Gornergrat Railway and Downhill Hike 戈尔内格拉特铁路

May 31, 2022

We took a morning walk along the lake one last time and captured a few more pictures before going to the same bakery place to have coffee and pastries. After breakfast, we said goodbye to Montreux and got on the IR 90 train heading to Zermatt, a part of the Classic Grand Train Tour of Switzerland. We arrived at Zermatt before noon. Zermatt is a car-free resort town. The majority of the buildings are either hotels or restaurants. The winter is the busiest season. Since we were there when the summer season just started, only 20% of the hotels were open, and many restaurants had not opened for the summer yet. Although the town is car-free, taxi by electric vehicles is available for the tourists to get to their hotels up the hills. Our hotel was a short distance from the train station, so we dragged our luggage to the hotel. Luckily, our room was ready for us before normal check-in time. After settling in the room, we headed out to start a new adventure.

Grabbing some sandwiches for lunch at a nearby bakery, we boarded the Gornergrat Railway to the summit of the Gornergrat. The cogwheel railway is the second highest railway in Europe after the Jungfrau and the highest open-air railway in Europe. Unfortunately, the cloud started to build up in the afternoon at high altitudes. The Matterhorn was not visible, but we had countless panoramic views of mountains and glaciers as the train pulled up to the summit. After 40 mins of a magnificent ride, we arrived at the summit. The weather was chilly in the early summer at summit, but the view was breathtaking, even with the peaks obcuredtially by clouds. We had our lunch at the summit café. With the hot goulash soup and drinks ordered from the café, the sandwiches we brought tasted pretty good and it was a very good lunch. After lunch break, we toured a small church and enjoyed the views from the overlook deck. We also took some pictures at the Grand Tour Photo Spot, one of 64 spots in the country.

After watching a cogwheel train running up to the station, we knew it was time to leave. We got on the return train back down to Riffelap, a hamlet approximately halfway between the town of Zermatt and the Gornergrat summit. From Riffelap, we hiked four miles back to Zermatt. The trail was scenic, with wide-ranging views of the valley and peaks. It descended steeply and put a lot of pressure on our knees. It was raining a little most of the time, and we were glad we had rain cover with us. We took a break at Chalet Harmonie. The mountain chalet hadn’t opened yet for the summer, and four of us were the only people there. But the whole area was still well maintained. We were astonished to find out that the restroom was open and kept as clean as at the hotel. Nearby were Ricola Herb garden and a small church, both lovely. We wished we could stay a little longer to explore the area more, but we wanted to get back to the town before dark. The hiking was challenging for us, but we enjoyed it very much.

We had dinner at a popular Italy restaurant. Pizza, pasta and dessert were delicious.

第十一天：今天一早离开St. Montreux坐二小时火车到了Zermatt。先去旅馆，转身就坐Gornergrat 齿轮铁路火车上山。在沉浸在静谧瑞士冰川和高山之后，我们在蒙蒙细雨中徒步四英里海拨落差二千尺下山。回到镇上后去了一家意大利餐厅美餐一顿。

Geneva 日内瓦

May 30，2022

We got up early again in the morning and walked to see Montreux's old town up the hill before breakfast. The old town was small and peaceful. But it doesn't have the glamor like other old towns in Switzerland have. The historical museum was part of the preserved old house. Up the hill, we overlooked the train station and the lake. Then we came down to have breakfast near the train station. We found this wonderful bakery across from the train station, the only one that opened in the early morning. We had coffee and pastries there. Everything was so good, and we knew we would come back later. We returned to the promenade after breakfast while waiting for our friends to get ready. We walked along the lakeshores towards the nearby town, Clarens. We just couldn't get enough of the beautiful view of the lake.

Today we had another day trip. We went to Geneva by train, the best well-known city in Switzerland. Chenggang went on his way to visit the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN. CERN has the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments for fundamental physics study. The latest discovery is the Higgs boson, a god particle described in the news. It is also a place where the WEB was invented. The CERN offers the public a guided tour of the oldest particle accelerator every hour. But you have to get the tickets at the visitor center in person. After getting off the train, Chenggang went on a separate way to catch a bus to CERN. The bus ride was about 45 mins. When he got there, there was a line for the tickets. Each hour, the tour had 21 tickets. Unfortunately, he got a ticket three hours away. There was not too much to do near CERN. He decided to get back to the city by another 45 mins bus ride and had lunch in the beautiful outdoor courtyard at Kiosque des Bastions in Parc des Bastions. The salad was good, and the atmosphere was even better. After re-energized, he returned to the CERN by a 45 mins bus ride. By the bus schedule, he would arrive a few minutes before 3 pm when the tour started. But it never worked that way. The bus was delayed, and the tour was about to begin when he arrived. He went inside the visitor center to get the pass badge; initially, the staff refused to give it out. He went outside to talk to the tour guide and back to the center to tell the staff that the tour hadn't started yet. Finally, the staff handed him the pass, and what a relief that he didn't waste time riding buses back and forth for approximately 3 hours. The tour was informative, and the first generator was huge to us, imagining how big the latest accelerator would be.

When Chenggang was riding buses between CERN and Parc des Bastions, three ladies went to see the Broken Chair, the giant chair with a broken leg that stands across the street from the United Nations building and the world's tallest water fountain on Lake Geneva. They took a lake ferry in the afternoon from Geneva to Yvoire, a beautiful small medieval village located on the French shore of Lake Geneva. They had a brief time there, enough to have ice cream and coffee and then headed back to Geneva.

After visiting CERN, Chenggang went to see the broken chair as well and strolled along the lake shore. He even took a ferry to the other side of the lake, and the Swiss Travel Pass covered all ferry rides. Four of us were united near Parc La Grange and wandered through the park. After dinner, we went to Parc des Bastions to see the Reformation Wall. At dawn, in front of the wall, was a dance class and some kind of pot-luck going on. One day's trip to Geneva was hectic, and we were tired. We got on the train back to Montreux, and everybody took a short nap.

第十天: 在日内瓦，我们兵分二路，成刚参加了欧洲核子研究组织的对外导游，带着参观了与他同龄第一台加速器，为了能得到一张参观券，来回坐公交车四次。三位女士坐渡轮去日内瓦对面的最美法国小镇，喝上一杯咖啡和吃个冰淇淋就回来。

Lavaux Vineyard Terrace 世界遗产葡萄园

May 29, 2022

Montreux has held the famous annual Jazz Festival for the last 50 years. About 250,000 people attend the Festival in early July each year. Along the bank of Lake Geneva are many music-related art creations, famous musician sculptures, and even flower bed fences made with music notes. We missed this year’s Jazz Festival by over a month. If we thought yesterday’s Montreux was crowded due to weekend tourists, imagine what the streets would look like during the Jazz Festival. We got up early and went out to the lakeside before breakfast. Too early for most of the tourists; the street was tranquil. With the blue sky, beautiful lake, colorful flowers, and all the sculptures, it was so lovely to stroll around the promenade in the early morning. We had a few pictures to share here.

The weather continued to be in our favor, sunshine but not hot. We didn’t get the chance to see the inside of the Chillon Castle yesterday, so this morning after breakfast, the first thing to do was to take a short train ride from the hotel to the castle. The Chillon Castle is the most visited historical monument in Switzerland and is on an island on Lake Geneva. The oldest part of the castle was built more than 1000 years ago. The development of the current castle spans three periods: the Savoy Period, the Bernese Period, and the Vaudois Period, whose history we were not familiar with at all. Over the years, the castle was used as a summer house, prison, or munitions and weapons depot. Touring the castle, we learned a little bit history of Switzerland. We also learned from the Audio guide that the stone walls were not the original form. When they renovated the castle, they made the walls look old without being plastered. The original wall should be the stone walls with a plastered coating, like one of the white painted walls in the castle.

The Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, stretching for miles along the northern shores of Lake Gevena, is a UNESCO site not too far away from Montreux. After visiting the castle, we jumped on a local train to Chexbres-Village train station for a short ride with a change at Vevey. As soon as we stepped out of the station, we were stunned by the panoramic view of the massive vineyard covering the lower slopes of the mountainside between the villages and the lake. Overlooking Lake Geneva, Chexbres is a wine-growing village offering many walks, blue, red, and green trails as illustrated on the tourist map. We let the trails take us running through the vineyard and down to the lake. Some of the vine terraces can be traced back 1000 years ago. We had never heard of Swiss wine in the states. We were told that the Swiss drank all the wine they produced, no export, as they joked about it. The walk through UNESCO’s wine yard was fantastic, but it was lunchtime, and we were hungry and looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately, most wine cellars and restaurants were closed on Sunday. Finally, we found Lavaux Vinorama near the lake was open for business. We ordered a wine taste set, beef tartars, cheese, and sausage. With the fantastic scenery of Lake Geneva and beautiful mountains in the back, we sipped wine and enjoyed swiss food. It was a delightful lunch break and just couldn’t get any better.

