Costa Rica-Panama border is on the east side of the Golfo Dulce. We had to drive north and around the Golfo Dulce to get there. The town is out of populated areas, and Google Maps doesn't even show the direction. The host wanted to meet us at the interception near the highway, but we managed to get to the booked villa, Casa Ranas, based on the host's direction at 2:30 pm. The two-story house features a beautiful garden, a lounge, and a terrace on 32 -acres next to Corcovado Nation Park. Another reason for us to book this house was that it has a wildlife photography tower. The owner is an Englishman who loves wildlife photography. He was accommodating and responsive. He had communicated with us many times before the trip to ensure that we would find his place without trouble and provided us with some tips, like WAZE and Google not working for his place.

We spent the afternoon on the property and relaxed a little bit. The supper was homemade tomato egg soup and green leaves. At night, the host took us to look for red-eyed frogs in his garden. We heard their calling but couldn't find them; we found other frogs, lizards, and spiders.

Feb 3: Early in the morning, we woke up to the sound of birds. We took so many pictures in the garden. Our original plan was to go to Corcovado National Park, a very eco-friendly place with 2.5% of the world's biodiversity. Most of the peninsula is a national park, and every visitor to visit the park was required to be accompanied by a local guide or join a tour to enter the park. The park entrances were far away from where we stayed. Jim, the host, recommended we go to Matapalo at the peninsula's tip, near Puerto Jimenez, instead. He thought going to the national park with lots of off-road driving would be inconvenient. We followed his advice and headed out to Port Jimenez.

When we were just out of the rented house and passed Palo Seco, we saw a lot of squirrel monkeys jumping up and down on the trees on the roadside. It excited us, and we parked the car and kept taking pictures until they left.

Puerto Jimenez is the largest town on the peninsula, but there is not much to see, so we headed straight to Matapalo Beach. Neither WAZE nor Google could give us a good direction. We just drove on the paved road until it reached a reasonably well-built dirt and gravel road. The gravel road has a beautiful view of the calm Golfo Dulce on the left and cattle and horses on the other. After a while, the dirt road turned into a bumpy, rough road in the woods, with the resorts and retreat emerging in the forest. Thankfully we rented a four-wheel drive car and could drive slowly towards the beach, but the car ride was so bumpy that within a few minutes, one of us got terrible motion sickness, so we turned around and looked for a beach nearby. We got off at Pan Dulce Beach.

"Pan Dulce Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, located on the Golfo Dulce side. The beach is known for its pristine white sand, crystal-clear waters, and lush tropical vegetation." - From ChatGPT. On the beach, we silently watched the spectacle of pelicans rushing into the sea repeatedly to catch the fish. On the contrary, a local person was standing in the water casting net many times without catching a single fish when we were there. The big birds must be thinking about how unskillful this guy is.

After spending some time on the beach, we returned to Puerto Jimenez for lunch. We ate at Marisqueria Corcovado Seafood restaurant by the sea and enjoyed watching birds flying and boats sailing while eating. After lunch, we bought a watermelon and papaya from a roadside fruit stall for ten dollars, which we thought was expensive. Since we arrived in Costa Rica yesterday, it has become clear that food here are more expensive than in Panama. Our host agreed that the price in Osa was twice that of Panama and the rest of Costa Rica.

On the way back to the villa, we stopped by Finca Kobo Chocolate Farm/Inn to buy some raw chocolate. The place has a fantastic garden and offers a chocolate tour on the premise.

Feb 4: At five o'clock in the morning, Chenggang went to Jim's garage-converted cabin for an early morning coffee while the three ladies were still sleeping. Jim would live in the cabin alone when the big house was rented out. After coffee, Jim took Chenggang to the garden belonging to an old American lady for a photo shoot. On the way there, he talked about his life story. Jim's father, a biologist working for the United Nations, traveled a lot and lived all over the world with his family. Jim returned to the U.K. at 12 and traveled the world as an adult because of his work. He has visited more than 80 countries around the world, including China. Jim doesn't consider England his hometown. He looked for places he liked to live and picked Costa Rica as his new place due to his love of wildlife photography. He is turning this 24-acre property into a wildlife photography paradise. Interestingly, Costa Rica is not his home country either, and he goes back to England every year to be a substitute teacher for Geology for a few months, not for money, but to keep himself as a part of the U.K., as he said.

The American Lady's Garden is on an east-facing hillside with a spectacular panoramic view of the calm Golfo Dulce. We arrived just in time for the beautiful sunrise and enjoyed nature. At this time, a group of scarlet macaws flew in, and we kept taking pictures. The primary purpose of our visit there this time was to take photos of hummingbirds, but unfortunately, there are few hummingbirds, but Jim did manage to capture a rare hummingbird. Because Jim had also arranged another activity for all four of us, we hurried back to the villa.

After breakfast, Jim did another activity with Chenggang. He took Chenggang up to his 8-meter-high self-built photography tower, and under his safety protection, Chenggang slowly climbed to the top of the tower, stayed on it for a while to take a few photos, and then came down. His legs were a little shaky.

Then it was time for the group activity. Jim took the four of us to the reconstructed primary forest in his backyard. We hiked up and down in the woods, wearing the tall boots he specially prepared for the tenants (to prevent poisonous snakes) and listening to him explaining some basic knowledge of biology and plants. We could feel his passion and love for the wildlife. Along the way, Jim retrieved the cameras he put into the forest the day before yesterday. Throughout the morning, Jim spent much of his time with us, which he didn't have to, and we were very grateful.

At noon we invited Jim to join us for lunch at a small local restaurant nearby called Soda Leila. The Leila didn't have the menu, but fortunately, Jim knew the place very well and knew what to order, and we just followed him. The lunch was great, very local, and decent. After lunch, we went to the supermarket to buy some fruit and pizza and then went to the Finca Kobo Chocolate Farm/Inn again for coffee. Not only can you buy 100% pure cocoa powder, but there is also a gorgeous garden where we saw many different species of beautiful birds and were lucky enough to see two different types of monkeys jumping among trees for a while. It was exhilarating and enriching for us.

A solar-powered satellite service in the village provided the WiFi at Jim's place. After the dark, the WiFi didn't seem to work. It was inconvenient in this digitally connected world, but it gave us more time to immerse in nature and enjoy it.

Feb 5: We got up early and walked around the garden. Chenggang took a chair and sat quietly in the garden, watching many beautiful birds flying around the forest. He was so emotional when Jim, the thoughtful host, saw him sitting there alone and brought him cup of hot coffee. We didn't know Jim before and simply rented his house for three days in a foreign country. During our stay, knowing that we loved to travel and take photos, he provided us with countless extra help and left us with unforgettable memories.

Today we are going to our next stop, Manuel Antonio National Park. After breakfast, when we were loading the car and preparing to leave, a group of squirrel monkeys came and stole bananas designed for them by Jim. We had hoped to see those little monkeys in the garden for the last three days, but they didn't appear. Today they suddenly appeared just as we were about to leave, and we felt so lucky. Saying goodbye to Jim, we reluctantly left the beautiful wooden house in the forest.

The following paragraphs are the Chinese version of the travel journal.

