The Big Trip – Our Trips Around The World

Leaving in two weeks …

Well we’re starting to get excited now! Zhaoyang finished her finals and so she has more time to spend thinking about the trip. We’ll be flying to Helsinki on a Tuesday evening and arrive late in the afternoon on Wednesday. This is the farthest north I have been in a long time. In June, the sun doesn’t set until almost 11pm!! So we’ll still have plenty of daylight after we arrive. I hope there are dark curtains on the windows because sunrise is at four in the morning!

世界那么大，我也可以去看看了 – The World is So Big

终于期末考完试可以全神贯注的准备我和胖金哥的两个月欧洲游。说起来这次的旅游还是因为初来美国时的一个赌注。想想三十多岁刚来美国的时候，因为英语的水平的低下，社交能力的欠缺，思维方式的不同，以及对

Finally finished my final exams and now I can concentrate on our two month European trip. The trip is originated as a bet when I first came to America seven years ago.

Planning, Planning and more Planning!

We started planning for The Big Trip in the fall of 2017 just after Zhaoyang received her US Citizenship. Previous thoughts of traveling were always met with groans regarding how difficult or impossible it is for a Chinese citizen to get a Visa. So now, with a US passport in hand, the world was at our feet!

赫尔辛基，周三见！Helsinki -See you on Wednesday!

明天就要出发了，一切基本准备就绪，今天也进行了测试行李打包，一再精简的行李刚好合适，只是激动的心情没能装下。😅

We are leaving tomorrow and everything is basically ready. We carried out a test packing today. Everything fits fine but my excitement 😅 .

On Our Way!

Well after all the planning and packing and stressing we are now finally relaxing at the airport waiting for the flight (that is now delayed by 30 minutes :), although apparently we’ll still get in on time!

We’re flying on Finnair which is part …

赫尔辛基第一晚 – First Night in Helsinki

今天的记录会零碎些，因为时间比较仓促。但是记录下来就是好的 🙂

Today’s blog will be a bit scattered, because time is rather short. But today was good.🙂

芬兰城堡，赫尔辛基大教堂，岩石教堂 – Finnish castle, Helsinki Cathedral, The Rock Church

今天有满满的行程去看那些知名景点。一大早起床坐船去芬兰城堡，我和胖金哥意外的去了一个没有游客的港口，意外的遇到了也去那里的一群小学生去夏令营。船上还装载其他车辆去那边，包含一辆装满沙子的大货车。

Today we had a full schedule of sightseeing. We were up early in the morning to see the Finnish castle on the island of Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland), but in our rush PJG and I accidentally went to the wrong port – a car ferry port without tourists. But it turned out to be more fun because we also met a group of primary school students going to summer camp on the island.

集市，午餐和晚餐 – Market Square, Lunch and Dinner

从芬兰城堡回来，刚好停靠在集市港口，看到了具有赫尔辛基代表性的照片。

Back from Suomenlinna, we just docked at the market square and saw this iconic scene of Helsinki as we arrived into the harbor.

远观赫尔辛基大教堂和集市广场. The view of the dome of Helsinki Cathedral and the Market Square from afar.

集市上很多都是卖给游客的旅游纪念品之类的东西，我和胖金哥并不感兴趣。还有很多卖新鲜水果的摊位，樱桃看起来很诱人😍

Many of the street vendors are souvenirs for tourists (a lot of cruise ships come here) in which we are not interested. There are also lots of fresh fruit stalls, and the cherries look fresh and yummy.😍

The Elevator at our Airbnb Apartment

国内看不到这个视频，所以这篇写英文了。

This is the interesting elevator at our Airbnb apartment building which can barely hold two people at one time. When PJG and I were in there together, it was hard to squeeze past him 😅 I have never taken such an elevator and only seen something like this in movies 😄 very cool!

西贝流士纪念碑，基亚斯玛当代艺术博物馆 – Sibelius Monument and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art

西贝流士纪念碑 – Sibelius Monument

摘自Wiki：西贝流士纪念碑显而易见的是为纪念芬兰著名作曲家让 ∙ 西贝流士而建，建于1967年，芬兰艺术家埃拉·希尔图宁的设计。让 ∙ 西贝流士是民族主义音乐和浪漫主义音乐晚期重要代表，他的音乐对英国和美国作曲家影响尤大，在英美两国他曾被视为最重要的当代作曲家。他的创作重心是管弦乐作品。他善于使用管乐器营造出阴郁，幽森的气息，令人联想到芬兰的自然风景，同时也善于表达雄壮，恢弘的音乐效果。

According to wikipedia, The Sibelius Monument, was designed by Finnish artist Ella Hiltunin in 1967 to commemorate the famous composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) . He is widely recognized as his country’s greatest composer and, through his music, is often credited with having helped Finland to develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia. His focus is on orchestra works and he is good at using wind instruments to create a gloomy, dark atmosphere, reminiscent of Finland’s natural scenery, but also good at expressing majestic and magnificent music effects.

市场午饭 – Lunch at Market Hall

今天中午原本要去Hakaniemi市场，吃那里一个摊位有名的三文鱼汤。可是到了地方才发现原来的那个两层的市场正在进行重建改建，摊位搬到了旁边的一个市场里。转了两圈没有找到卖三文鱼汤的那个摊位，不过找到了一家只卖三款汤的摊位。看起来顾客都是当地人。我和PJG每个人点了一个汤，餐馆提供免费的无限量的面包。

We were going to the Hakaniemi market today for lunch to eat the famous salmon soup from a stall there. However, when we arrived at the place, we found that the original two-story market was being renovated, and the stall was moved to a nearby market.