After lunch, we walked a short distance from the restaurant and boarded the train at Rivaz station to Lausanne. A hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lausanne is the home to the International Olympic Committee headquarters and the Olympic Museum and lakeshore Olympic Park. We first visited Olympic Museum and park and then headed to the old town to see the majestic Lausanne Cathedral. A walk around the hilly city felt like a workout. We walked through narrow alleys and stairs to Place De La Palud, the town square. Almost all shops were closed today, and there were few people in the area. Standing by the Fountain of Justice, we tried to figure out what to eat for dinner. After a few minutes of googling, we picked L’Eveche nearby. We ordered a salad, chicken, and pasta. The food was good, and it was time to return to Montreux.

On the way back to Montreux, we got off at Vevey to see the fork in the lake, a memorial sculpture for Charlie Chaplin.

 第九天：先去有千年历史的Chillon 古城堡里转了一大圈，然后去附近世界遗产名录的葡萄园，在那里品尝当地的白葡萄酒，生牛肉馅饼，香肠和奶酪。下午去了洛桑,参观奥运会博物馆和老街。在日内瓦湖上, 巧见一只大白＂俄＂追打＂乌＂鸭一幕，原本一群小鸭在湖上自由自在玩耍，突然间一只大天鹅🦢开始追赶其中一小鸭，真有点莫名其妙，就想起当今的俄乌之战，动物也和人一样。

GoldenPass Line 金色山口快车

May 28, 2022

This morning we packed our belongings and said goodbye to Lucerne. It was convenient to have a flat in Lucerne as our base for the last seven days, and we didn't have to pack and unpack each day when we headed out for sightseeing. Today, we were moving to our next base, Montreux, a beautiful resort town on the bank of Lake Geneva.

Interlaken Express and GoldenPass Line are part of the classic Grand Train Tour of Switzerland, which also includes Montreux-Zermatt with the Matterhorn, Glacier Express, Bernina Express, and Gotthard Panorama Express. Today, we started with Interlaken Express running from Lucerne to Interlaken, then switched to the GoldenPass line connecting Interlaken to Montreux with changes at Spiez and Zweisimmen. It is recommended to have a seat reservation for the Panoramic train. With the Swiss Travel Pass, the GoldenPass route was free, but we had to pay a small fee to reserve a seat. Since we had to do a few transfers today and did not want to miss our last segment of the train ride, we boarded our first train from Lucerne to Interlaken Ost early in the morning. After less than two hours of a train ride, we arrived at Interlaken Ost, and then we hopped on another train to Spiez, a very short ride of fewer than 30 minutes. Once in Spiez, we did not go for the next train immediately. Instead, we did a brief tour of the area nearby. Spiez is a small charming town on the shores of Lake Thun. The view over the lake from outside the train station was fantastic. It had the perfect angle for the postcard-like view of a beautiful village and lake.

Our third train of the day from Spiez to Zweisimmen was not very long either, about 45 minutes. We arrived in Zweisimmen earlier before our boarding time for our fourth train, the GoldenPass Panoramic train. The train station was surprisingly small, with no luggage storage facility. Luckily, there was a café near the train station, so we dragged our suitcases to the café and had lunch there. We also took a turn walking around the small village while one of us watched the luggage. The town was tranquil. A few minutes from the train station, a lovely creek ran through the village. We strolled through the town, allowing us to see what a typical Swiss village looks like.

Our GoldenPass Panoramic train finally arrived at the station. We boarded the train and headed to Montreux. The Panoramic cars were comfortable with large windows better suited for sightseeing, and the ride was a little over two hours long. The entire GoldenPass route was very scenic. Endless mountain passes, green valleys, Alpine peaks, and lakes were along the way.

Almost seven hours after leaving Lucerne, we finally arrived in Montreux. Our hotel was just a few minutes walking distances from the train station. The hotel was next to the lake; our room had an incredible view over Lake Geneva. After we settled at the hotel, we headed out to see the place.

Weekend tourists and street vendors crowded the walkway along the lake. Along the lakefront promenade were many beautiful flowers and sculptures. The blue Lake Geneva and the picturesque mountains made our walk so enjoyable. We walked to Chillon Castle, the most famous landmark in Montreux, which was about 2 miles away from our hotel. When we arrived at Chillon Castle, it was closed for the day. We walked around the castle and took so many beautiful pictures of the castle at sunset. 

 第八天：来Lucerne已住了七天，今天一早离开去下一站。坐金色山口快车去Montreux. 夕阳下的Chillon 古城堡非常漂亮。

Mt. Pilatus 皮拉图斯山

May 27, 2022

Today was sunshine and blue sky, perfect summer weather in Switzerland. We were going to do the popular Golden round tour that takes us to see Mt. Pilatus by boat, cogwheel railway, aerial cableway, and Panorama Gondolas. But since it’s a very popular place, we wanted to get there early and beat the crowd. We modified the itinerary to take a morning train to Aplnachstad first, and it was a short 15 mins train ride. At Aplnachstad, we boarded the Mt. Pilatus Cogwheel Railway, the world’s steepest railway (48% slope) up to the summit. It was a fun ride with beautiful views on the way up. At the top were a large observation deck and a couple of cafes/restaurants. From the observation deck, we walked to the Oberhauptand viewpoint with a stunning panoramic view of the snow-covered rolling Alps.

Directly above the Pilatus observation deck was the Esel viewpoint that could be reached via the zig-zag wooden stairs. The Esel summit was higher than Oberhaptand, and both outlooks offered a similar breathtaking view of the central Alps region. After immersing in the beautiful Alps, we glided down to Kriens on the Dragon ride and the Panorama gondolas. Initially, we planned to board a ferry back to Lucerne, but we had something else in mind.

Today is our last day in Lucerne, and there is a highly rated Chinese restaurant, Yun Nan Tea House in Lucerne, that we had tried to eat there several times since arriving in Lucerne, but either it had been closed for the holiday and Sunday, or not open for dinner. The restaurant was open today but would close at 4 pm. We wanted to try it so bad, so we decided to go back to the town to have lunch and come back to finish our Golden round trip. Yun Nan Tea House, well known for its Yun Nan Mi Xian (云南米线), was located in the town center and was small but nicely decorated. It was popular, so we had to wait fifteen mins to have the seats. We ordered the beef Mi Xian (米线), steamed chicken, and some side dishes. Although Mi Xian was not the same as we had before, all dishes were delicious. It was worth the extra effort. After lunch, we embarked on a ferry back to Aplnachstad to complete our version of the Golden round trip.

Later in the afternoon, after back to the center, we toured the Mussegg Wall, built at the end of the 14 century, that defended the old town. The four towers were open to the public, and the oldest clock in the city was on display. A segment of the Mussegg Wall is available for the public to walk through, with the river view on one side.

We also swept several other tourist attractions in the city. Since we had late lunch, we decided to have a simple dinner in the flat. Prepared by our friends, the main dish was just the egg drop soup of tomato and mushroom, which was delicious. After dinner, we went to the Lion Monument again and took some excellent photos in the daylight. We heard the music nearby and went to check it out, and it was the city concert on the river bank. As the sun was setting, the church towers were glowing golden by reflecting the golden sunlight, and it was a fantastic sunset.

第七天：今天阳光明媚，我们去了Mt．Pilatus, 先坐火车到山脚下，然后乘坐世界最陡的火车（48度斜坡）上山，再坐缆车下山。原本计划坐船回城，后改成先坐火车回城去云南米线吃中午饭，要了个汽锅鸡和牛肉米线，味道不错。饭后又坐船去了山脚下，也算是完成了原订的Pilatus环游。下午把Lucerne 的城墙玩了一圈，傍晚在Lucerne湖边欣赏着日落西山的美景。

Bern, Switzerland 波恩

May 26, 2022

Back to our flat in Lucerne last night, we all had rested well and were ready for another day trip. We took the train to Bern, the capital city of Switzerland. This charming city is the home to the medieval clocktower Zytglogge, the Parliament Building, and the Bern Cathedral. The train ride was about one and a half hours. The old town is just a few steps away from the train station. When we arrived in the old town, we noticed the crowd in front of the clocktower; everybody was looking at the clocktower and waiting for the bell to ring on the hour. So, we stopped and joined the crowd. It would be the first of many clocktower watching during our Europe trip.

Not too far away from the clock tower is the Einstein House. It is a museum and a former residence of Albert Einstein. A ticket to the museum was not free with the Swiss Travel Pass, but we did get 50% off. Einstein, his wife, and their son lived there from 1903 to 1905. It is the place where Einstein developed his famous Theory of Relativity. The museum is small but informative, and you learn much about Einstein’s personal life and scientific career. As a big fan of Einstein, visiting his place was on our must-do list.

Bern Cathedral, the tallest cathedral in Switzerland, is one of the most important landmarks of the capital city. The tower is open to the public for a small fee, and the Swiss Travel Pass is not valid for this church. We took the challenge and climbed up to the top viewing deck, and it’s worth the 311-steps climb. We were rewarded with a beautiful panorama view of the city.