进哥斯达黎加也很方便，没像网上说的那么复杂。边境站离巴拿马边境站没几步路，很容易找，也不用填表交过关税，只要看一下我们在哥斯达黎加旅馆的信息以及我们离开哥斯达黎加的机票，然后在护照盖了章就算过境了。

租车点就在附近，我们订的丰田RAV4，车基本上是新的，只开了二千公里，工作人员也特别热心。这是我们第一次在美国外租车。拿了车高高兴兴上路，他们的高超公路也修的不错。有车还是很方便，半路上我们在一家当地小饭店，喝了一碗牛肉汤，还吃了Taco。牛肉汤很好喝，好像每一位顾客都在喝汤加上一碗白米饭，这里人不比中国人少吃饭。顺路再去超市买些水果和蔬菜。

下午二点半到了我们预定的民宿，主人是一位英国人，喜欢摄影，特别热心。晚上他带着我们找红眼青青蛙，但没找到，明后天再试试。

2/3： 一早被各种鸟声吵醒。今天原来准备去Corcovado 国家公园，是环境保护很好的地方，它具有世界上2.5%生物多样性。整个半岛绝大数区域都是国家公园，每位游客进公园都需要当地导游陪同或者参加旅游团。但公园的入口非常远。我们民宿的主人建议我们去在半岛尖点的Matapalo. 他认为去国家公园实在太不方便了，会很累。我们按他的建议上路去Jimenez 港。

刚出我们租的民宿，就在路边的树上看到不少松鼠猴，在树林里跳跃，上上下下，使我们激动不已，太幸运了。

Jimenez 是半岛上最大的小镇，但没什么可看的，我们就直奔Matapalo，去Matapalo 海滩的路连谷歌都没法告诉怎么走，我们看着地图觉得还可以走。一会儿就从水泥路上了修得还算不错的土石路，一路景色优美，左边是平静的海湾，另一边是牛马牧场。再过一会儿，我们转入更为简单的石路，幸好我们租了四轮驱动的车，觉得慢慢地开车到海滩应该是没什么问题，但车上下左右颠簸太厉害，没几分钟我们就有点晕车了，转头就在附近找个海滩看看。在海滩上，默默地看着鹈鹕们一次次冲入海中觅食的奇景，而一位当地人站在水里撒网半天也没抓到一条鱼，大鸟们一定在想这位傻哥不知干啥呢。

从海滩回到Jimenez 小镇，找了家海边的海鲜饭店边吃边欣赏海景。又在路边水果摊买了个西瓜和一个木瓜，十块美金。自昨天来到哥斯达黎加之后就明显感觉到这里的物价要比巴拿马贵。回民宿与主人聊起，他说的确如此，物价是巴拿马的一倍。

民宿的WiFi 是用太阳能的，太阳落山后就没信号了，也让我们有更多时间去听鸟，找鸟🐦🦜🦤。

2/4：热心的民宿主人Jim是一位来自英国的大学老师及业余摄影师。早晨五点，Chenggang先去Jim用车库改装的小木屋喝咖啡，平时如果大房子租岀去的话他就自己住小木屋。咖啡之后他便带着Chenggang去一位美国老太的花园里照相。Jim的父亲是一位为联合国工作的生物学家，小时候随父亲到处为家，他在12岁才回到英国, 成年后由于自己工作关系也是满世界跑。从小到大足迹遍布世界各地八十几个国家包括中国。对他来说英国𣎴是他的故乡。他寻找他喜欢的地方，由于他爱好野生动物的摄影，就搬到了哥斯达黎加。准备把这24公亩的家园变成野生动物摄影的天堂。有趣的是哥斯达黎加也不是他的家，每年他回去做几个月的替代老师，不全为的是钱，而是为了使得自己仍然是英国的一部分。

美国老太的花园位于朝东的山坡上，远望平静的海湾和冉冉升起的旭日，我们陶醉于大自然中。这时一群猩红金刚鹦鹉飞来，我们俩照不停，他的是专业的。我们这次去那里的主要目的是照飞鸟，可惜的是飞鸟没几个，但Jim照到一个很少见的飞鸟。因为接下来还有他为我们大家安排的节目，我们就匆匆赶回住所。

吃完早餐后，他带我上他8米高的自建摄影塔，在他安全保护下，我慢慢地爬上塔，在上面待了一会儿照几张照片后我们就下来了。然后他又带着我们四人去他后园里的重建森林和原始森林走走，穿着他特地为房客准备的高筒靴子（以防毒蛇），高一脚低一脚地走在森林里，听他给我们讲解一些生物和植物基本常识，还顺便把他前天放在森林里的相机取回。整整一个上午Jim自告奋勇地做了我们的私人向导，我们心存感激。中午我们邀请他和我们一起去附近当地一家小餐厅吃午饭。

之后我们先去超市买了点水果和Pizza，然后来到Jim推荐的他家附近的一家专做巧克力tour的小旅店喝咖啡。那里不仅可以买到100%的纯可可粉，还有着非常漂亮的花园，我们在那里看到了许多不同品种漂亮的鸟，还很幸运的看到了二种不同的猴子，让我们兴奋不已。这一天收获非常大。

 2/5：早早起床，在园子里转转，Chenggang一个人拿了把椅子坐在那里，静静地观看着各种各样漂亮的鸟在林中飞来飞去，好心的房东给他送来一杯热腾腾咖啡，好感动。我们和他素不相识，在异国它乡租了他的主楼三天，因为知道我们喜欢旅游和照相，他为我们提供无数的额外帮助，给我们留下令人难忘的记忆。今天我们要离开这里前往下一站Manuel Antonio National Park.

吃完早餐，正在装车准备离开，突然间来了一群松鼠猴，偷吃房东Jim 特地给它们准备的香蕉。在民宿住了三天，天天盼望着能在园子里看到小猴，可就是没出现，只在附近其它地方有看到各种𤠣子，而今天就在我们马上要离开时它们却突然出现了，太神奇，太幸运了。告别了房东，依依不舍地离开了森林中的木屋。

Panama (2)-Boquete

Jan 30: Our next destination is Boquete, Panama, a resort town and a hot spot for American retirees. It was 300 miles driving distance away from Panama City. We had researched the options to get there before the trip, but none of them provided us any confidence with detailed information. For example, the Rome2rio app gives out a few options, from the city bus to the luxury bus, for $9 to $50. There isn't any reliable information on bus companies' websites either. Some of the companies only have Instagram or Facebook accounts with old information. Since it was our first time taking a long-distance bus in the country, we were a little nervous about it. So, we woke up early. After breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to the Panama City Bus Terminal, where all buses in and out of Panama City stop and depart, and next to the largest shopping mall in the Americas. There was no direct bus to Boquete, only via the town of David, 30 minute drive from Boquete. The bus terminal has many ticket windows arranged according to the destinations. The window for David has a short line, and there were no other options to choose from except one bus to David operated by the DP, leaving the terminal a few times a day. From the waiting room to the bus outside, we needed to use the local bus card (costing about $0.1), which we didn't have, to open the gate. A guy saw us stuck in front of the entrance and used his card to open the gate for us. We paid him $1 for the four of us, and he made a small profit. We don't understand why they can't just add the entrance fee to the bus ticket.

The bus was a double-deck bus with a toilet on the back. We sat on the second deck with the large windows. The passengers got on and off occasionally, and at some stops, people got on the bus to sell twist dough, gold necklaces, etc. We had no clue what they were saying, and they were not aggressive in selling their stuff. Near the destination, the immigration police boarded the bus to check passports, and a dog sniffed at the luggage storage. The bus ride to David was comfortable, and we stopped halfway for a lunch break. Time passed fast; we arrived at David at 5 pm after the 8-hour ride. Instead of taking another bus to Boquete, we negotiated a $30 taxi ride. Since we all had luggage, we checked the car first to ensure enough room for the bags before we agreed on the deal. We stayed at the Bambuda Castle up the hill, an hour away from David. This castle hostel is famous in the local area. We stayed in the tower room with the bathroom on the ground floor and a tiny bedroom on the second floor while our friends were in the cabin room. In the tower room, the stairs up are narrow spiral stairs typically seen in the Castle. It was cool but not very convenient, just for the castle experience.

The Castle is beautiful, nestled in lush hills in Boquete but far from the town center. There were no restaurants or cafes in the surrounding area except the dining service in the Castle. Since we skipped lunch and were a little hungry, we just picked a menu card from the counter to order the food. The items on the menu were minimal, so we ordered chicken wings and something else. The chicken pieces were not very good, and we didn't finish them. We all complained about the limited menu for dinner; then, we suddenly saw someone had the pizza. By then, we realized we had missed the other menu card.

