7 . The summer vacation is coming. If you are a fan of sports and nature, here are some host cities of Olympics to visit recommended by Lonely Planet.

Athens, Greece (1896 and 2004)

Home to the first modern Olympic games in 1896, Athens’ history of the Olympic tradition dates back to several thousand years. Every four years, the Olympic torch is lit at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens before beginning its long journey to the new host city. Visitors can walk through the Olympic Velodrome in the Olympic Sports Complex and step back in time at the 50,000-seat stadium.

Barcelona, Spain (1992)

These days Barcelona is among the world’s most visitable cities even without Olympic fame, but that isn’t always the case. The telecommunications tower built for the games by Spanish architect Calatrava is also an iconic (图像的) device of the city’s skyline, and its Olympics stadium- Montjuic Stadium is regularly used to host A-list musical performances like The Rolling Stones, Madonna, and Beyonce.

St Moritz, Switzerland (1924 and 1948)

Appropriately, the town that invented Alpine tourism has hosted the Winter Olympics twice, and continues to make use of its many sports facilities—if you can afford to get there. Stay at the Kulm Hotel for the easiest access to the Kulm Country Club, where guests can skate on the same lake used by mid-century Olympians, or test your courage on the Olympia Bob Run, one of the few places where you can ride a full-speed Olympic bobsled (双人雪橇) on a run constructed entirely of ice.

Sydney, Australia   (2000)

The turn-of-the-century Sydney Summer Olympics were named the “Green Games” by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and were designed to introduce a more environmentally conscious way of hosting the event. The structure that best shows Sydney’s efforts to be an example of continuing Olympic development is the ANZ Stadium.

8 . When you can’t get away, your kids still can by taking a virtual (虚拟的) field trip to a museum farm, zoo or another fun location. This is a great way to get them interested and happy.

Best Tours of the World: AirPano

AirPano has a variety of tours in China, Portugal, Switzerland and more countries. It offers narrations (叙述) of several tours and includes short written information that’s easy for kids of most ages to read. The tours are also fairly short, which makes these tours great for younger kids.

Best Virtual Dairy Farm Tour: Will-O-Crest Farm

This 45-minule tour of Will-O-Crest Farm in New York state walks through every step of working on a dairy farm. It shows how cows are housed and how cows are milked. The video is hosted by a narrator with a live instructor from the farm onsite.

Best Aquarium Virtual Tour: National Aquarium

The aquarium has more than 20,000 water animals. Kids can click and drag (拖) images to navigate (导航) their way around and use the map to explore various exhibits. Explore eight areas, such as the Amazon River, a rain forest and the Mexican gulf.

Best Natural History Tour: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

This museum helps understand nature and humanity's place in it. There's so much to see that not all can be listed here. However, the museum offers an online tour of most of its exhibits. Divide this tour up into a lot of lessons, so kids don't get stressed.

9 . The terraced rapeseed(油菜)flower hills of Jiangling, Wuyuan is well-known as one of the four “seas of flowers” in China, attracting thousands of plant-loving tourists to come and appreciate and photograph the vast and endless rapeseed flower fields.

“Rapeseed flowers are the messenger of spring,” said Bin Zhan, manager of Jiangxi Wuyuan Tourism, “Jiangling is the best place for a relaxing spring trip to enjoy the most visually impressive views of golden seas of rapeseed blossoms covering layered terrace fields”.

The rapeseed blossom in the terraced fields of Jiangling, located 45 kilometres to the northeast of Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province, reached full bloom in the second week of March.

This year. Wuyuan restores ancient farming traditions and practices to give visitors an idea or the history ，culture and folk customs of the county by adding scarecrows(稻草人) in the rapeseed flower fields. The creative scarecrows of Wuyuan County are designed in the shapes of popular cartoon characters, Hui-style architecture and folk customs. They are placed in the rapeseed fields to provide more fun and interactions for visitors on flower viewing tours.

“As flower viewing is becoming more popular in recent years, Jiangling is seeing a growing number of returning visitors, especially professional photograph who come back every year for the dramatic rapeseed blossoms,” Zhan said. “The blossoms only last one to two months. April is the last chance to catch a flower-viewing tour this year.”

In addition to flower viewing, Wuyuan County is also home to the most well-protected ancient Hui-style architecture in China. As one of the most beautiful countryside villages in China, it attracts photographers from around the world every year to document not only the natural scenery, but also the unique farming culture and folk traditions.

10 . I was lucky on the first night of the trip, because I had an empty seat next to me. But I found out this wasn’t the best solution for sleeping. I woke up early and kept a journal.

I was excited to see Chicago. I had never been there before and didn't really know what to expect. l was also looking forward to finding somewhere to take a shower. I wouldn't recommend trying to shave (刮胡子) on the train, Even holding a toothbrush by your face could be dangerous with the constant movement of the train, let alone a razor(剃刀).

We had one last stop before Chicago, and I remembered hopping（跳跃）on the platform for a few minutes. It was cold! I was on my way to Cali, and figured I wouldn't need too many warm clothes. Brilliant. I had one hoodie (连帽上衣) and was wearing it for most of the trip. We got on the train and soon things changed from the scenery along the Great Lakes, into a more urban area. On the train, you aren’t presented with “Welcome to...” signs for different cities and towns. You get to see parts of them that aren’t cleaned up and beautified for your view. You get to go to the areas that aren't so pretty, and that’s another reason why I loved the experience.

We rolled past alleys, streets, and soon enough, a lot of other trains. Chicago seems to be quite busy. The amount of tracks and signals was amazing. The sun was rising when we rolled into Union Station's platform. The entire platform is inside a big “garage” for the trains. I grabbed my luggage and made my way inside the station. The architecture of Union Station was really amazing.