Bastogne

July 13, 2019

We woke up late today, but decided (a few weeks ago) to drive to Belgium to a small town called Bastogne (bass-stone-eh). We wanted to go there last week, but we couldn't get our International Driver's Permit due do the 4th of July weekend, everything was closed on base. Last Thursday, Michelle and I went to town to get it. It cost around €18 per person. If you ever drive overseas, you'd need one of these IDP's, however I'm not sure exactly what countries accept the IDP. I read it was accepted in 50 countries. Off we went at 11am towards Belgium.

The drive towards Luxembourg & Belgium was great! About 1 hour in we hit the Moselle (Mosel). MAN! One of the greatest sights I've ever seen in my life. Vineyards on hills for miles, it was so spectacular. After about 1.5 hours, it got a little confusing for me. Michelle and the kids were taking a nap in the car. According to the Garmin GPS, I crossed the country border (marked by a gray line) into Luxembourg, but then about 30 minutes later, I entered Belgium and then I think I exited Belgium to Luxembourg again, but re-entered shortly thereafter. I believe I entered Luxembourg 3x and Belgium 2x. It was really confusing. What made it really confusing was the street signs in different languages. They were different than German signs. It got me perplexed, mainly because I only studied German signs since I was here.

We got to Bastogne in 3 hours. It is literally out of the way in a rural area of Belgium. Entry to the museum was €38. The entry fee provided us a headset audio of the museum. The lady spoke French and the towns around Bastogne are of French, and of course Bastogne is a French name town. I thought they spoke Dutch in Belgium, but the Dutch population might be more north near the Netherlands. Because we are close to France border, it is logical to believe that the people here speak French.

The museum had your basic exhibitions, in addition they also had 3 theaters. It started with 4 main characters, I'm not sure if they were real life characters, but they seem realistic. One character was someone from Bastogne a young boy, one character was a female teacher from Bastogne, one character was a U.S. soldier, and the last character was a German soldier. As you went through each exhibit the characters told their side of story through the audio headset. In each theater, there was a movie about the 4 main characters throughout different parts of the war. I like how the museum told the story, it easily makes a visitor identify with causes of the war. For example I always thought why did the Nazi's have to be the aggressor during the war. Then you realize through the German Soldier's perspective that he had to go through the Great Depression, his dad was struggling and Hitler provided a way out for these Germans. Then you see the Soviets and Germans fight, and it is no wonder why the German teen wanted to become a German Soldier. It made sense to me.

The last theater provided information about the people of Bastogne and their suffering. I found out that the people of Bastogne suffered through a month of bombing from the Nazi's. They had to hide in their cellars for 30 days while the Germans constantly destroyed their city. The American soldiers came to help the people of Bastogne fight the German soldiers during the dead of winter. For 8 days they fought, the Germans who were trying to penetrate Bastogne. I kept on hearing from the audio that the conditions were miserable during this time. What got me was that the Germans dropped letters to the Americans on Christmas day. On those letters it said, (I'm paraphrasing) "Enjoy Christmas with your family!". What a insult, yeah! The soldiers on both sides were hungry and cold throughout those 8 days.

After the exhibits, Malia was hungry. I asked her if she could wait, but she was grouchy and couldn't wait. She wanted a muffin, but it was like 2-4 Euros, I told her it was too expensive. We saw a picture of the Han's Platter, a meat & cheese plate with a beer for only €8. Only in Europe is where you can buy special meats and cheeses for cheap and the quality was exceptional.

We took a walk to the memorial in some cold weather (55°). It is July BTW. Engraved on the memorial were the 50 states and Army Platoons. There was a spiral staircase that led to the top, it offered a commanding 360° view of Bastogne. Then, it started to rain, so we got out of there and into the car. I hope I can deal with the rain and cold during the winter months. It will be a good learning experience for me.