 Jan 31: We had a simple breakfast in the open-air dining hall with 180-degree dreamy views across coffee plantations to the green hills of Volcan Baru. We sipped coffee and watched little clouds moving over the mountains, like in paradise. We had booked an adventure tour of suspension bridge walking and Zipline this afternoon. The meeting point was at the tour operator's office in the town. We walked down the hill to enjoy the view of the countryside for 45 mins. Boquete is a small tourist town with many restaurants and gift shops. We wandered around to find a place to have a quick lunch. We settled in a small café on a small street hidden away from the main road. We had typical American fast food, chicken fingers, and pulled pork, but they were comfortable.

Both the walking tour and zipline tour are in Tree Trek Boquete Adventure Park, which is a short driving distance away from the town center. All tourists boarded their truck-modified tour bus. After we arrived at the park, we were separated into two groups, walking and Zipline. We feared high, so we picked the suspension bridge walking, and our friends went on a Zipline adventure.

The $30 suspension bridge walking tour covers 3 miles and six suspension bridges, with the highest point of 6,000 feet above sea level. Tree Trek suspension bridges range from 70 to 135 meters long and reach heights 10 to 75 meters above the ground. Along the way, the local guide introduced us to some unique local flowers and plants in their natural habitat. The two major differences between the cloud forest and the rainforest are that the cloud forest has no mosquitoes and higher oxygen. Hiking in the cloud forest is more pleasant than in the rainforest. We enjoyed hiking for three hours in the forest and walking across six suspension bridges with stunning views of rivers, waterfalls, and Baru Volcano.

After the tour, we called a Taxi to take us to the Boquete sign on the edge of the town. While taking pictures in front of the Boquete sign, we noticed more than 20 coatis in the parking lot nearby. It was a little scary and uncomfortable. We took the same Taxi back to the town. For dinner, we went to The Fish House, a small but cozy place with most customers who were Americans. The food was delicious, and we raised the cups and bottles to celebrate our good day of adventure. After dinner, we wandered the market by the river before returning to the Castle.

 Feb 1: Today is another beautiful day. As the morning's sun beamed into the window of our tower room, we were ready for another day of adventure. We could see a hotel staff watering grasses from our windows on the top of the beautiful Garden Bungalow covered. Boquete is much more comfortable with low humidity and fresh air than Panama City.

Today's adventure was hiking in the area. After doing a lot of homework, we chose the trail of The Lost Waterfalls among other trails to see the three waterfalls. We called a taxi to take us to the trailhead, and the driver also agreed that he would come back to pick us up in three hours. After the suspension bridge, it took less than 10 minutes up the hill until we saw a cluster of cabins. The entrance fee to the park was $10. A girl at a shed collected $10 for each person, and we also checked in on their notebook.

The trail led us through fantastic jungle scenes. With an average slope of seven hundred feet per mile, hiking up on the muddy path with frequent silt and tall steps was challenging for us. Fortunately, wooden guardrails were in the steep part of the trail to help a little. Despite the challenge, we were immersed in adventure mode in hanging vines, luscious trees, and large leaves in the cloud forest. We arrived at the first waterfall after we trekked the muddy paths. The waterfall was massive and breathtaking. After taking a few pictures, we were on the trail to Waterfall number two. We were a little tired, and the trail from Waterfall One to Waterfall Two was more difficult; getting to the second waterfall needed more encouragement and persuasion.

The second waterfall had a small pool where people could swim. By then, going to see Waterfall Three was out of the question, and we ran out of time and energy. On the way down, we bypassed Waterfall One and hurried back to the trailhead. Our taxi driver picked us up on time and dropped us in the town center. After lunch at Butcher Chophouse, we returned to our Castle to rest. Chenggang felt sick with a high fever. Fortunately, the COVID test was negative. He believed he had stomach flu after having two pieces of the bad tasted chicken wing. Tomorrow we are embarking on a new journey.

 Feb 2: Today, we did something we had never done before, dragging suitcases and carrying backpacks to enter another country. In the morning, our reserved Taxi picked us up at the hotel and dropped us off at the Panamanian border. We were stamped and fingerprinted at the border post on the Panama side and walked out of Panama to Costa Rica. You can go in and out of the border at will, and no one cares. But if you do not go through the border properly, you may have trouble later if you leave the country from elsewhere.

Now we were in a new country and started another adventure.

1/30: 今天早早起床，吃完早餐之后，就赶去巴拿马城公交车总站，所有进出巴拿马城的公交车都会在这里停靠和发车，车站旁边是美洲最大的购物中心。我们要坐大巴直穿巴拿马到达Boquete，一个度假小镇，也是美国退休人员喜欢的地方。在这之前，因为没有直达公交，做了不少功课，但对于怎么走还是很不确定，毕竟第一次在中美洲乘坐长途汽车，而且这还是我们最长的长途汽车。来到公交车总站，许许多多的卖票𥦬口按终点站排列很清楚，根本不用选。我们的长途大巴是那种二层带厕所的，很舒服。前前后后坐了8个小时，行驶450公里，中间时常有乘客上下，也有人上车卖麻花，金项链等等，我们反正也听不懂他们在说什么。在接近终点站时，移民局警察上车查护照和查行李。

坐了8个小时的长途客车到了大卫（David)城后，没再转公交车，而是直接找了个出租车送我们来到一个小时外的度假小镇Boquete在山坡上的旅馆。这个城堡旅馆在当地很有名，我们选择了城堡房，底层是厕所，楼上是卧室, 上楼的楼梯是那种狭窄螺旋的，很酷但还是不太方便，也算是一种体验吧。

1/31: 昨晚到城堡时天已黑，今天早上起来发现我们住的房间从外面看还是蛮漂亮的。今天我们俩参加吊桥徒步游，一共走了3英里，最高点是海拔6千尺。在云林里徒步三个小时，走过六个吊桥，很享受。沿途导游介绍了一些当地独特的花和植物，云林和雨林二大区别是云林没蚊子和高氧。我们的朋友俩去参加了高空索道，一共十二索道，很刺激。

2/1: 今天又是一个好天气，清晨从房间窗户看外面，那一个个别致的草顶房很有意思，这些也是这个城堡旅馆的特色客房。比起巴拿马城来说，这里舒服多了，湿度低，空气清新。做了不少功课，又问了前台，我们选择了被遗忘的瀑布这条登山路线（The lost waterfalls), 看三个瀑布大约需要三，四个小时。我们叫了出租车把我们送到登山路口，并且说好三个小时后来接我们。登山门票每人$10，不便宜，反正只有外国人会付这个钱去爬山。这条登山路线不容易，比我们预想的难。平均每英里七百英尺的坡度，而且时常有淤泥，台阶又高，现在还是这里的干燥季节，不可想像雨季会怎么样。幸好这条路坡度大的地方有木栏杆稍微帮些忙。我们三小时内只去看了二个瀑布，一是没时间了，二是上去看第三个瀑布的路更难。到了第二瀑布我们就匆匆往回赶，我们出租车司机准时来接我们。

爬完山大家都有点累，在城里吃完午饭后就回到我们的城堡休息。明天我们要开始新的旅程。

今天（2/2）我们做了一件从未做过的事，拖着行李箱，背着双肩包出关进关。上午出租车把我们送到巴拿马边境，边境站里盖了章和按了指印，就算出了巴拿马来到哥斯达黎加的领地。其实边境我们可以随便进进出出，没人管。但如果不按规定盖章按指印的话，之后想要从其它地方出境的话就会有麻烦。

新的国家新的旅程。

Panama (1)-Panama City 巴拿马市

Jan 26: The ship docked at seven this morning, and we disembarked after a quick breakfast at the Garden Café.

