Boston, MA to Frankfurt, Germany by airplane eastward for 7 hours, then,
by bus eastward to Berlin, Germany. We are standing in front of the
Brandenburg Gate in the former East Berlin. While in Germany, we
ate lots of bratwurst and black forest cake.
Continuing by bus to the southwest, we arrive near the Austrian Alps
of Schwangu. This is the castle called Schloss Neuschwanstein, Ludwig
II's most famous castle. It was the model used by Disney for Cinderella's
castle.
We made headlines in the local newspaper when we visited Germany.
Karl's mother had found and contacted her lost distant relatives who are
still living in the town of Brochterbeck, Germany, where Karl's great-great-great
grandfather had lived before coming to the USA.
Returning to Munich, we depart by airplane over the beautiful snow covered
Alps and arrive in Rome, Italy. Our first stop was Saint Peter's
Cathedral at the Vatican, home of the Pope. After climbing hundreds
of stairs within the dome of Saint Peter's, we arrived at the top to have
a super view of Rome and Saint Peter's court yard. The buses in the courtyard
are visitors for the weekly mass held by the Pope. The pizzas in
Italy were the best ever!
After a quick tour of Rome, we continued by plane eastward to Beijing,
China. We traveled northward by bus from Beijing to the Great Wall
of China. The is one of the man made wonders of the world and is
visible from outer space. This is one of the most awesome sights
to see in person. We walked for 40 minutes before reaching the top
of the mountains on the wall. At dinner, we had Peking Duck and it
was delicious, too.
On our return trip home, we traveled by plane eastward over the Pacific
Ocean. This was a really long plane ride. We landed in Seattle,
Washington for a quick visit with Karl's Uncle Jon and Auntie Mei, then
took another plane to Montana to visit Yellowstone National Park, in the
state of Wyoming. This is Old Faithful Geyser, erupting with hot
spring water. It erupts approximately every 80 minutes and reaches
over 100 feet high (and smells like rotten eggs). We saw lots of
wild animals, too, like elk, bear, bison and coyotes.
We traveled south, as well, to the Grand Teton National Park.
The highest mountain in the picture is Mount Teton and part of the range
of mountains called the Continental Divide. The mountains are created
by the two parts of North America colliding and one side sliding on top
of the other. The top of the mountains are over 8,000 feet above
the oceans. The mountains also have snow on it all year round, called
glaciers.
With all the travel, we had to relax before returning to Marlborough. We spent a day in the Bahamas, near the coast of Florida. The Bahamas is a group of many small islands and lots of palm trees. That really is Karl zooming down the slide as Flat Stanley cheered him on just before entering the tank of live sharks! I think he survived and returned safely. Too bad, I forgot my swim trunks!