再见赫尔辛基！Leaving Helsinki!

再见了赫尔辛基！

现在去英国伦敦和周边的康沃尔地区，是PJG妈妈去美国前成长的地方。

See you Helsinki!

We are now flying to London and then on to the Cornwall area and the southwest where PJG’s mother grew up before moving to the US.

阿伯茨伯 – Abbotsbury

在赫尔辛基停留了三晚后，今天飞到了英国。在去伦敦之前，PJG租了一辆车，我们要去伦敦周边的地区，沿途经过他爸爸以前旅游过的地方和他妈妈的故居。因为安排的比较紧凑，每个地方只能做短暂的停留。

After staying three short nights in Helsinki, we flew to England today. Before going to London, PJG rented a car and we drove to the southwest part of England, specifically to retrace some of the locations his father had visited in 1949 as well as his mother’s former residence.

天涯海角和毛斯尔 (Lands End, Mousehole)

今天继续追寻PJG父亲的脚步，去了天涯海角(Lands’ End) 和毛斯尔(Mousehole)。今天是父亲节，说起来他过的还挺有意义的 😊 PJG开了有10个小时的车，真的很疯狂！在英国的乡间小路开车还真是特别，有很多小路过一辆车都很困难，根本无法错车，如果开到半路遇到对面过来的车，有一辆车就需要后退！不过其实这是一个很有意思的经历，我们今天只需要后退了一次 😅，不过停下来让路有很多次。这种事情似乎很平常，看起来英国人都习以为常了，每次小路错车或者让路后，对方的司机都会打手势表示感谢。其实总体来说在英国开车非常容易，因为大家都很遵守相同的规则，左车道开车，右车道超车，非常井然有的，这样更有效率和更安全。

Today we continued to pursue PJG father’s footsteps, we went to Lands’ End and Mousehole (pronounced Mouzel). Today is Father’s Day, he said it made it even more special 😊.

A word from the translator

Zhaoyang is doing such a creative job in blogging, one that I don’t want to try to compete with. My job has lately been to translate her Chinese into something readable and expressing her original feelings. As anyone who has read a bing or google translation of chinese will know, they do a piss poor job with nonsensical paragraphs of gibberish.

Cornwall with my Dad (和父亲一起重游康沃尔)

I travelled to Cornwall with my Dad. Of course he wasn’t there physically, but his memories and pictures accompanied Zhaoyang and me as we trekked through the Cornwall countryside, backroads, tiny roads and towns with his picture book in hand looking to find the exact locations he and his sister were in 1949. There were some successes and some failures but the adventure was more than worth it.

今天我和父亲一起重游了沃尔康地区。当然他并没有真正的在那里，但是他的记忆和照片伴着我和赵杨同行。手里拿着当时他拍摄的照片，我俩走在沃尔康地区的各式各样的乡间小路上，海滩和岩石上，试着找出1949年他和他妹妹旅游时驻足的每个确切的地点。这些寻找有些成功了，有些失败了，但是这种探寻很值得。

皮尔顿，罗马浴场 (Pilton, Roman Baths)

皮尔顿(Pilton)

今天是开车在伦敦周边速游 (因为停留的时间比较短暂，所以叫她速游 😅 )的第三天，第一个停留的地方是皮尔顿，也是PJG大姨 – Sylvia 的故居所在。这是一个非常小的村庄，有很多房子也都有一，二百年的历史了。PJG来过这里很多次了，这次是专门带我来的。我没有见过他的大姨，不过见过很多她的绘画作品，她去世后，有很多她的画都在 PJG这里，我们曾在山景城的家里挂了满墙。所以这次很高兴能够来到她的故居看看。

Today we left Cornwall and are driving towards the Cotswolds where we will stay at a hotel in Swindon, that is our only real hotel on the trip. On our third day in England, the first place we stopped on our way to Bath was Pilton, which was also PJG’s Aunt Sylvia’s former home. This is a very small village.

Arrived in London!

巨石阵，乔治旅店，和初入伦敦 (Stonehenge, George Hotel)

今天是PJG需要在英国开车的最后一天，上午首先去了巨石阵。大概离我俩这次旅行唯一的一个酒店住宿地方一个小时的车程。PJG其实已经去过那里。巨石阵是英国，也是人类最著名的史前古迹之一，它的建造起因和方法至今仍是個不解之謎。

Today is the last day that we will be driving in England, and this morning we went first to Stonehenge. It’s about an hours drive from the only actual hotel accommodation on our entire trip. PJG had been to Stonehenge before, once as a young boy and then again in 2002. Stonehenge is in the UK and is also one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world. Its construction and ultimate purpose are still a puzzling mystery.

印度菜和中国菜 (Indian and Chinese food)

昨天晚上在一个酒馆里，PJG和一个当地的英国人聊天，我问他伦敦有什么本土的特色小吃或是菜肴，他看似严肃的说蛋炒饭，然后哈哈大笑。他认为伦敦没有什么值得一提的本土美食，如果说是寻找美食，最好的就是尝试来自各个国家不同的菜系，因为伦敦是这样一个集合世界各地人的大都市。他说的很有道理哦.

Last night at a pub, we were chatting with a local Englishman and I asked what he considers a local special dish in London – he seemed serious when exclaiming, “egg fried rice”, and then we laughed. He felt that there is no real local food in London to mention, and said that if we are to look for food, the best thing to do is to try different cuisines from various countries, because London is such a metropolis that it brings together people from all over the world.