Colon is on the Caribbean Sea side of Panama City and is about 50 miles from Panama. There are several options to get to Panama City from Colon. The best option was the direct train, but the service was suspended due to the pandemic. Our cruise offers the airport transfer for $100 per person but not to the downtown area where we stay, which is still far from the airport. Another option is to take a taxi to Panama City, which costs $200+ for booking online. The cheapest option is to take an hour and a half bus ride, but we must walk 20 minutes from the Colon cruise terminal to the Colon bus station or by Taxi. The town of Colon is said to be unsafe; walking with luggage on the street is not recommended.

To us, the best option is to take Uber. While the ship docked at Colon, we tried to schedule an Uber ride, but no cars were available. Not sure what exactly we would do, we decided to get off the ship first and figured the thing out later. As soon as we stepped on the pier, we were surrounded by a mob of people selling taxi services to us, and the price was sky-high. Ignoring them, we continued to look for Uber ourselves. We saw a couple standing next to us who seemed to be waiting for a car, so we chatted with them. It turned out that they had already called Uber successfully and immediately offered to share their Uber with us after learning that we also wanted to go to Panama City. What a kindness. We happily accepted their offer. Chatting with the Canadian couple along the way to the city was fun. One hour Uber ride went fast, and we arrived at the hotel smoothly. We were very grateful for their kindness, so we offered to pay 2/3 of the $60 total Uber cost as our way of saying thank you. The world is full of good people willing to help each other.

Our room was not ready when we arrived at the hotel around 10 am. So we stored our luggage in the office and explored the city. We walked straight toward the Gulf of Panama. Along the shore is a beautiful waterfront pathway called the Ciclovia Cinta Costera, which has a panoramic view of the Gulf of Panama and the skyline of Panama City designed for biking, walking, and running. The modern Cinta Costera area gave us an excellent first impression of the city. We walked to the Panama Fish Market under the scorching sun. The market has two sections, one for selling fresh seafood and the other for seafood restaurants. Both areas were very clean and organized. Picking one restaurant to sit down from so many restaurants in the area was challenging for us. We like deep-fried whole fish, and with that in mind, we found one reasonably priced restaurant. We had deep-fried whole fish, grilled octopus, and a cup of ceviche. All dishes come with a green salad and deep-fried plantains or rice. All of them tasted very fresh and delicious.

After lunch, we walked to the old Chinatown nearby. Although a traditional Chinatown arch existed, there were almost no true Chinese stores. The place was run-down with poorly maintained buildings. We didn't stay there for very long. Tired of strolling under the hot sun, we needed a coffee break. Surprisingly, we couldn't find any decent coffee café along the path back to the hotel, even with Google Maps Search help. Ultimately, we went to a bakery café just across from our hotel with two lattes and an Empanada. They were pricy, as we expected, but the coffee and empanada didn't meet our standards.

In the evening, we went to a local restaurant near our hotel, Concolon Street Food Cafe, with a Central America vibe. We had paella with green rice, fried bread, and a "glutinous rice" triangle. We didn't know green rice was popular in Central America. All dishes were one of the best on this trip. During the dinner, a couple walked to our table to ask if we were on the NCL Jewel Cruise. The husband said he talked to one of us a few days ago. Of course, we remembered it. What a small world.

Jan 27: Two friends from Philadelphia arrived last night to join us on our trip to Latin America. Early this morning, our friends went separately to the Miraflores Visit Center outside Panama City since we already went through the Panama Canal. We visited the highly-rated Biomuseo, a museum focused on the natural history of Panama. We learned that Panama's isthmus was raised above the water to form a land bridge 3 million years ago, starting the Great American Interchange, with a significant impact on the ecology of the Western Hemisphere. During the Great America Interchange, animals and humans immigrated from south to north and vice versa. Located on the Amador Causeway in Panama City, Panama, the museum's architectural design is unique and beautiful. There are many visitors, primarily passengers on cruise ships, and the cruise ship terminal is nearby. We took an Uber at the cost of $4 to get there.

After seeing the Biology Museum, we slowly strolled along the Amador Causeway toward Flamenco Island. The west of the causeway is the mouth of the canal, with the Bridge of Americans in the backdrop. The entire area was the former US military base used to defend the canal operation. The causeway is very well built, and the scenery on both sides is incredible, but it was tough to walk without shadow for an hour on a humid and hot sunny day. Our friends arrived at Flamenco Island before we did, and a delicious seafood lunch awaited us at Sirena Seafood Restaurant.

After lunch, the four of us walked back on the causeway for a while and then called Uber to take us back to the hotel for a short rest. Uber and taxis in Panama City are convenient and very cheap, about $3-$5 in the city. We sometimes checked the Uber price first; then, if Uber were unavailable, we would wave down the Taxi to ask if they would match the price. The chance was about 50%/50%.

As our friends took a break in the hotel, we went out to find a coffee shop. We did not want to return to the same bakery café across from our hotel; instead, we had a cup of Coffee and French Palmier Cookies at the coffee shops we spotted yesterday. The coffee was from a cheap coffee machine and wasn't good. We were not surprised since it was cheap. For dinner, we went to the Golden Unicorn Chinese restaurant hidden on the fourth floor of the Evergreen Building. We ordered lobster, steamed fish, four other dishes, and soup, which tasted good. We hadn't eaten such delicious Chinese food for a long time.

Jan 28: Today, we went to Casco Viejo (the old town), built in 1673, after the completed destruction of Panama Viejo (the old Panama City) by pirates. The old town was isolated by sea and more defensible than the previous one. The town later became the canal construction headquarter for finance, management, and engineering. Ruined by corruption and drug trafficking under dictators in the last century, the area was only rebuilt in the nineties and became a UNESCO site. Today, this old town is a collection of elegant, beautiful, and prosperous French, Spanish and American architecture, making it a must-see when visiting Panama. We joined a free walking tour for over two hours and learned much about Panama from the tour guide. It is a free tour, but the guide expects everyone to pay the tip. Panama is the second country in Central America to disband the military besides Costa Rica, which we learned from this trip.

After completing the tour in the old town, we took an Uber to the Lung Fung Chinese restaurant for DIM SUM. The dishes were excellent. Then we took another Uber to Panama Viejo, the first European settlement on the Pacific coast, which was the capital of Panama at that time before Casco Viejo. But the city's location was not easy to defend and often attacked by pirates. In 1671, the Englishman Morgan destroyed the entire capital with a group of pirates, after which the locals moved the capital city to the current old town (Casco Viejo), where the unique terrain was easier to defend. Unbeknownst to Morgan, Britain, and Spain had signed the Treaty of Madrid, which ended hostilities between the two countries. He was arrested for violating the treaty and sent back to London, but the British welcomed him with a heroic ceremony. Morgan was released because he proved he didn't know the treaty. The site has an excellent museum of Panama's history and is also on the World Heritage List. We found Panama Viejo was more interesting historically than Casco Viejo. The Casco Viejo was a little more commercial and had too many tourists.

Our tour guide recommended we go to Panaviera Sky Bar on the JW Marriott's 66th floor, the highest rooftop bar in Central America. The bar has a stylish lounge next to the fantastic infinity pool. We got breathtaking panoramic views over the ocean and Panama City from there. As the sun set, we sipped Mango Margaritas and small snack bites and enjoyed the scene of the sunset over Panama City.

While our friends decided to skip dinner, we went to a nearby Spanish restaurant, Casa Alejandro. The menu was Spanish, and they didn't speak English, so we ordered two dishes without knowing too much about what we ordered from the menu. Both dishes turned out to be prawns, but the taste was quite good.

