We were on a 30 hour train ride from Kunming to Guilin. The ride was very pleasant since we rode in the “soft sleeper” of the train, consisting of four berths in a compartment. However, because of the noise and bumps, sleep was difficult.
Our last stop was Hong Kong, which we reached after an all-night bus trip from Yangshao to Guangzhao (Canton) and a hovercraft voyage down the Pearl River from there. We spent a day and a half in the area before flying back to Los Angeles.
It is Friday and we have been in Yangshao the last few days. It is a small town (for China) about 40 miles south of Guilin in Southern China.
We took a three-week trip to five countries in Europe, using the train and bus as our primary modes of transportation. Our children were six and nine during this trip, which was their first taste of extended international travel in a hostel setting.
Munich was our first stop on our Europe trip. We stayed with a family friend and spent time in the city center as well as a church and beer garden just out of town. We then began our time in Switzerland by visiting Lucerne.
We spent four days in the heart of Switzerland taking several different hikes. These ranged from day hikes to overnighting at two different huts nestled in the Swiss Alps.
Zermatt is a classic Swiss town in a fairy tale setting with views of the Matterhorn mountain in clear weather. We were fortunate to see the mountain from the town center as well as during day hikes.
After spending time in the German speaking portion of Switzerland, we made a short stop in the Italian section of the country, in Lugano, before continuing to Milan, Italy.
Luxembourg, although a small country, provided enough sights to keep us entertained for four days. We visited several castles, military and abbey museums and took day hikes through the beautiful Little Switzerland region.
Paris was our last stop on three week European journey. We met Sandy’s parents there and the six of us spent four days seeing many famous sights This included Notre Dame, Versailles, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, the Musee d’Orsay and the Louvre.
