Vacation 2011 - Part 3

After leaving Bastogne, we made our way back to Paris for our flight to Munich.  It was kind of sad to drop off our rental car, knowing that we would be at the mercy of taxis and public transportation for the rest of our trip.  Our Air France flight was quick and easy, and the S Bahn took us right to our hotel.  We checked in and walked across the street to a restaurant/biergarten for some dinner.  We called it a night pretty early.

The next day was, quite frankly, very boring.  It rained all day long, and was really cold.  We tried to make the best of it, and went to the Marienplatz to look around.  We decided to eat lunch there, and the food was very German (Bavarian is more like it).  Jeremiah made the mistake of ordering, and drinking, a nice German beer.  We've decided he is allergic to hops or something, because he spent the rest of the day in bed, moaning in pain.  It was a wasted day.  In retrospect, we should have planned a trip down to the Eagles Nest in Austria.  I guess we will just have to go back...

On Saturday, we were finally able to enjoy the Munich I remembered from my study abroad days.  The sun was out, the Marienplatz was packed, and the Viktualienmarkt was vibrant. 

We were able to experience our first doner (kind of like a gyro) and we did a ton of walking.  Later that evening at the hotel, we sat at the hotel bar was watched "the Super Bowl of soccer" with a bunch of Euros.  A good time was had by all.

Sunday came, and we realized that Munich shuts down on Sunday.  Since no trip to Munich is complete without an obligatory visit to the Hofbrauhaus, we went back to Marienplatz to find the original meeting place of Adolf and his minions.  It was already filling up with tourists, so we took a couple of pictures, grabbed some souvenirs, and headed out.  Jeremiah had found a website about the Third Reich in Munich, so we looked for different "points of interest".   We capped it off with a visit to the English Biergarten.

By Monday, we were ready to get to Paris.  Bavaria is nice, but the City of Lights was calling my name!

Vacation 2011 - Part 2

After departing Normandy, we drove "cross countries" thru Northern France, Belgium and into the Netherlands.  It was an easy drive, other than frequent stops at toll booths in France.  Jeremiah had printed off more detailed instructions from MapQuest, so we made it to Maastricht with relative ease.  Maastricht is a really nice Dutch city, sitting on the Meuse river.  We were very impressed with this city.  The weather felt like football weather - semi-warm, with a cool breeze.  There is a University, with lots of international students.  The language barrier was virtually non-existant.  We were kind of disappointed that we only planned one night there. 

Wednesday morning brought us to one of the main reasons we came on this trip: visiting the gravesite of Jeremiah's great uncle who was killed in the war.  The cemetery is located just west of Maastricht.  We arrived bright and early and went into the guest center.  Jeremiah and Steven told the greeter that they were family members, and they really rolled out the red carpet for us.  We slowly made our way to the back section of the cemetery, and became the first family members to visit Junior in over 67 years. 

They gave Jeremiah some sand from Omaha beach to rub on the cross, to make the wording stand out better.  Our guide gave us a great overview of the cemetery, and the revernce of the Dutch towards it.  These folks have adopted each gravesite, and frequently visit to lay fresh flowers.  They have passed it down to their kids and grandkids, making sure our guys are always remembered.  It is such an awesome place.  We spent several hours there, talking to our guide (who gave us more details about Junior's last flight) and doing our best to find every fallen troop from Arkansas.  I even found an O'Daniel, but he was from Delaware. It was an amazing experience, and is so well maintained. 

 

Once we were able to pry ourselves away, we hit the road to Bastogne.  We decided this would be a nice stopover for the evening, before we drove back into Paris the next day.  Bastogne was a busy little town, but we were able to get rooms at the Best Western for a reasonable price.  No sooner could we get our bags in the door, than Jeremiah was ready to explore.  More specifically, he wanted to find the woods (Bois Jacques) where Easy Company suffered through the Battle of the Bulge. 

We found it very easily, and we weren't alone.  We met a van full of men from the south, and were able to talk a little SEC football while we looked for fox holes.  We were literally right there, overlooking Foy.  We think these are the true fox holes that have been there since 1944/45.  Hard to believe! 

After our adventure in the woods, we went to the Memorial with all of the names of the Allied troops who were killed in this miserable part of the war.  Looking out over Bastogne in late May, it is so beautiful and peaceful.  Hard to believe what a living hell this place was for many, many American soldiers.

The Netherlands and Belgium were a whirlwind, but probably the best part of our trip. 

Vacation 2011 - Part 1

Well, here it is.  A long overdue wrap-up of our trip to Europe. 

It all started early the morning of May 20th.  We overcame some annoying flight delays and made it to Miami.  We met Steven there and boarded the plane for Paris.  The flight was uneventful, which is a good thing when it comes to transatlantic travel.  We landed at CDG on Saturday morning and picked up our rental car.

 
Why yes, that is a Mercedes.  In Europe, this is probably the equivalent of a Toyota Yaris.  No matter - it drove just fine and got great mileage.  After making our way out of CDG, we soon discovered that the European maps that had been downloaded onto Steven's Garmin were bootleg, and therefore complete crap.  We were lost in a seedy section of northern Paris.  Thanks to the Michelin map of Europe (backup plan), we finally righted ourselves and hit the road to Normandy. We made it to our hotel, and it was nap time.  We barely awoke in enough time for dinner at Le Petit Normand.  It was delicious, and a good start to the trip. 

On Sunday, we set out to see Le Mont St Michel.  It was a nice drive over there from Bayeux, and we were able to enjoy some beautiful views of the French countryside.  As we got closer to this famous island, the traffic picked up and we suddenly realized what the fuss was all about.  Wow! is all we could muster. We got there at just the right time.  We slowly made our way up to the cathedral, and did the tour. Many, many pictures were taken. It was a great experience for all three of us.  As we were leaving, buses full of Japanese tourists were decending.

On the way back to Bayeux, we made a stopover in the seaside village of Granville.  It was nice, but it seems this is the place were the French go to get away from all the tourists.  We stuck out like a sore thumb.  We enjoyed some great seafood, and made our way to St Mere Eglise for a sneak peak of our WWII tour the next day.  We also had to go and see Omaha beach in advance.  So glad that we did.

On Monday, Jeremiah and Steven took the full tour.  I was laid up in the bed with food poisoning.  Lovely! They took enough pictures and had enough stories for me that I felt like I was there.  In fact, before we headed out for Part 2 of our trip on Tuesday, they took me back to the American Cemetery that overlooks the beach.  It is a beautiful and sad place.  It is overwhelming to think what all of these men did for us and for the world.  They are/were truly the Greatest Generation.

Just FYI - 108 days until the Hogs

So many to choose from! This one will do for now.

Getting ready for our trip!

On Friday, we are leaving to go to Europe for 2 weeks! Stay tuned for updates and pictures on our exciting adventure through France, the Netherlands and Germany.