 Jan 29: We went to the Metropolitan Natural Park in the heart of Panama City in the morning. It was the only refuge for a wildlife preserve and the tropical forest in the city. After paying the entrance fee, they gave you a wristband to put on. There are five trails to choose from. We took the Monkey Trail to the top of Cerro Cedro for panoramic views of Panama City and the Canal. We hiked for two hours over 2.6 miles. To our surprise, over the 2.6-mile trail, we saw a lot of wildlife, including mother and daughter sloths, white-nose coati, white face monkeys, turtles, deer, and trogons. We highly recommend the place to visit and hike.

After the hike, we took a Taxi to a Hongkong-style café called Hong Kong Bakery and Café and had delicious Dim Sum. Then we returned to the hotel for a short break.

We went to the seaside again in the afternoon. This time, we walked along the Ciclovia Cinta Costera to Mirador Paitilla Park, where more high-rise condos are opposite the fish market. It seemed not much scenery beyond the point, so we called an Uber back to Casco Viejo to visit a few sights we didn't have time to see yesterday. There was heavy traffic in the old town in the afternoon. Probably 5 minutes ride in the normal traffic became 30 minutes. We felt terrible for the driver and gave him an extra tip to compensate for the waiting time. In the town, we had fresh coconuts for $2.5 a piece. The price was slightly higher than Costa Rica's, but the size was much larger.

In the evening, we went to another Chinese restaurant for dinner. Just in time to see the local Zhu family Spring Festival party, the gongs, and drums were noisy, and the lion dance was lively. It is said that 90+% of the Chinese in Panama are from Guangdong, and 90+% are from Huadu, Guangzhou. Our Philadelphia friends were originally from Guangzhou and jokingly said they celebrated the Spring Festival with their fellow villagers.

Since we left Shanghai, we can't remember having that many Chinese cuisines in just four short days outside the home. We will leave Panama City tomorrow to begin our rainforest/cloud forest journey.

1/26: 昨天过运河后，终点站Colon码头就在附近，但游轮却不停靠码头，而是把船开到外面的加勒比海兜了一大圈，碰上大风大浪，船晃得厉害，把我们折腾了一晚。今天早上七点靠岸，吃完早餐之后我们就下了船。

Colon码头离我们要去的巴拿马城大概50英里左右。我们对怎么从Colon到巴拿马城一直找不到确定的方案。最方便的直达火车因为疫情而停运了。如今最便宜的是坐一个半小时的公交车但需要从Colon船码头到Colon大巴车站走二十分钟，据说Colon不是很安全, 都不建议在路上走，可以找出租车从码头到大巴车站。还有个选择是坐出租车去巴拿马城，网上订车要$200+。游轮也提供回城服务，但只能直接送去巴拿马飞机场，离我们住的市中心旅馆有点距离。最后我们决定下船后看情况再说。一出码头，被拉出租车生意的人团团围住，大开天价。不理他们，我们自己找Uber但是暂时无车。这时正好看到旁边一对夫妇好像也在等车，就和他们搭讪。他们已叫了Uber，听说我们也去巴拿马城，主动说可以与我们拼车，只要$30，真是天上掉下来个大馅饼🤪。一路上与这对加拿大来的老外聊天很开心，一小时后很顺利地到了旅馆。世界上热心的好人真不少。

到旅馆时才早上十点左右，房间还没有准备好，我们先注册，寄存行李，然后便沿着海边走到海鲜市场要了炸全鱼，烤章鱼和酸橘汁腌鱼（ceviche)，非常好吃😋。 晚上去了一家当地餐厅，很不错，第一次吃上绿色米饭打底的海鲜饭，油饼和＂糯米”角也很好。在饭店还碰到了另一对从我们游轮下来的乘客， 世界真小。

1/27: 昨晚从费城来的两位朋友来到巴拿马城加入我们中南美州之旅。今天一早她们俩去运河中心参观，我们则去了巴拿马生物博物馆。博物馆的建筑设计有点特色，里面的展馆一般，但因为巴拿马城游轮码头就在附近， 参观的人不少，大多是游轮上的乘客。

看完生物馆后，我们就沿着阿马多尔堤道慢慢地向Flamenco 岛走去，堤道西边是运河进出口，美国大桥，这整个区域以前是美国军事基地，为运河的运行防卫。堤道建得相当好，两旁风景很美，但在又湿又热的大太阳下走了一小时真的不容易，有点累。想着之前在船上每天吃那么多，腰围长一圈，现在该是甩膘的时候了。汗流浃背地走到Flamenco岛上，朋友已到，一顿美味的海鲜午餐等着我们。

饭后我们四人在堤道上往回走了一段，便叫车回旅馆小休一会儿。这里Uber和Taxi又方便又便宜，在市内大约$3-$5就够了。

回旅馆后我们俩又出去找了一家咖啡店喝咖啡，咖啡不怎么样，蝴蝶酥还可以。

好友对饮食很在行，总能找到好地方。晚饭去了一家中餐馆，要了龙虾，蒸鱼等四菜一汤，味道不错，我们俩好久没吃这么好吃的中餐了。光忙着吃没拍晚餐的照片，只能借朋友的照片用一下。

今天（1/28号）我们去了巴拿马老城区(Casco Viejo), 建于1673年，后来成为运河建造的财政，管理，工程的大本营。上个世纪在独裁者统治下，腐败和贩毒使得这里破败不堪，一直到九十年代才开始重建，后来成为世界遣址。如今这老城区聚集着法国，西班牙和美国式的建筑，优雅美丽，人丁兴旺，是来巴拿马的必游之地。我们参加徙步游，导游带我们走了二个多小时，一路侃侃而谈， 我们学了不少东西，也知道了巴拿马的军队在独裁者下台后被解散，如今只有警察而没有军队。

走完老城区后又来到几公里外的巴拿马遗址(Panama Viejo),是太平洋岸边的第一欧州人定居点，当时是巴拿马首都。但是那地方地势不利，常常受到海盗的抢劫骚扰，在1671年，英国人摩根带着一帮海盗把整个首都摧毁了，之后当地人把首都搬到了现在老城区的地方，那里独特的地势更容易防守。摩根全然不知当时英国和西班牙已签署了互不侵犯的协议，为此他被捕送回伦敦，但是英国人以英雄仪式欢迎他的到来。遗址也是在世界遗产名录中。

参观完了旧巴拿马后，来到了万豪酒店的66层酒吧，喝着芒果马提尼酒，俯瞰巴拿马城全景，欣赏夕阳西落的美景。

白天在参观二个旧城区之间去了一家中餐馆吃午茶，下午又在万豪观景台吃喝，朋友俩决定跳过晚餐。我们俩还是去了附近一家西班牙餐厅，菜单是西语，他们又不会说英语，我们就稀里糊涂地点两个菜，结果两个菜都是大虾，但是味道是相当好。

1/29:上午去城市自然公园, 徒步2.6英里，在那里待了二个小时，看到不少野生动物，包括树懒母女，长鼻浣熊，吼猴，乌龟，鹿和咬鹃等。

中午再次品尝巴拿马的午茶点心，不比美国的差。饭后回旅馆小休。下午来到海边散步后，再次来到巴拿马老城区，把昨天没看过的景点补上。又看到有新鲜椰子卖，$2.5 一个，价格比之前在哥斯达里加的稍稍上去了一点，但尺寸大很多。晚上又去了另一家中餐馆吃饭，正好碰上当地朱氏家族春节联欢会，锣鼓喧天，热闹非凡。据说巴拿巴90+%华人来自广东，而广东人中90+%是广州花都人。与我们同行的二位费城朋友都来自广州，开玩笑地说与同乡一起欢庆春节了。

自从离开上海后，不记得几天内连上这么多中餐馆😜。明天我们就要离开巴拿马城，开始我们热带雨林/云林的旅程。

12 Day Panama Canal Cruise 十二天巴拿马运河邮轮游

Jan 13: We started our trip to Central/South America a day earlier. A while ago, there was constant news of flight cancellations and delays due to the weather and computer system failures. Especially two days ago, the FAA flight system failed, causing all flights nationwide to be temporarily suspended for a couple of hours. It made us feel nervous about flying on the day of boarding a cruise and worrying about missing the cruise; we decided to fly to San Diego a day earlier. Upon arriving at San Diego airport, as usual, we were going to call Uber or Lyft, but it turned out that the city bus stop was right outside the terminal building. So we took the bus, a 10-minute quick ride to the hotel near the historic district - Gaslamp Quarter. Dropped off the luggage, we headed straight to the seaside. We had a couple of tacos at the pier first, then boarded a local tourist boat for an hour bay cruise, whose tickets were included in the destination fee our hotel collected from us. The tour guide on the boat was quite good, and he provided a lot of information about the bay. We really enjoyed the tour. Disembarked, we walked to the historic Gaslamp Quarter and were disappointed that the place was deserted and almost empty in the afternoon. After a simple dinner at the hotel, we returned to the Gaslamp district in the evening. However, this time it was much different; the streets were full of restaurant patrons and bargoers, but it was still not as lively as expected on a Friday night.