We decided to take a little lunch break away from the old town sightseeing. We went to a nearby mountain called Gurten. You can take the tram or hike along the track to get to the mountain top. We didn’t think we could do another walk right after climbing up the cathedral, so we took the tram. On the top, the park is enormous. There was an amusement park, a playground for the kids, and many options for eating and drinking. We had our lunch at Restaurant Gurtners. We sit outside under the shade. The weather was perfect, the view was great, and the food was excellent. It was the ideal place to relax and enjoy food and scenery.

After a good meal and rest, we returned to the old town to see the Parliament Building. It’s a beautiful building with a stunning view of the city from the walkway in the backside. The building and surrounding area were spotless and well maintained. Although the building was closed for the day, we didn’t get a chance to go inside, and it was worth the time to walk around the building simply.

Bern is sometimes known as the city of fountains. Fountains are everywhere, in front of the churches, in city squares, in the middle of busy streets with trams running by their side. These fountains are beautifully made with vivid colors. We just couldn’t stop drinking the water from the fountains and taking photos.

Our day trip ended with the train ride back to Lucerne. We found a Korean restaurant nearby and had Korean BBQ for dinner.

第六天：今天去了在伯恩的爱因斯坦故居，漫步古城街头。爬伯恩天主教堂塔311步，高观远望将古老美丽的伯恩尽收眼底。然后乘缆车上了城边的小山顶Gurten, 山顶餐厅美餐一顿。最后去瑞士议会大厦看了一眼。

Jungfraujoch 少女峰

May 25, 2022

We were up early in the morning and sneaked out to see Staubbachfall. Outside was cloudy, but no rain. The town in the morning was tranquil and beautiful. The waterfall was a short distance from the hotel we stayed at. The almost 1000-feet tall fall was striking and powerful. Near the bottom of the fall, there was a tunnel. Without any lighting, the tunnel was dark in the early morning. We were not sure whether we were permitted to go through or not, but we were curious to find it out. Using the light from our phones, we slowly entered the tunnel. Out from the other end of the tunnel, an engraved path on the mountain slope led us up to the steel walkway, and soon we were standing behind the waterfall. Watching the stream pouring down and hearing the waterfall's sound is magical. We didn't stay there too long as we were getting a little wet from the waterfall, and we were not sure if we were allowed to go up there or not. Later we did find out that the tunnel was open for the summer. It was an excellent morning side trip. When we were back at the hotel, the breakfast was ready. We had our morning coffee, pastries, various kinds of cheese, fruit, and painted eggs with a stunning backdrop of Staubbachfall.

Rain was forecasted for the whole week. We worried that we might not be able to see Jungfraujoch at all on this trip. Although it was cloudy in the morning in Lauterbrunnen, the attentive host at the front desk told us that the sky at Jungfraujoch was opening up and showed us the webcam at its peak on his computer. He told us we would have an excellent chance to see it if we went there soon. We had our fingers crossed and were on our way to catch the train to Jungfraujoch. We took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Scheidegg with a stopover at Wengen. It was a scenic route up to the mountain village of Wengen and then onto Kleine Scheidegg.  From Kleine Scheidegg we switched to the Jungfraujoch Railway. The Jungfraujoch Railway, completed in 1912, is the highest in Switzerland and Europe, running essentially through the 5.6-mile Jungfraujoch Tunnel. The Jungfraujoch railway ride was not covered under the Swiss Travel Pass but with 50% off. The train stopped in the middle of the tunnel for a short time for passengers to get out to look surrounding mountains through the windows. Because of the cloudy weather, there was nothing to see. The whole train ride in the tunnel was uneventful.

We got off the train at Jungfraujoch train station and walked through a tunnel for a lift to take us to the Sphinx observation deck. In the Sphinx Terrace, we had a 360-degree view of magnificent glaciers and snow-covered mountains under the shining blue sky. However, the summit of Jungfraujoch is still hiding behind the clouds.We walked through the ice gateway towards the Ice Palace, where many ice sculptures were displayed. Eagles, penguins, and bears all looked beautiful. A statue of Lang Lang playing the piano there seemed to be a marketing tool to attract Chinese tourists. It was a great experience and the best tour of ice sculptures we had had.

Out of the Ice Palace, we walked to the Plateau where a flag pole was, a view platform on the mountain. Many people were there, and we had to wait in line to take pictures with the Swiss flag. We were able to see the Jungfraujoch, just not the full peak. We patiently waited for the shy Jungfraujoch peak to get out of hiding, but the cloud seemed to become denser. With a bit of disappointment not to see the full face of Jungfrau peak, we were glad to make this trip and enjoy the natural beauty of Jungfraujoch.

After a quick lunch at the restaurant on the top and touring the chocolate shop, we headed back to Lauterbrunnen in a hurry to see the largest underground waterfall in Europe, Trummelbackfall, before it was closed for the day. From Lauterbrunnen, we took a bus to Trummelback with only 15 mins to spare. Once inside the park, a funicular elevator took us up from the bottom to the middle. Then we walked to the up falls and down to the lower falls via various stairs, walkways, galleries, and overlooks. The sound of the rushing water vibrated through the incredible rock formation in the mountain, and you felt the waterfall's power. We were the last tourists today; the park staff was just several feet behind us to turn off the light. We were glad that we made this tour too.

On the way back to Lucerne, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant next to the Interlaken train station when we stopped for a transfer. The restaurant was big, but sadly there were no customers. Our food was ok; we were happy to have some hot food. It was a long day for us. Once we arrived in Lucerne, we just relaxed at our flat and were ready for another busy day tomorrow.

第五天：原本天气预报整周下雨，可是今天一早查看山峰上实时摄像头，顶上天气渐渐放晴，就直奔少女峰！在欧洲屋脊少女峰上享受壮阔美景之后，赶着门关之前，观览了欧洲最大的地下瀑布Trummelback Falls 。

Lake Brienz and Lauterbrunnen

May 24, 2022

The original plan for Interlaken and Jungfraujoch was to make a day trip from Lucerne or cut the stay at Lucerne short to spend a couple of days at Interlaken instead. We didn't go with either of the options. Long story short, we kept our apartment in Lucerne for the entire week but also booked hotel rooms for one night in Lauterbrunnen.

We left Lucerne in the early morning for Interlaken via a 1 hour 50 mins train ride. The weather didn't cooperate. When we arrived in Interlaken, it was very cloudy with occasional drizzle. Going to Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe would be pointless under this weather condition. Instead, we spent some time in the Lake Brienz area. Our friend suggested going to Iseltwald, a film set for a famous Korean Drama of "Crashing Landing on You (爱的迫降)." We took the bus there. The Iseltwald landing stage is a wooden boat dock on Lake Brienz, offering spectacular views of the lake and surrounding mountains. We took a few photos on the landing stage.

As we strolled in the area, we saw the ferry coming and decided to take the ferry ride to another small village across Lake Brienz. Again, the ferry was covered by the Swiss Travel Pass. Cruising on the lake, the view of lake shores was breathtaking. We got to enjoy the view of the Grandhotel Giessbach and Giessbach Waterfall together. We got off the ferry at Brienz, hopped on the train, and headed to Lauterbrunnen.

We checked in at our hotel near Staubbach waterfall. Our room has the perfect view of the waterfall. After a quick lunch, we did the 5 mins gondola ride to Grutschalp, then switched to a narrow gauge train to Mürren, a traditional Alpine village up the mountain. Based on the wiki, Mürren has a year-round population of 450 but has 2,000 hotel beds. It is a car-free town. As the cloud moved over the mountain, we passed through the village and hiked along the paved trail down to Gimmerlwald. Along the route, there were occasionally gift shops or small huts selling cheese, drinks, and snacks. They are self-service stores based on an honor system. We actually bought the cheese from one of the stores. It’s really just a refrigerator outside the house, you simply grabbed the packaged cheese from the refrigerator and paid on the machine with ApplePay.

We walked down the misty mountain accompanied by the sound of bells hanging on sheep and cows scattered on the hillside. It was a beautiful hike. Arrived at Gimmelwald, we took the cable car down to Stechelberg. We went to Murrenbachfall and took a few pictures. Then we rode the bus back to Lauterbrunnen. We had some traditional swiss dishes and local beers—another awesome day.

第四天：原本准备去少女峰，可天公不作美就先改去Brienz湖，乘坐公交，渡轮和火车把这小湖轻松地玩了一下。然后就来到Bernes山脉下小镇Lauterbrunnen，坐缆车上Murren，从那里沿着雾气弥漫，牛羊成群的山坡一路下山，到了Gimmelwald后又坐缆车，换公交回到小镇，吃上第一顿瑞士cheese晚餐和喝了当地的啤酒。

St. Gallen, Switzerland

May 23, 2022

We woke up at 6 o'clock early in the morning and went for breakfast. On travel, we always like to find places to taste their local coffee and pastries. In Switzerland, finding a coffee shop opening early morning is not easy. Fortunately, we found this coffee/bakery place nearby that opens at 6:30 am. Although the coffee in Switzerland is expensive, the pastries are reasonably priced. The coffee and pastries were excellent.

