The day's mission was to see the sites related to the "Battle of the Bulge" as Americans call it. Or the "Ardennes Offensive" as it is often called here. It was a cold and rainy day but that can be the perfect day to see a battlefield site. December 1944 was one of the coldest and snowiest winters in several decades. So we had a small touch of the misery the Soldiers endured during the eight week battle.
I already posted my photos on Facebook so just click on and follow this LINK to see them.
We left at 0900 hrs and headed south going through Maastricht (traffic jam) then on to Liege and south through the countryside. My GPS often comes up with some crazy routes and today was no exception. We found ourselves driving down gravel roads and small lanes. I guess that is part of the adventure. In any case, this route took us by some lesser known towns and villages involved in the battle. We passed through Foy for example and came across the monument to Easy Company, 506th PIR (Band of Brothers fame). If you remember the series, this is the location where they went forward to establish a blocking position. They were pushed back to their former positions. In the series episode, Garnier complained that "...someone took a shit in my foxhole...".
We also came across other historical markers and part of a driving tour trail. There is a bike path in the area but I don't know if it is set up to link historical sites or not. Some of the markers had before and after photos so you could see the amount of damage that occurred.
We eventually got to Bastogne (three plus hours for what Google Maps said was a 95 minute drive) and headed through town to see the Mardasson Monument built by the Belgians as a thank you and commemoration of the US sacrifice to free their country. The monument is massive and moving but is in sore need of upkeep and renovation (not something Belgium (the French speaking area anyway) is known for unfortunately). It was raining, windy, and cold but none of us was in a hurry to leave. Unfortunately the museum was closed for expansion. From what I have read the collection was moved to Brussels, strangely, until the mew museum is completed and opened in March 2013. (Note: It was supposed to open in 2012 so who knows how far behind schedule they are. There was a fire in the old museum and that might cause a further delay while they repair/rebuild that.) The new one will be at least 3-4 times larger. This created a dilemma, I needed to find a good museum for my brother-in-law Dave who was looking forward to this trip.
We drove into Bastogne for lunch and parked in what I initially thought was a free parking area. There were no signs indicating you needed a parking ticket. We walked almost all the way to McAuliffe Place (or Square) before we found a place to eat. It was a one-woman cafe and the food was edible but nothing to recommend although my sister's fried chicken wrap (or "warp" as it was on the menu) looked tasty.After we ordered I trotted back to the car suspecting that it must be paid parking and I just missed it. Sure enough it was. Parking was only €1.00 an hour so no big deal.
(Language was a challenge on this trip. We (me mostly) dealt with four languages; German, Dutch, French, and Luxembourgish (in written form). Sometimes I was using two or three languages at the same time. I speak no French (outside a few useful words) but understand some and several times I had to speak in German and they were replying in French. I have to say it was a fun challenge and we were successful.)
After lunch my sister and I had an ice cream cone at the former Australian Ice Cream Company near Mcauliffe's Square. My oldest son and I had ice cream there in December 2000 and as he often says, "it was the best ice cream in the world." The new company's ice cream was fine but not as good as the former company's. Normally that would be enough of a dessert but we walked into a bakery and I could not resist buying us eclairs. They were delicious; I could have eaten a dozen.
We attempted to find a new museum called, "I was 20 in 44" but couldn't until after I had given up. By then I was ready to move on. So we drove to another small museum outside of town. We talked to the curator after we walked through and he told us it was overflow from another of their museums located in La Roche. This was a nice but small museum. They are in the process of building a complete battlefield scene in the basement, which will be interesting when complete. He said it was too cold this past winter to work on it so they are behind schedule. Your GPS will not take you to this museum, there is a problem with the address. Just follow the map on their web site.
After this we headed towards Diekirch, Luxembourg. I have been planning to see this museum for two years as part of my camping tour of the Duchy but I always got rained out. It was a longer drive than what Google said, again, since we followed a twisting, winding road through the mountains. Other than the delay it caused though I didn't mind at all. It was a beautiful drive. Of course as the driver I couldn't see much because of the nature of the road (narrow, winding, blind curves) but I did pull over at a picnic overlook spot. That picture is on my Facebook page.
We came into Diekirch at ten minutes before five and I was hoping I remembered correctly that the museum was open until six. Luckily that was the case. This museum, The National War Museum, is fantastic. We only had an hour but you could easily spend three hours in there reading all the information and studying the weapons and dioramas. This is a very well maintained place and we all enjoyed it.
Afterwards we parked in town and looked for a place to eat. After a 40 minutes walk we weren't impressed with any of the offerings and I figured we could find a place on the road. I passed a couple dozen places and trusted my intuition to pick a good spot. I finally stopped at a restaurant attached to a gas station. The first waitress started talking to my sister in Luxembourgish and she asked if the waitress spoke English. "No" was the reply. I asked if she spoke Nederlands and she said "Nein, Deutsch". Ok, so I switched to German to order our drinks. The next waitress only spoke French but she understood German so we did that. The third waitress spoke German but obviously understood some English. The menu was written in French and Luxembourgish. What a situation!
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