Jan 14: We signed up for our cruise embarking time at noon and had the whole morning to spare. After breakfast, we went to the Italian neighborhood just in time for the weekend market and saw some snacks we had not seen before. The line at the pozole booth was long, so we decided to give it a try. We had a cup of hot pork pozole, a Mexican pork soup that tasted great and was perfect for a cold day. After returning to the hotel and picking up our luggage, we boarded the NCL Jewel cruise ship. We officially began the first leg of our trip to Central/South America, a 12-day San Diego to Panama Canal cruise.

Our room was not ready when we boarded the ship. So with our suitcase in hand, we went directly to the Garden Café for a buffet lunch. Around 1:30 pm, the PA announced that the rooms were ready. Our room was a good size cabin with a balcony, and it was in a perfect location. At 4 pm, the ship slowly left the Port of San Diego in heavy rain. As we stood out on the balcony to watch the skyline of San Diego Bay disappearing in the low cloud, we felt very lucky to tour the bay area under the decent weather yesterday.

We had our first dinner at the Chin Chin Asia restaurant, which was really disappointing. Among all the food we ordered, the Kung Pao chicken was the worst. It came with clear-cut chicken cubes mixed with a little vegetable and sauce, and it was the worst Kung Pao Chicken we have ever had. We were unsure if we would return to the restaurant during the rest of the cruise. We didn’t finish the dishes, so we still had room for more food and went up to the Garden Café for the second dinner, a piece of delicious Prime Rib.

Jan 16: After leaving San Diego in the late afternoon on the 14th, our ship headed south and spent the whole day yesterday at sea. This morning we arrived at the first port of call, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The sky was clear, and the temperature was around 70F. We just visited this place a little over a year ago on another cruise trip. Without any special activities planned, we just walked along Medano Beach for four hours. At noon, we had some tacos from a Taco Bar at a hotel by the beach and enjoyed some people-watching. We wandered around the marina area looking for a coffee shop but couldn’t find one we liked, so we walked further away from the tourist area. We found a local coffee shop offering a decent Latte for $2.5 and good WiFi, and it was half the price we paid on the ship. Tonight, we went to see the magic show.

Jan 17: The Jewel left Cabo San Lucas last evening and arrived at Port Vallarta at noon today. We were lucky to see whales accompanying us this morning. It was our second time to visit Port Vallarta. More than a year ago, when we visited this beautiful city, we didn’t join any organized tour; instead, we explored the town by ourselves, taking the local buses and Uber. The city gave us a good impression. This time we signed up for a tour from the ship to explore more than just the new town area. First, the tour bus took us to the city center, the city hall, and the church. The city hall was crowded not just because of tourists like us, but many local people were waiting in line to pay the property tax. They get a 10% discount if they pay in January. Mexico also has a senior discount for property tax, and Mexican legal residents or citizens 60 years or older pay only 50% of their property tax. We wish the US had a similar policy.

Then the bus took us to a jewelry store in the old town, a tourist trap that provides a bathroom facility and free drinks. Visiting a ceramic tile factory across the street was much more enjoyable. The workers hand-painted each tile before firing them. The store sells different types of ceramic products. The bus finally took us to an old tequila winery passing through a village outside the city. The distillery is no longer used for production but focuses on tourist services. The owner’s son gave a short presentation and showed us a few old pieces of equipment for the distillation process. There were a few blue agave plants in the garden. It was not the typical brew/winery tour we had before. The tour's highlight was to taste their tequilas, a total of six different kinds, from cheap to expensive ones. Watching fellow passengers drink shot after shot and finish all six shots in no time, the two of us felt a little embarrassed because we did not even finish half a shot combined, definitely saving some tequilas for the winery. The primary purpose of the tour is to sell their Tequilas, and the free Tequila shots did the trick. Within the tourist complex, they also serve tacos—each chicken or pork taco with a freshly handmade tortilla sold for $2. We had a couple of them, which looked simple but very tasty, and we think they were better than those in the United States.

After the tour, we were back on the ship. We went to the main dining restaurant for dinner. The food tonight was delicious. There were not too many people in the restaurant tonight; probably because the ship had a late departure time, many people were still hanging out on the shore.

Jan 19: It took another sea day from Port Vallarta to reach the next port. Our ship docked early in Acapulco, Mexico, a new coast city to us. We started the day on our own and first visited the local church and the town square. It was early morning, and the people had just started setting up the booths in the square; not much to see. Then we walked along the beautiful seaside. We stopped by, watching a local fisherman beginning to fire up a charcoal stove on the edge of the shore wall for a while. He heated the pan directly over the fire and added some oil and garlic. Then he deep-fried fresh mahi-mahi fish eggs. The smell was good, and the taste must be delicious, but we did not dare try it.

Acapulco is another tourist resort town but less popular than Cabo San Lucas and Port Vallarta. We recently watched an Acapulco seaside cliff diving episode called Human Playground on a Netflix show, and a comedy show from Apple TV+. We joined the tour in the afternoon, and the highlight of this tour was seeing a diving show, which lived up to its name. Eight divers climbed the cliff and dived into the water below. The show lasted about 15 mins.

The tour's final stop was the Fort of San Diego, built by the Spanish Empire and one of the most important Spanish fortifications along the Pacific coast. Unfortunately, the Acapulco Historical Museum was closed under restoration. We just wandered around in the fort courtyard under the scorching sun, and we could not bear the heat anymore and returned to the ship. We hope the weather will be cooler as we travel to the south in the next few weeks.

Jan 21: Yesterday was another sea day. The wind and waves were very calm in the morning. The only ripples you could see were caused by our ship's sailing. The sea was so beautiful and looked like a painting. After taking a few cruises, long and short, this was the first time we saw such a calm sea. From time to time, Sea turtles could be seen floating in the calm water.

Done with Mexico ports, we headed to the largest Port in Guatemala, Puerto Quetzal, today. We arrived early this morning, and it was one of the smallest cruise ship terminals we've ever visited. The terminal only had a souvenir market for tourists but nothing else. Most passengers from the ship headed out to the ancient city of Antigua - the old capital of Guatemala. We took a tour called “Antigua on your own.” As the name indicated, the tour company only provided roundtrip transportation to Antigua. The bus ride to Antigua took 90 minutes. It was a scenic ride. Along the way, sometime, we could see coffee farms, massive sugar cane fields, and the Volcano De Fuego erupting every 15-20 minutes. Unfortunately, we were sitting on the wrong side of the bus and didn't have a good picture of the erupting volcano.

Antigua was an ancient city consisting of many old buildings and cobblestone streets. There were a lot of tourists visiting the town. After we arrived, we first went to the Hill of the Cross across the city to the far north end. The ongoing construction was on the spot, but it has an unobstructed view of Antigua and Volcano Agua. The area is free of charge, but a guy with a firefight uniform asked for a $2 donation on the path, which we did. On the way down to the town center, we walked through the quiet neighborhood, and the local houses were very distinctive, which we liked very much, and we thought we could stay there overnight or two. The main tourist attraction in Antigua is Santa Catalina Arch. Tourists and local vendors filled the area. We took some pictures and moved on.