After breakfast, we took the train to St. Gallen, 70 miles northeast of Lucerne. We arrived at St. Gallen's station after a two-hour train ride. The old town, Altstadt in German, is a short walking distance away from the station. The city centers in Switzerland are never too far away from the main train stations, as we know now. St. Gallen is a historic town claimed as the center of ancient Europe. The old town survives two world wars without major damage, thanks to Switzerland's neutrality. In the Altstadt, surrounding the town square, are brightly painted timber-framed homes from the 16th century. They are stunning.

As we walked through the commercial district near the square, a sign of "Spargel Festival" in front of a restaurant got our attention. Our German friend told us it's Asparagus season in Europe right now. We didn't know Asparagus was a seasonal food since we can find it in the US supermarket pretty much all year round. We decided to try out fresh and seasonal Asparagus dishes at this restaurant. We sat down and asked the server about Asparagus Festival, and she told us that the festival was over the day before and there was no more Asparagus. Little disappointed, but we still had lunch there. We ordered Pizza, Salads, and grilled vegetables. The food tasted as good as it could be.

The main attraction in St. Gallen is the Abbey of St. Gall, its library, and the Baroque-style St. Gallen Cathedral. They are a UNESCO site, and the library is one of the oldest and richest libraries in the world. We went to the church first, and the baroque architecture and monumental ceiling paintings are breathtaking. We took so many pictures.

Then we walked across the lawn to the exhibition hall of the Abbey district, the oldest monastery archive in the world. As the tour guide told us, in the archive, you could find the property deeds dated back to 1500 years ago, who owns what. More than 1000 years ago, monks in the Abbey started to record and categorize information in books. They also figured out a system to store those books in boxes to move them out of harm's way in case of disasters. The Abbey was destroyed in a fire, but the library was intact. At the end of the tour, the guide took us to a separate room to show us the famous St Gall Abbey Plan, an architectural drawing of the Middle Ages. With the cover lifted, the plan drawing came out of the darkness for only a few seconds to limit the light exposure to the document. The building drawings and the buildings survived amazingly after 1000 years. Taking the picture was not allowed in both the hall and the library.

While we were learning about the library's history, our friend was trying to recover her Swiss Travel Pass. On the train to St. Gallen, she could not find the copy of the pass on her iPhone, and she might accidentally deleted it from the phone. The train conductor was friendly to let her go without buying another ticket, but the museum staff insisted on requiring the pass to give her the ticket. For Swiss Travel Pass holders, visiting the museum is free. Fortunately, her husband in Germany found a copy of her pass on the home computer when we were about to finish the tour. A happy ending, at least.

With the provided slippers, we toured the library, which was as impressive as they claimed. After touring the Abbey, we had famous Swiss hot chocolate at the blue building opposite the cathedral. Its look was better than its taste, just too sweet for us. Since we still had one hour to kill before catching the train back to Lucerne, we walked up the hill to explore the city. A waterfall in the residential neighborhood was good to see. We caught a 5:30 pm train back to Lucerne. Another amazing day!

早上六点就去了住所附近的面包房喝上一杯瑞士咖啡，当然还有面包。今天坐二小时火车去St Gallen,那是一座有悠久历史的古城，豪称古欧洲的中心，因为中立国的特殊性，小城还保留着战前原样，很漂亮。参观了世界文化遗产保护遗址，Abbey Library of St Galllen，珍藏有一千五百年来档案资料，很早就开始分门别类装箱。

Mount. Rigi, Switzerland -山的女王

May 22, 2022

We were going to explore The Queen of the Mountains – Mt. Rigi today. The route started with a ferry ride from Lucerne to Vitznau on Lake Lucerne. The ferry terminal is near the train station, which is not too far away from the apartment. We got there just in time when the ferry was about to leave. With a Swiss Travel Pass, the ferry ride is free of charge. The paddle steamer was powered by a 1901 Sulzer two-cylinder engine, located in the midship and open for public view. It is the oldest paddle steamer in Switzerland. Four of us sat on the port side of the boat and enjoyed the scenic view of Lake Lucerne under the perfect weather as the vessel was slowly paddling away from the city. It was more like a scenery cruise than a ferry ride.

After one-hour ferry ride to Vitznau, we walked a short distance to Rigi Cogwheel Railway Station. Opened in 1871, the Vitznau – Rigi Kulm cogwheel railway is Europe's first mountain railway. The view of Lake Lucerne and the Alpes was breathtaking along the rail. And it was free with a Swiss Travel Pass too. After 45 mins train ride, we had made it to the top. We wandered at the summit and enjoyed the gorgeous view and pleasant weather. At the summit, a rock was engraved with the name of a famous mountain in China - 峨眉山. We wondered if the stone came from China or just a tourism marketing scheme to attract tourists from mainland China. After a short coffee break at the restaurant, we started heading down to Rigi First.

Hiking to Rigi First was one of the best hiking we have had. Yellow wildflowers are everywhere over the Alpes slope. We wandered down the trail accompanied by the sound of cow bells with spectacular views in every direction. It was the best classic Swiss experience in the Alpes. We couldn't ask for more. As we were closer to Rigi First, we stopped by a little old hut serving drinks and snacks. We even went inside the kitchen and got some homemade Swiss Cheese.

In Rigi First, we adventured on a rock path carved into the mountainside overlooking the mountains. The rock path is less than 1km long, and several benches are along the trail. Little tired, we sat down on the benches and tasted local Swiss cheese. It was delicious. Our original plan was to catch the cable ride down at Scheidegg. However, we couldn't confirm whether the cable car was open or not in the early summer season, so we decided to continue the hike to the Rigi-Klosterli Station to catch the blue Goldau-Rigi Kulm Cogwheel train to Arth-Goldau. Over there, we hopped on the train back to Lucerne. In total, we hiked more than 10 miles today. Everyone was tired but had a great time. It was an excellent start for our Europe trip. With perfect weather, beautiful places, and good friends, it was a memorable nine-hour day trip.

After dinner, we returned to the old town area and enjoyed the excellent lake view. The famous Lion Monument was not too far away, so we walked there. The sculpture of the wounded lion was beautiful.

第二天乘坐渡轮来到Rigi山脚下，换乘齿轮火车直上Rigi山顶。在悦耳悠长的铃铛声陪伴下，一路徒步下山十几英里。真是田园风光无限好。新冠疾病对瑞士人来说已是过去的事，好像整个瑞士就我们几个还在戴着口罩，大家都在＂偷着乐＂。

Chicago– Zurich and Lucerne 芝加哥-苏黎世和卢塞恩

May 20 -21, 2022

We were packing light on this trip inspired by a few videos from Rick Steves and others. We each had only one carry-on luggage and one backpack for our two-month Europe trip. The time would tell whether it was a wise decision or not. Usually, we ask our friends to drop us at the airport when we go out for an extended vacation. Since the flight was in the early morning, we decided to schedule an Uber ride at 5 am in advance. It was the first time for us to reserve an Uber ride. We were not sure how reliable the Uber reservation was. It turned out to be great. The Uber driver showed up 5 mins before the scheduled time. Going through the security at the airport was fast without any problem. We were on the way to Chicago for a connection flight to Zurich.

Seven months ago, when planning this trip, we found a good deal from United Airlines on the business class fare to Zurich. Once we landed at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, we went directly to Polaris Lounge which is part of the benefit of flying international business class. The United’s Polaris Lounge typically has two dining options, a self-serve buffet, and a sit-in café. Since we had a 3.5 hours layover, we opted for lunch at the café. We had an iceberg wedge salad, rainbow trout, burger, and fried ice cream, which were delicious. After being refreshed, we boarded our flight to Zurich. What a difference these last few months made. Not many people wear masks either at the airport or on the airplane. However, with precaution, we still wore the N95 facemask for the duration of the flight. We lay flat on our seats and had some good sleep during a long nine-hour flight.

We arrived at Zurich Airport at 7:50 am and met our old friend Vivia from Philadelphia, who and her friend from Germany (comes later in the afternoon) joined us on the Switzerland portion of our Europe trip. We hopped on a train to Zurich downtown to officially start our Europe trip. A short 10 mins train ride from the airport to the Zurich central station was easy. We stored our luggage in a locker at the train station. However, it wasn’t cheap, costing about 15 Swiss Frances. No longer having the bags in hand, we headed out to the old town area around Lake Zurich/Limmat River. There are many historic sites in the area. First, we walked up to a hill, Lindenhof, over the bank of the Limmat. We had a breathtaking view of Zurich’s old town at the elevated spot. Then we walked back down to find a lunch spot recommended by many people online. We had curry sausages, bratwurst, and a schnitzel sandwich at Sternen Grill. To be honest, our first meal was just okay. Along the way to the café, we stopped by a few tourist attractions.

After lunch, we went to the Lake Zurich area for a few photo shots and strolled around the old town and by the river. We visited most tourist attractions near the river, Grossmunster, Fraumunster Church, Church of St. Peter, etc. Amazingly, we had covered most sightseeing places in the city during the short six hours. It was time for us to go to Lucerne, where we would stay for the next seven days and meet our new friend from Germany.

The train ride from Zurich to Lucerne is about one hour, with beautiful scenery along the way. With a Swiss Travel Pass, traveling in the country is easy and convenient. Typically, we check the timetable and the platform the train stops at on the phone and then just get on the train and find the seats. Sometimes, a train conductor may walk through the carrier to check the ticket or the pass. But for a short ride, no one comes to check. It is an honor system. The apartment we rented from booking.com was a short walking distance from the Lucerne central train station. Our unit is on the sixth floor, with a tiny elevator going all the way to the room. The flat seems to be newly remodeled and has a fully equipped kitchen, a dining/living area, and two good size bedrooms. The washer/dryer in the bathroom is such a plus and so convenient for our week-long stay. While we were waiting for the arrival of our new friend, Haili from Germany, suddenly, the church bell, not too far away from our place, started to ring for a long 15 mins. Is this an everyday thing, we wondered.

We had our first dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant as there were not many choices near the flat at the time. The summertime sunset in Switzerland is very late, after 9 pm. The Chapel Bridge over the Lake Lucerne/Reuss River is the most famous landmark in Lucerne. This wood bridge, built in 1365, crosses the Reuss River at an angle. It is the world’s oldest surviving truss bridge and the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe. We walked over the bridge towards the Mussegg Wall. But the towers on the wall were closed for the day, so we walked along the wall and turned around to get back to the riverside.

As the sun set, we wandered through the outdoor seating area of many cafés and restaurants where people were drinking and laughing. Everyone seemed to have a good time and leave COVID behind, and life started returning to normalcy. It was our first day in Switzerland, and we felt we had seen so many places and were impressed by the beauty and easy access of the cities. An excellent first impression!

每人一随身携带行李箱和背包，开始了我们两个月的欧洲之行，第一天就把苏黎士和卢塞恩两城市一些亮点走了一遍，但留下印象最深的是城市里喷水池流出的水都能喝。

Underwood Concert – 音乐会

Dec 11-15, 2021

Right after being fully vaccinated eight months ago, we booked a few nights at The Resorts World, the newest and most expensive built casino/resort property, in Las Vegas to attend Carrie Underwood's Reflection Concert. The Resorts World is also owned by the same parent company of Crystal Cruise Line, Genting Group. One unique feature of the resort is the Famous Foods Street Eats, a food hall with cuisines most from South Asia. On Saturday, we drove five hours directly to the resort from home and checked in Conrad, one of the three hotels within the Resorts World. After settling down, we immediately went down to Famous Foods Street Eats to try various Asian dishes. We were so excited about the claypot rice before our trip based on the information on their website. To be honest, the beef claypot rice from Geylang Claypot Rice (芽笼砂煲饭) was not very impressive, not served in a hot claypot as expected, and got cold quickly. Mama San Combo from Kuru Kuru PA was delicious, including a Chicken Wing, Kurobuta Pork Jowl, Chicken Hearts, and Rice Ball with Seaweed Seasoning. Since we were so disappointed with the claypot rice, we ordered another dish from another vendor, Googgle Man's Char Kuey Teow, the Rice Noodle with Chinese Sausage, Shrimp, Manila Clam, Crispy Pork, and Egg. The noodle dish was terrific and met our standards. Later in the night, we tried another vendor Fuhu Shack, ordered the Roast Peking Duck & Steam Rice Bowl after the concert. The roast duck was perfect.

As Delta variant was surging in the country, we started to question whether we should attend the indoor concert. We even put the tickets for sale until one hour before the show began. The tickets weren't sold, so we went to the concert anyway. The concert was almost sold out. Although the law requires wearing face masks indoor in Nevada, only about 60% of them wore the masks, and a lady, sitting next to us, was singing along all-time without a face mask. With precaution, we wore double masks during the performance. The Underwood concert was at the brand-new, state-of-art theater inside the Resorts World, the largest and highest stage in Vegas, and the performance was high-energy and impressive. We enjoyed the experience and hope we will attend more live music events in the future.

Sunday morning, we had traditional Chinese breakfast, 豆浆油条（soybean milk and Chinese churro), in Chinatown. Then we stopped at O'Reilly, the auto part shop, to figure out our vehicle's Check Engine Light code. Yesterday, on the way to Vegas, the Check Engine light suddenly turned on before arriving at the resort. The car seemed running fine. For precaution, we want to know the issue with the vehicle. A technician at O'Reilly told us that it was the issue of CAMSHAFT sensor. We had the same problem before and had replaced the sensors. We could do nothing at this point since the local Benz dealer was closed on Sunday. So we just kept our fingers crossed and hoped nothing serious would happen. Continuing our plan, we visited Seven Magic Mountains in the Nevada desert, an art installation by a Switzerland artist. On the way back to the town, the Check Engine light went off. What a relief! Las Vegas Chinatown has so many Asian restaurants. We went back there and tried Shanghai Taste for lunch. We had 生煎包 (Pan Fried Dumpling) and a few other dishes. They all tasted as good as those in Shanghai. We liked them so much that we went back there the next day.

We tried several other food venues within the resort in the next couple of days. We also had more food at the Famous Foods Street Eats, and we found our favorites. The best one was the rice noodle with Chinese sausage, shrimp, and veggies at Googgle Man's Char Kuey Teow. Watching the chef cook the noodle in a big wok using the traditional fired stove right in front of us was fun. Too bad we didn't take any pictures. Roast Peking Duck & Steamed Rice Bowl at Fuhu Shack was also delicious. We kept going back to these two places. We found the touchscreens all over the food hall were easy to use to order the foods, contactless.

Cross from the resort, there are many small restaurants. One taco place around the corner called Tacos El Gordo was standing out. It seems always packed with customers, a lot busier than any other taco places. So we decided to give it try. It’s a fast food place. You wait in line, place your order, pick up your food and then pay at the cashier’s window. We didn’t understand most of the items on the menu. Since almost 99% customers were speaking Spanish, we couldn’t get much help from the other customers, so we just went for the most popular tacos. The wait was worth it and the tacos were delicious.

We had a great time in Las Vegas.

New Telephoto Lens-长镜头

Dec. 5, 2021

We always felt our 70-300 mm lens was not powerful enough to get a clear picture of wildlife in the far distance on the previous trips. We had eyed a new Sony 200-600 mm Telephoto Zoom Lens for a while, and we bought it when it was on sale this holiday season. To check it out, we went to a birdwatching place in Phoenix, Tres Rios Wetland. The 700 Acre wetland is connected to the Phoenix water treatment plant. Tres Rios consists of a flood protection levee, pump station, overflow wetlands, mesquite forest, and open water marsh areas. There are an abundant amount of birds in the area. Seeing a Great Blue Heron was chasing a white Snowy Egret on the river was a treat. A significant number of Neotropic Cormorants were flying over the sky constantly. The lens worked great, but we just need more practice shooting fast-moving objects in a far distance.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – 墨西哥普托巴亚尔塔

Nov 24, 2021

The last port of call was Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The Majestic Princess was docked at Terminal 3 in the early morning. Once we walked out of the terminal, the taxi drivers and tour operators wanted our business. Instead, we were brave enough to get on a public bus nearby under the current COVID situation, costing $1 to go to Malecon Boardwalk. Along the boardwalk, there was a range of gift shops, restaurants, art galleries, and art sculptures. The first attraction that caught our eyes was the Flying bird-men of Papantla, an impressive and color-filled ritual performance. The ritual started with one person playing music on the top of the pole; four men climbed up the pole. After a few dangerous dancing movements, four men headfirst down to the earth started rotating and flying like birds. The performance was colorful, dangerous, and spectacular.

The sculptures along the boardwalk are beautiful, some eccentric. As we walked along the beach, we saw brown pelicans flying at the height of tens feet above the ocean, then beak first diving into the water to catch fish. We watched them for more than 30 mins. It was amazing. 

We continued to stroll along the boardwalk into the Romantic zone. The beach was beautiful and crowded. There were a lot of restaurants along the beach. We found a place, Langostinos, serving Huachinango Entero Frito. We were pleased, as shown in the picture. The fish was fresh but could be more tasty and salty. After lunch, we walked to the nearby Lazaro Cardenas Park. The whole park is decorated in brilliant mosaics by local artists. You can also pay to get your love note on mosaic-decorated benches. The entire area was filled with colorful, energetic, and exciting atmospheres. 