We stopped by a couple of churches and ancient ruins, and then it was time to find a place to have some decent Guatemalan food. We went to Rincon Tipico, highly recommended by the Lonely Planet tour book we bought before the trip. The small restaurant was in the courtyard with simple bench tables. The chicken and potato were cooked over coals. Ordering food in non-English speaking places is always a challenge for us. Their menu on the wall was in Spanish with pictures. We had one chicken plate with potato and another chicken dish with a bowl of soup; all were very delicious. After lunch, we hit two more tourist spots before returning to our bus at 1 pm. We only had four hours to spare, and it was definitely not enough time to explore the area.

After another 90 minutes bus ride, we returned to the pier and spent some time at the market. We had fresh coconut water, local beer, and Guatemala Coffee, an excellent and happy ending to our very short Guatemala visit.

Jan 22: We were supposed to go to Nicaragua today. Probably for some safety reasons, We were informed that the Port of call to Nicaragua had been canceled when we boarded the ship in San Diego, and it was changed to another sea day. As usual, we went to deck 11 Garden Cafe for breakfast around 7:30 am and walked around the ship on deck 7. Typically, we would walk 8000 to 10,000 steps in the morning on a sea day. Last few days, some sea wildlife always accompanied our ship to make our walking routine more enjoyable. Today we had no exception. Seabirds accompanied us along the way, bringing much happiness to the boring sea travel. We brought our Sony Camera and took many photos.

Today was also the Chinese New Year, Spring Festival. The ship was slightly decorated, and every time we entered a restaurant or cafe, the staff would say "gong xi fa cai" to us. This is a rabbit year, so the food sculptures of rabbits, made of watermelon, fruits, veggies, etc., were everywhere. We broke our promise not to return to the Chin Chin Asia restaurant. We thought having a Chinese New Year dinner at the Chinese Restaurant would be appropriate to celebrate our holiday, even if the food would not meet our expectations. They didn't serve any unique dishes for the holiday. The food this time seemed to be a little better than the first time we had tried it; of course, we stayed away from that chicken dish.

Jan 23: We arrived early this morning at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We had signed up for a crocodile river tour with the cruise. We waited in the theater for a while to go on the tour until we realized something was wrong after 30 minutes passing the scheduled time. We talked to the short excursion staff in the theater and were told that the original half-day tour was canceled. We didn't receive any cancellation notification and were a bit disappointed. We went ashore to book a local tour that cost us half what we would pay for the cruise tour. Eight of the passengers from the cruise were packed into a van. The first stop was a private property near the main highway to see the monkeys. A group of white face monkeys lives in the area. You pay $3 per person to feed the monkey with crackers. When you held the crackers in your hand, the monkey jumped to your head to take them from you and eat them. It was fun, and we took a few nice pictures with monkeys on our shoulders. Most time, after eating the food, they would get off us. But one of the monkeys jumped on one of us and stayed on her head for a while. It was a hilarious experience.

Our next stop was The Original Crocodile River Tour. We boarded a boat down the Rio Grande de Tárcoles, home to approximately 2,000 crocodiles. Surprisingly we only saw one motionless giant crocodile and several small ones. We saw several types of birds and black monkeys in the trees. Then we made a short stop at another private property to see Macaws. The tour was not exceptional, but it was okay. Today, we just got the first taste of Pura Vida in Costa Rica. Next month we will come back for ten more days.

After returning to the ship for a short rest in the afternoon, we got off again and walked around the pier. We walked along the beach to the lighthouse and watched the locals playing soccer and relaxing on the beach as the sun set on the horizon. The Ticas must enjoy their simple life. Before boarding the ship, we couldn't resist another fresh coconut. The last time in Guatemala was $1; today, it was $2 in Costa Rica.

Jan 25: Yesterday was the last full sea day before the Panama Canal, and we were lucky to see the stingrays jumping out of the water. We took pictures using the 70-300 mm lens, but it wasn't long enough to get a clear picture. We felt so lucky to see different sea creatures every day for four days at sea and spent hours watching them each day.

Passing the Panama Canal is always on our bucket list. We had wanted to do this for a while. We found this one-way cruise to take us through the Panama Canal and start our Central/South America trip. Today is the canal crossing day. Crossing the Panama Canal consists of three locks and three bridges from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. Our ship was scheduled starting at 6 am and ending around 4 pm, for about ten hours. We got up early before dawn, and went to the bow on deck 8 about 15 minutes before 6 am. Based on the schedule, the ship would pass under the Bridge of the Americas, completed in 1962 at the cost of $20 million from the United States of America, around 6 am. The bow area on deck 8, which was closed to the public during the cruise, was supposed to be opened to the public during canal passing. When we arrived on the 8th floor, People were lined up to wait for the bow area to open. We hesitated to go elsewhere because we were afraid of missing seeing the bridge, so we patiently waited in line. The bow area was finally opened after 6 am, but we indeed missed the bridge. The Bridge of Americas was already far away when we entered the bow area. Very disappointed.

There were several places on the ship to watch the Panama Canal passing. We just went up and down to find the best position to see the canal passing and to take pictures. One of us even sits under the flag pole to have the best view and enable her to take photos without reflection from the glass shield. In the middle of the day, it became hot and humid. So we mostly stayed inside the view lounge in the afternoon. We also saw our sister ship the NCL Joy cruise ship in the middle of the lake of the canal, which we were on that ship three months ago, and the Joy happened to cross the canal in the opposite direction. What a small world!

After crossing the canal, our final destination, Colon, was nearby, but the cruise ship was not scheduled to dock tonight. Instead, the ship sailed to the Caribbean Sea for a big loop. There was nothing to see since it was getting dark. In the meantime, the vessel encountered strong winds and waves, which made us seasick. Passing the Panama Canal today meant that our 12-day cruise was ending, and tomorrow we would disembark and start our independent trip.

1/13: 提前一天开始了我们的中南美州之旅。前一阵子不断有飞机航班取消和延误的新闻，而前二天全美国飞行系统出故障造成所有飞机短暂停运后，让我们觉得有必要避免上船当天坐飞机，临时决定改机票提前一天来到圣地亚哥。顺利到达圣地亚哥机场后，原准备叫Uber 或Lyft, 结果发现市区公交车很方便又便宜，且车站就在停机楼门外。坐着公交车十分钟便来到历史小区-油灯区附近的酒店。放下行李之后直奔海边，先吃上几个Taco垫底后，就上了当地的海湾游船在海湾里转了一个小时。船上的讲解员蛮不错的，嘴没停过。下了船后走去油灯区，有点失望，冷冷清清几乎没人。晚上在酒店里吃上简单的晚餐之后又再次去油灯区走走，比下午稍好些， 虽然满街都是饭店和酒吧又是周五晚上，但还是没有想像中那么热闹。

1/14: 中午才上游轮，早上还有几个小时可以转悠。早餐后我们先去意大利小区转了一圈，正赶上周末集市，看到一些以前没见过的小吃，在那里喝了一杯墨西哥的猪肉汤，味道很不错。回酒店拿了行李之后我们便登上NCL Jewel游轮，正式开启我们中南美洲行的第一段－十二天圣地亚哥至巴拿马游。傍晚游船在大雨中慢慢地驶离圣地亚哥港。