After exploring the old neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta for a little while in the afternoon, It was time to go back to the ship. We called Uber cheaper than the regular taxi without even bargaining the price. A few mins after we confirmed the pickup, we saw the car towards us, but it didn't stop. We didn't know what was going on and quickly texted the driver, and he promptly replied that he needed to drop off someone first. Thanks to the technology that solves the problem, we were in a non-English speaking place.

Crossing from the cruise terminal, a big shopping mall and Walmart were nearby. We went to both the mall and Walmart to learn about the local life a little, and it's not much different from any shopping mall or Walmart in the US. After returning to the ship, from our room balcony, we watched the last few people rushing back to the ship before our ship sailed away. Goodbye Mexico, see you next time. 

Mazatlan, Mexico – 墨西哥马萨特兰

Nov. 23, 2021

The second port of call is Mazatlan, the Mexican state of Sinaloa, only 196 nautical miles from Cabo San Lucas. The vessel was docked at Mazatlan in the early morning. We chatted with a couple of volunteers at a street corner; they were snowbirds from Canada and were very friendly and helpful. They provided us with some tourist information and recommended the walking route marked with the blue line. 

The downtown Mazatlan is centered at a plaza surrounded by many art galleries, restaurants, and colorful impressive sculptures. The streets, along with colorful buildings, were clean and quiet. Police or security guards were standing at some of the street corners. We strolled to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral with tall twin towers. We went inside, and it was beautiful as always. From the Cathedral, we headed to José María Pino Suarez Municipal Market, which started more than 100 years ago. The market had a range of vegetables, fruits, meat, and seafood vendors booths. The seafood selections in the market were limited, smaller than expected. We didn’t buy anything. We needed to get back to Teatro Angela Peralta, the theater, for a public tour at 11:00 am. The guided tour costs $2.00. We had some language barrier with a worker at the ticket office. Fortunately, the wife of another couple who came from Mexico provided the translation. The theater was built in 1883 and was destroyed by a hurricane in 1975. Standing in ruin for years, the theater began a restoration in 1987 and re-opened in 1992. The theater was beautiful and elegant. We learned a little about the interesting story of Angela‘s wedding and death.

After seeing the theater, we were hungry and started to look for a lunch place. Two days ago, during the destination lecture on the ship, Vickie, the presenter, recommended a traditional Mexican dish, Percado Frito, a whole fried fish. It was on our must-to-do list in Mazatlan. We asked a volunteer at the plaza to recommend a local-style lunch place and hoped to find the fried fish. He pointed us towards Mariscos Preparados “Chon,” two blocks away from the square. It is a small restaurant with a Mexican vibe. We were the only customers there, and they didn’t have whole fish and only had fried battered red snapper steak. It was delicious.

After lunch, we strolled towards the beach and planned to walk back to the ship. Along the coast, there were a few scenic viewpoints. A vendor was frying the whole fish on the beach, which we had been looking for earlier. But it was too late, and we were too full from our lunch. So we just kept walking. The weather was nice, sunshine and a little hot. After walking for one hour under the sun along the beach, we were tired and hopped on a Pulmonia Taxi, gas-powered open-air taxi that looked like a golf cart, and went back to the ship.

We were exhausted. But there was still one more place to visit in Mazatlan, El Faro Lighthouse, one of the highest lighthouses in the world. Chenggang decided to go out again while Connie stayed on the ship. He walked 2 miles to the bottom of the hill and hiked 745m up in gravel and 336 pave stairs path to reach the summit. The lighthouse is old and not very impressive, compared to the lighthouses we visited in Oct on the east coast, but the view of the city of Mazatlan and the Pacific ocean from the top of the hill was breathtaking. The lighthouse seemed to be a popular place for locals. As the sun was setting, it was time to return to the ship. We like Mazatlan a lot, and it is beautiful and has its characters.

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - 墨西哥卡伯圣路卡斯

Nov. 22, 2021

Cabo San Lucas was the first port of call in Mexico, but this was not our first time to see its beauty. Nineteen months ago, after we left Los Angeles starting our 90 days world cruise, we had a medical emergency on the vessel, and the captain decided to reroute the ship to Cabo San Lucas to drop off the patient. We couldn’t get off the ship at that time. However, we glanced at Cabo San Lucas and the famous sea arch, El Arco, from the ship. 

Cabo San Lucas is a resort town at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. Our ship anchored at Cabo around 11 am, and we were tendered to the shore. They packed us into a lifeboat used as a tender boat. Of course, there was no social distance on the boat, but at least everyone wore the mask. As soon as we stepped on the marina, we were swamped by many street vendors trying to sell the tour tickets or water taxis. Since we did some research and knew the price range for the water taxi to Love Beach, we settled down with a $30 round trip for both of us to the beach. We had to pay $20 first, would pay the rest one hour later when they picked us up from the beach. On the way to the beach, we changed our mind to only stay there for a shorter time. We asked the water taxi driver to wait for us on the beach. He seemed to be very nice and nodded his head and agreed. The boat ride to the beach was terrific, while there was quite a bit of traffic on the water near the Love Beach. The beach was beautiful and calm. We did a short walk to the other side of the peninsula, called “Divorce Beach.” It’s less crowded, but the water is much rough.

After snapping a few pictures, we went back to the water taxi landing area. Our boat was nowhere to be seen. An English-speaking local helper on the beach assured us that our boat was coming. We had waited for another 40 mins, and suddenly, we saw our boat coming towards our way. We waved, and the local helper tried to call the boat on a two-way radio. But the boat went to go around the Arco and sailed away. As the boat disappeared on the horizon, we decided to find a water taxi back to the city. The local guy found another boat to take us back to the Medano beach. The beach was very crowded, and we didn’t feel comfortable staying for very long. We walked away from the beach and headed back downtown, walking along the marina shore. Even just a few blocks away from the beach, the area was very friendly and quiet. We had the fish tacos and calamari at Baja Cantina, facing the marina. They were delicious but more American style.

After lunch, we went to the resort corridor on the west side of the town to check out Waldorf Astoria Pedregal, a luxury resort where our friend would stay in two weeks. When we walked into one of the resorts, the gate guard stopped us as he could tell that we were not their resort guests since we asked for beach access. He told us to turn around and access thru the Grand Solmar. We followed his direction. This time, we were little smart and walked passing the resort guard of Grand Solmar without acting suspiciously. The resort was lovely and luxurious. The beach was just as beautiful as other places but without the crowd. We walked along the coast to Waldorf Astoria Pedregal, taking a few pictures and sending them to our friend. It was a time for us to go back to our cruise ship. As the sun was setting down behind the mountains, our ship sailed away. We enjoyed our first visit to Mexico very much.

Majestic Princess, at Sea -盛世公主号

Nov. 20 – 27, 2021

Once cruising restarted gradually, we were eager to go out and cruise again after we were fully vaccinated. We bet that the pandemic would be all over by the fall after most people would be vaccinated, as all experts predicted. We booked a seven days Bahamas cruise trip on Crystal Serenity for early November, the same ship of our 2020 world cruise trip. We were excited about going back to the vessel again. However, as the Delta variant virus quickly spread worldwide during the summer months, we didn't feel comfortable doing a cruise and getting out of the country. Everyone on the cruise ships were required to be fully vaccinated, and there were multiple COVID-19 tests required during the cruise trip, starting from getting the travel health visa and before embarking. However, there were still a few breakthrough cases on the cruises. Fearing that we might be quarantined outside the states if we were tested positive for COVID or became a close contact of someone who had been tested positive while on the ship, even we had no symptoms, we had canceled our booking at the last minute before the final payment was due. A couple of months after our Bahamas trip cancellation, we had spotted a good deal of seven days cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico by Majestic Princess for the Thanksgiving week. When both kids decided to stay in New York City during the holiday, we jumped on the deal. Los Angeles is only six hours away from home, and we can drive there instead of flying. Another main reason for taking this cruise was that the Princess has a much preferred COVID protection program that gives us peace of mind. In the worst-case scenario, if we were infected with COVID, we would not stuck anywhere outside the states and could still come back and drive home. Princess requires the negative COVID-19 test result taken two days before embarking. We went to CVS to take the Rapid-Antigen test, which our health insurance covers. Less than one hour after the test, we got our test result. It's NEGATIVE! 

On Nov. 20, we left home at 6:30 am and drove directly to the world cruise port of Los Angeles. After 6 hours of driving, we parked our car and walked about 200 feet to the check-in tent. The check-in process went very smoothly. After showing the vaccination certifications, the negative test results of COVID-19, and our passports, we were on our way to the ship. We felt very exciting, in the meantime, kind of nervous as we stepped on the gangway. "Is it safe?" "Do we risk our lives?" 