上船后第一晚就去了船上一家中餐馆，实在太失望。尤其是要的宫保鸡丁从来没吃过这么差的，估计不会再去了。试了西式餐厅，味道还可以。

 1/16: 我们的船自14号晚上离开圣地亚哥之后，一路南下，今天（16号）早上来到第一站墨西哥的Cabo San Lucas。晴空万里，气温在70F左右。一年多前刚来过这里，今天故地重游。我们没有什么特别活动，沿着海滩走了三，四个小时，中午就在海滩边一家酒店的Taco Bar每人两个Taco, 味道不错。回船前，还去了一家当地的咖啡店，一是用一下WiFi，二是喝杯咖啡休息一下，$2.5一杯拿铁味道相当不错，价格也不错，是船上的一半。今天天气好、玩得很轻松，晚上会去看一下魔术表演。

 1/17: 昨天晚上离开Cabo San Lucas, 今天（一月十七日）中午来到Vallarta港。今天早上很幸运，在海上不时有鲸鱼陪伴我们。一年多前我们也来过Vallarta 港，很漂亮。当初我们俩是自由行，坐了公交车，也坐了Uber。这次我们参加了龙舌兰酒庄游，先把我们带去市中心，市政府楼和教堂，然后就去老城区的珠宝店，陶瓷店和皮革店，最后来到旧酒庄，那里好像已不再用于生产了，而是专做旅游服务了。介绍了龙舌兰酒生产过程，请大家品味六种不同的龙舌兰酒，每人总共喝六杯。看着别人一小杯一小杯喝，我们俩加一起也没喝到半小杯，真是便宜了酒庄😜。洒庄里还有卖Taco。酒后在那里每人要了个Taco, 有鸡肉和猪肉，饼是手工现做的，$2一个。这几天在外面天天吃Taco，看着很简单，但觉得就是比美国的好吃。回到船上已是晚餐的时间，晚餐很不错，蛮合我们胃口。今晚的餐厅人不太多，估计因为船离开得晚，好多人还在岸上晃悠。

 1/19: 经过又一天的海上航行，今天一早停靠墨西哥阿卡普尔科(Acapulco), 上午上岸后先自由行看了一下当地教堂，又沿海边走了一段。看到当地的渔民在水边直接烧火煎鱼子，先在生鱼子上撒些盐，然后是热油，大蒜🧄，鱼子下锅直接煎，非常馋人，味道肯定不错，但没敢尝试一下。Acapulco 是一个旅游度假城市，最近在Netflix秀Human Playground 中看到海边悬崖峭壁跳水的一集，所以这次来此的亮点就是去看跳水表演，名符其实值得一看。今天烈日当空，外面转了几个小时，就有点受不了，不知下面几星期继续往南走，天气会是怎么样。

 1/21: 昨天在海上航行一天。上午风平浪静，只有我们船开过时海面才泛起阵阵涟漪，很美，看着像画。坐了不少游轮，好像还是第一次看到如此平静的大海，时而可以看到海龟们在海上漂游。

今天一早来到瓜地马拉最大的港口，也是我们到过的最小游轮码头之一。码头上只有一个为游客开的市场，周围其它一点东西都没有。几乎所有游客都参团去了安地瓜古城－旧首都。有不少古建筑，当地的民居也很有特色，整个小城很漂亮，就是游客多一点，玩的时间也不够，以后有机会该在那里住上二，三天。从码头到安地瓜开车一个半小时，一路上可以看到火山喷发的白烟，咖啡农庄，甘蔗田等。在城里转了一圈后，在一家小店里吃上当地的午餐，还不错。在码头边，喝上新鲜的椰子水，当地的啤酒和瓜地马拉咖啡,也算是给瓜地马拉游划上一个美好的句号。

 1/23: 昨天应该去尼加拉瓜的，可能是因为安全原因，上船后被告知取消了停靠那里而改成又一天海上航行。一路上有海鸟们陪伴着我们，给平淡的海上行带来不少快乐，拍了不少照片。昨天春节，船上也稍稍布置一下，每次进餐厅工作人员会对我们说恭禧发财，也算有点气氛了。

今天一早来到了哥斯达黎加的Puntarenas, 原本订半日游被取消了，也没通知我们，有点失望。我们自己上岸找了一个当地的半日游，带我们去看了小猴子，鳄鱼，各种🦜等，结果还是很完美的。今天算是先来哥斯达黎加探探路，下个月我们还会回来自由行。下午回船稍做休息后又下船，在码头附近走一圈，新鲜椰子汁肯定少不了的，上次在瓜地马拉$1一个，今天在哥斯达里加$2一个。

 1/25: 昨天是到巴拿马运河前的最后一整天海上航行，很幸运，除了鲸鱼，海豚，鸟之类的，又看到了新动物－黄貂鱼(sting ray)，还是第一次看见黄貂鱼跳出水面。四天海上航行，每天有不同动物陪伴着我们，我们时常会花上几个小时在甲板上或者阳台上捕捉它们的身影。

坐游轮过巴拿马运河是我们最向往的旅游项目之一。今天终于迎来这一天。一早天没亮就起床，上串下跳的找最佳位置看及拍照。过运河一共过三个船闸，穿过三座大桥，早上六点开始到下午四点从太平洋来到加勒比海，整整十个小时。今天还碰巧了与我们三个月前刚坐过的NCL Joy游轮在运河中间的湖中相遇，Joy正好是反方向过运河。今天过巴拿马运河意味着我们这次12天游轮即将结束，明天就要下船了，开始我们的自由行。

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。

Museum Island, 博物馆岛

July 5, 2022

When we were in a new place, we always looked for a breakfast/coffee store to experience. We found one this morning to have a brick of roasted pork bacon, and it tasted good.

We bought the two-day Museum passes and started our museum tour today. One island and five museums, a unique collection of buildings in the center of Berlin, make museum hopping much easy. For crowd control, we also needed to get the time entry tickets. We went to the Neue Museum Berlin in the morning, had lunch at the museum café, and then visited the Pergamon Museum in the afternoon. There was so much to see between the two museums. The highlights were the statue of the Egyptian heroine, the golden hat, and the replica of the Iraqi Ishtar Gate. The museum and many of its collections were destroyed during World War II and have been under renovation since the reunification of East and West Germany. In Pergamon Museum, through the protection glass, we observed the staff restoring the collections with cotton swabs.

We were pretty exhausted after visiting two museums in a row. Enough museums for the day, we left the museum island and went to the Turkish market in the late afternoon. The market was huge, selling all kinds of things. We were there a little late, and some stalls had already begun to close. We bought fresh cherries, had the lamb stews and falafel balls from the street food stands. The food tasted delicious, although it took us a while to find one small table with a bench to sit down and eat our food.

Dinner was Vietnamese food. We had a communication issue when we tried to order the food. Since our son was allergic to nuts, we had to ensure that none of the dishes we ordered had any nuts. On top of that, our daughter is vegan, and we would like to have at least one vegan dish for her. It turned out to be a challenge. The waitress did not understand English, and not a single staff did in the restaurant. We had to use the translator on our phone to communicate with her. During the entire meal time, we were worried about the nut allergy.

Berlin was a big city; we had done a lot in just two days and were exhausted. Back to the hotel, we were told that the AC should be back working the next day, another day.

欧洲游第四十六天：今天去了柏林博物馆岛上的柏林新博物馆和帕加馬博物館, 精点展品是埃及女主的塑像，金帽子和复制的伊拉克伊什塔尔城门。博物馆及许多收藏品在二战期间被毁，东西德合并之后一直在整修。P5中隔着玻璃看到工作人员在用棉花棒小心翼翼地修复藏品。柏林的几个好的博物馆光有票还不够，还要专门订进场的时间。连着二个博物馆看下来觉得蛮累的，下午就去了土尔其露天市场，我们去得有点晚，有些摊位已开始收工了。在那里买了点樱桃，顺便尝试些他们的街头小吃。晚饭是越南菜，语言交流有点问题，服务员一点英语都不懂，来欧洲四十几天了还是第一次。为了菜里有没有花生这事搞了半天。柏林有点大，玩得挺累的。

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。