With precaution, we had set a few rules for ourselves. We decided not to go on organized shore excursions to avoid close contact with others for an extended time. Using elevators was not an option for us, and we used stairs going up and down. Sometimes, we felt exhausted after taking ten flights to the Sun Deck or eight flights to the Marketplace for a buffet. We dined most at the main dining restaurants or specialty restaurants. We didn't share the tables with others and always chose private dining options. We participated in some activities, like lectures and concerts, only when we could find the seats keeping social distance from other passengers. We wore masks all the time in public areas. Fortunately, the ship was not crowded at all, with only about 45% occupancy, and almost all were wearing masks in public. Once we were on the ship, we felt safe and comfortable as on the previous cruises.

Since we explored the ports by ourselves, we spent most of the onboard ship credits on specialty restaurants on the ship. There are three specialty restaurants on Majestic Princess, Harmony, Crown Grill, and Bistro Sir La Mer, each charging $29 per person. Harmony is a Chinese restaurant. We dined there on the first night. We started with Peking duck salad and steamed pork spare rib as appetizers, followed by hot sour and wonton soups. The main courses are Kung Pao Chicken and Stir-fried shrimp with sugar peas and mushrooms. Cantonese chow mein with assorted vegetables and braised crispy tofu with shiitake mushroom and baby bok choy were served as side dishes. In addition, we ordered wok-fried lobster with winter bamboo shoot and dried scallop chili sauce for an additional $12. The evening was wrapped up with two desserts, red bean crème brulée and green tea cheesecake. The dinner was delicious but not as good as we expect to be the creations of the one Michelin star chef.

On the fourth day of the cruise, we went to another specialty restaurant, Crown Grill, a steakhouse. Both appetizers, Mediterranean-style lobster cake and seared jumbo sea scallops with herb beurre blanc were excellent. We ordered 16 oz premium beef chop, and Chilean seabass and brioche-breaded king prawns for the main courses. The beer chop was tasteful, but it was too much meat to finish it up. The seabass and king prawns were perfect. The triple chocolate treasure, a Princess signature desert, was not disappointing.

The last night on the ship, we went to the French restaurant, Bistro Sir La Mer. Each of us ordered Bisque de homard, a lobster bisque. The soup was served in a bowl covered with pastry top hat, and it had a lot of lobster chunks in it, and it was the best lobster bisque we had ever had. The waiter was super friendly. He brought in two appetizers, Pate en croute and Salade de saison, followed by the main courses, seared duck, and roasted jumbo scallops. Every single one of them was delicious. Finally, we had Ile flottante aux agrumes, crème balls covered with netted egg shield, and Barre chocolat for dessert. They looked beautiful as well as tasted delicious. We consider Bistro Sir La Mer the best among the three specialty restaurants.

We couldn't stop comparing the food between the Princess and Crystal. Overall, the foods at Princess' three specialty restaurants are decent, but they are still a couple of notches below Crystal's. Besides the food, there is no comparison for the onboard entertainment and enrichment program. Crystal is way much better. We never got bored on any of the sea days during our world cruise on the Crystal Serenity. There were so many excellent enrichment programs and entertainment we could attend. But we did get a little bored on the sea days during this Princess seven days trip.

P.S. The blogs about the experience at three call ports will be posted later on.

Boston, MA - 波士顿

We didn’t write about Boston visit in detail in the previous two posts on New England trip. Our daughter joined us on this trip from New York City, as we mentioned earlier. We had flown to Boston at night on Oct. 2, and she took an early train to Boston the next day. Then three of us went to the Quincy Market to have a quick lunch there first. After lunch, we started our Freedom Trail walk from the Faneuil Hall, a middle point of a 2.5 mile-long path from Boston Common to Bunker Hill Monument. The trail connects many historic sites in Boston. We toured USS Constitution, built-in 1797, and the oldest commissioned ship in the world. Although it is designated as a museum ship, it can still sail with its own power. We were impressed by the complexity and size of the vessel built more than 200 years ago. Once we reached Bunker Hill, we turned around and walked back to the ferry stop next to USS Constitution to ride a ferry back to downtown. We finished the other half of the trail from the Faneuil Hall to Boston Common. It was the first time any of us had completed the Freedom Trail entirely. Felt tired, we found a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown and had a delicious Chinese dinner. We picked up our rental car the next day and headed out to Acadia National Park.

On Oct. 11, we drove back to Boston and returned the rental car. We preferred to take public transportation as we stayed in downtown Boston. At night we had a lovely dinner in Little Italy. The next morning, we visited MIT and Harvard while our daughter was working from the hotel. For some reason, both campuses were not very impressive to us this time. But we had a delicious lunch in a Chinese Restaurant nearby MIT. In the afternoon, we dropped off our daughter at the Amtrak station first, and then we did a walk around the bay. We were glad to have her on this trip. She was a good travel companion and had fun to travel with. Although we live more than a thousand miles away from each other, we always found a way to spend some quality time together throughout the year. 

The two-week New England trip was ending. The journey to the east coast was incredible; glad to meet our friends and fulfill our long-await dream to visit Acadia National Park. On Oct. 13, we visited Boston Public Garden in the Back Bay area in the morning. We flew home in the afternoon.

Vermont -佛蒙特州

Oct. 8 – Oct.11, 2021

We left Bar Harbor on the morning of Oct. 8. On the way to Maine's capital, Augusta, we saw an enormous "prison"-like building up on the hill, wondering what it was. After driving over the Penobscot Narrows Bridge nearby, we pulled over at the bridge lookout. We found that the bridge observatory was open to the public as well as "the prison," the famous historic Fort Knox, of which we were not aware. The bridge observatory offers 360-degree spectacular views of the Penobscot River and the Bay below. It is the tallest public bridge observatory in the world. Fort Knox is nearby, overlooking the Penobscot River. The massive fort was constructed between 1844-69, more than 150 years ago. The fort was commissioned but never saw the war. We all were amazed by this well-preserved pentagon shape building.

Left Fort Knox, we headed to Belfast for a quick lunch break. We didn't spend too much time there. Afterward, we went directly to the State House in Augusta, the capital of Maine. We missed the guided tour because of the side trip to Fort Knox, so we just walked around inside of the buildings. We try to visit the government buildings if possible while on travel. Typically, the government buildings in the states or the countries are among the best buildings in the area, being well constructed and maintained and offering some history.

Today's plan was altered once we found out that our old friends from Philadelphia would be in the same area. For some of them, we hadn't seen each other for more than 15 years. We were very excited to meet them at the footbridge in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, at sunset. We wanted to have dinner at the Boothbay Harbor to have some time to catch up. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any outdoor seating in the area as our friends preferred due to COVID-19 concerns. We decided to drive back to the inn our friends stayed in to have rice porridge, which they made in a slow cooker in the morning, along with many side dishes they brought home. With precaution against COVID-19, our friends were fully prepared with homemade food for the trip. The dinner was great and comfy. We chatted for hours before we left for our hotel.

On Oct. 9, we started our exploring in Vermont. The name of Vermont comes from two French words vert (green) and mont (mountain), the "Green Mountain State," as on the Vermont license plate. Three-quarters of the state is covered with forests. Vermont is the best place to see fall foliage in the country. Once we drove into the White Mountain in the region of New Hampshire and Vermont, the forest exploded with bursting red, orange, and yellow. In some areas, the fall color was near the peak or at the peak. It was the best fall color we had ever seen. We made a few scenic views stops on the way to Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Once in the park, we did a short hike to the Pogue and South Peak Loop. It was a lovely hike with a great view. Continuing our journey, we stopped at Woodstock, Vermont. We planned to have dinner at Woodstock. But the area was flooded with tourists, and we could not find a place to dine in, so our only option was to continue driving and go to Rutland, Vermont, directly where our hotel for the night is located. Once checked in, we had Chinese food at a local Chinese Restaurant. We all were starving, so anything would taste good to us.

On Oct. 10, we had a full schedule today. We visited Cold Hollow Cider Mill first. Besides selling cold-pressed apple cider, they also sell legendary cider donuts. The apple cider was made of McIntosh apples grown nearby. The juice was fresh and sweet, the best we had ever had. The donuts were also delicious. The whole store was full of tourists. Unfortunately, the cold cider mill didn't run on that day. A couple of miles from the mill is the Ben&Jerrys Waterbury Factory. Due to COVID-19, the factory tour was suspended, but the ice cream store was open. We ordered Ice Cream. They were good as always.

Speaking of Vermont, a photo of a little Stowe Church in fall colors is everywhere, on the internet, on social media, postcards sold in the stores, and displays in art galleries. After a Google search, we located the photo shot site near Aveda Salon. We went there in the morning to snap a few photos but were not satisfied because the weather was not so great, mostly cloudy. Our next stop was Stowe Foliage Arts Festival. The festival features over a hundred vendors with the best of local crafts, food, and art. It also had live traditional craftwork demonstrations. The exhibits were of high quality. We had lunch at the festival. The festival site is connected to a nearby park with a lovely trail. The weather got a lot better in the afternoon. So we went out hiking in the park. With much of the bright red, orange, and gold color in full display, we had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of Vermont's fall foliage.

As the sun poked out through the cloud more and more in the late afternoon, we went back to the photo spot to take more pictures of that famous small white church. Everyone wants to take photos with perfect lighting conditions, just like the postcards. We had to park far away and walk to the photo site as many people and cars were there. After hundreds of pictures of that little white church taken, we finally made it to Middlebury, Vermont, late, where we stayed for the night. The dinner was a take-out from a popular local Thai restaurant in downtown Middlebury as no tables were available for dining in. Like any other day on this trip, we had to wait one and a half hours to get our food. But the food was not bad at all.

On Oct. 11, before we headed back to Boston, we toured the Lincoln Family Home. It is a beautiful mansion on more than 400 acres overlooking Green Mountain and the Taconic Mountain, with a Europe-style garden. The estate was a summer home built by Lincoln's son, Robert. After we toured the house, we drove back to Boston. Vermont is our 46th state to visit.

The Green Mountain

Acadia NP, Maine -阿卡迪亚国家公园

Oct. 4 – Oct.7, 2021

Acadia National Park is mainly located near Bar Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine. We initially booked the trip for the fall of 2020; just like all the other planned trips in 2020, it got canceled due to Covid-19. We rebooked everything after both of us got fully vaccinated.

We flew to Boston on Oct. 2. The following day our daughter joined us coming from New York City. Together we did some sightseeing in the city. On Oct.4, we picked up the rental car in the morning and headed to Bar Harbor. We made a quick stop at Hampton Beach, a popular beach resort in New Hampshire, not too far away from Boston. It was very windy with dark clouds over; there was no one on the beach. Next, we visited Portsmouth, a New Hampshire port city founded in 1630. We tasted our first lobster roll of this trip at a small cafe at the Market Square. We went to see Strawbery Banke of 17-18th century-old houses. Our next stop was Portland, Maine. We toured the famous Portland Head Lighthouse and had our first clam chowder of the trip from a food truck, Cousins Maine Lobster, served on the lighthouse parking lot. Then we headed downtown and walked around before continuing our journey. Before arriving at Bar Harbor, we wanted to find a place to eat since it had already passed dinner time. As usual, we searched on Yelp. We decided to try out the Pho Hoa Grill in Banger, 45 miles away from Bar Harbor. The Pho Hoa is a tiny Vietnamese restaurant located in the residential neighborhood, with only two small dining-in tables mainly for take-out and delivery. Without Yelp, the tourists like us wouldn't find this place. However, the food is delicious. We arrived at our hotel quite late. Check-in was very smooth, and our room was spacious and clean.

On Oct. 5, the first full day in Bar Harbor, we planned to hike around Jordan Pond and sightseeing in other places. We left the hotel around 9:30 AM and headed to Acadia National Park. Finding a parking spot near popular hiking trails was almost impossible. We were driving around and looking for a parking space for a while until we decided to change our plan for the day. Instead, we went to a couple of less crowded scenic spots along the coast, Otter Cliff and Otter Point, before lunch. The weather was good, and we had a very lovely walk/hiking. We wanted to have lunch in downtown Bar Harbor. Once again, after driving around looking for a parking spot for more than 30 minutes without any luck, we ended up ordering to go and went back to the hotel.

The Otter Point

We had a reserved ticket to drive up to Cadillac Summit Road for the afternoon. To control the vehicle traffic to the famous summit, the Acadia National Park has adopted a driving up ticket system. The park releases the tickets for a nominal fee 90 days before the day of the visit. We hiked down, and up a half portion of the North Range Trail from the summit, then we stayed until the sunset. The Cadillac Summit is beautiful, and it has gorgeous panoramic views of surrounding bays. The fall foliage in the mountain has just started to change color but is not near the peak. The summit is worth visiting, but honestly, it doesn't have a WOW effect on us for some reason. After the first day experience, Acadia National Park is no longer on our best national park list. We had a late dinner. After waiting for a table for 45 mins, we finally had our first steamed lobster of the trip. The lobster was good but pricy. $49 gets you a small lobster only. We also had the local famous blueberry soda, steamed clam, and clam chowder (again).

View from Cadillac Summit

TheSunset at Cadillac Summit

A ticket to see the sunrise at the Cadillac Summit is also required. We only got the ticket for daily use before the trip. There is another chance to snap the tickets at 10 AM two days before the day of the visit. Luckily, we were able to get the sunrise ticket at 10 AM sharp for Oct. 6; all tickets were gone in a couple of seconds after 10 AM. The Cadillac summit is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. The view of the sunrise is breathtaking, one of the best we have experienced. After the sunrise, we went back to the town to have breakfast at a popular local place called Jeannie's Great Maine Breakfast. The food was good, very homey style, but the portion was huge, way too much for any of us. The owner told us that it's meant to be that way so that you won't be hungry for the rest of the day.

We learned from yesterday's parking trouble and decided to take advantage of the park's free shuttle service. After breakfast, we took the Island Explorer bus, a free park shuttle for a park loop ride that stops at the Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and Jordan Pond. We hopped on and off at each stop. Jordon Pond area is always crowded. Besides hiking trails, Jordan Pond House Restaurant is a historic spot for popovers and jam with a terrific view of the pond and surrounding mountains. The line to put a name down on the waiting list for the table was long. The wait to get the table was even longer. During our one and a half hour waiting for our lunch seating, we hiked a portion of Jordan Pond. The fall color around the pond was fantastic. Once seated, we tried out their famous popovers and seafood chowders. The popovers were interesting and tasted pretty good.  After recharging, we popped on the shuttle again to go to the Bubble Pond. We walked around the mirror-like pond, and it was beautiful and very peaceful. We then took the shuttle back to Bar Harbor downtown. It's low tide time of the day at the Bar Island Trail. As the ocean water is wading away, the path to Bar Island emerges above the water. Hundreds of people were walking on the path to the island. We spot many live starfishes, sea snails, and other small ocean creatures on the floor along the trail. The gravel sand bar connecting to the island is exposed only one and a half hours before and after the low tide every day. It was a fun experience. After the hike, tired of a long wait at the restaurant, we decided to have dinner at a less crowded India Restaurant.

Bubble Pond

Oct. 7 is our last day in the park. We decided to get out of the tourist crowded places in the park. We first stopped by at the most photographed bridge in Acadia National Park, the Somesville Bridge. The first time we learned about the bridge was at the Acadia Inn we stayed. Many copies of the framed pictures of this white-painted footbridge in front of a small house reflected on a motionless pond were on the wall through the inn. The beautiful picture got our attention and inspired us to see it. Left the bridge, we went to see Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. The lighthouse is a popular spot, but the parking lot is small. We had to wait for a while to get a parking space. The lighthouse is picturesque, viewing from the granite boulders below the lighthouse. After the lighthouse, we headed out of Mount Desert Island, hoping to have some good lobster meals. Our first stop was the Gateway Lunts Lobster Pound. Unfortunately, they only opened for take-out, and no lobster was served due to the staff shortage. We decided to have a bowl of Clam Chowder. It was a different style compared to the clam chowder we had the other days, but it tasted terrific. Continuing on the road, a sign of a $9 lobster in front of a store caught our eye. We decided to make a U-turn to check it out. The deli and grocery store sells live lobsters for $9 per pound. However, since the store doesn't have a steamer, that is not an option for us to buy the lobster there. Instead, we ordered a lobster roll for $16, and it was good. We were on the road again, heading to Winter Harbor. We found a store called Winter Harbor Lobster Co-op that sells live lobsters for $10 per pound and a small fee for steaming. The store has many tables and benches up the hill for customers to enjoy fresh steamed lobsters there. We were so excited and ordered one lobster first. The lobster was so fresh, and the meat had a little bit of sweet taste. It was the best lobster we have ever had, so we immediately ordered another one.

The most photographed bridge in Acadia National Park, the Somesville Bridge

With two lobsters in the stomach and feeling satisfied, we got on the road again and headed down to the Schoodic Point, across the Freshmen Bay from Bar Harbor. The Schoodic Point is part of Acadia National Park, less popular with the tourists but has the best view of large veins of dark basalt between more giant granite boulders and sea surfing pounding the shore. Once there, we realized that it should be an excellent spot to see the sunset, so we decided to stay for a couple more hours. We were not disappointed. The sunset we saw from the Cadillac Summit was good. But this one was a lot better. It was one of the best sunset views we have experienced. On the way back to the hotel, we had another lobster dinner. $18 for a steamed lobster and an ear of corn is a pretty good deal compared to the first lobster at Bar Harbor's downtown restaurant. A lesson learned: wanting to have good lobster for cheap? Avoid downtown Bar Harbor. Going outside Bar Harbor, just 20 minutes drive, can save you a lot of money on the lobster meal. Two of us had three lobsters, two clam chowder soups, and one lobster roll for the day; what a good day is to end the trip to Acadia.

The Sunset at the Schoodic Point