The Ardennes

First of all, my apologies for the lapse of time in updating, however, somehow, I just knew I’d find time to update mid-studying for finals. Blogging, an appropriate procrastination technique, indeed.

After returning from Fall Break in sunny Espana, we had a day of rest, then the group was off to The Ardennes for three laid-back days of history, history, history.

We started off in Bastogne, Belgium, a major site in the Battle of the Bulge. Here we met up with our guide, who has lived in Bastogne his entire life, and experienced the war (and its aftermath) as a young boy. It was really moving to see all of Belgian people’s appreciation for the American troops that liberated the area. American Flags were flying everywhere in town; it was actually a strange sight (I’ve been in Europe too long). We went to the Bastogne Historical Center and watched a short film on the Battle of the Bulge, and then we climbed the American Remembrance Monument. Afterwards, we headed to the woods to see what remains of foxholes used by the Band of Brothers, the Easy Company. (I was pretty glad that we had all watched Band of Brothers the day before because you could really imagine how miserable it must have been). We saw various monuments and a German cemetery, which housed 6 bodies to every cross. The rain and cold of the day made the experience even more intense. After our rainy walking tour wearing my sperry’s, I was beginning to be able to relate to the disastrous trench-foot of WWII. We headed to the hostel in Luxembourg City, had a mediocre meal in the hostel’s dining room, and stayed in (and warm) for the night.

The next morning, we woke up and took the bus (good ole’ Sonya was our driver) to the city center where we picked up our guides (very entertaining) and headed to the American Cemetery in Luxembourg. Here we saw General George Patton’s grave along with the thousands of other American soldiers who died in WWII. After the cemetery, we headed back to the city center and toured Luxembourg City. It’s such a cute, small city to fit in the cute, small country.

From Luxembourg, we headed off to Trier, Germany: the oldest city in Germany. We had a two hour walking tour here, and thankfully, it was a bit warmer, but unfortunately, Trier was pretty boring. Throughout this trip, I’ve come to realize that the guide can really make the trip… our guide was not so great, and thus, Trier was not so great. We saw the roman gate that still stands at the city’s edge and the famous market place, but mostly, we just wanted to get to dinner.

Dinner was a Germany Vineyard and consisted of soup, salad, pork chop, and dessert. Along with each of these courses, we were able to taste a different wine from the vineyard. We met Sebastian, who led us through the meal and our wine tastings. He was also responsible for the mix of the grapes and flavor of the wines. He talked about the grapes and wine scientifically, and they were definitely the perfect concoction. The best dessert wine ever!

Finally, on our last day of the trip, we headed back to Belgium, to Bouillion, to go even further back in history and see where the first crusade began (and also perhaps Bouillion base?). We went to an “interactive” museum (outdated, boring) on Godefroid de Bouillion, and then toured his castle. First, we sat in the courtyard of the castle and watched a bird show (ughh, terrifying), followed by a tour, complete with guide dressed in medieval apparel. People were much shorter in those days, and 85% of our group spent the entire tour crouched down. It definitely was the best castle of the trip, felt very much as you’d expect a castle to feel…fairytale-style!

Directly from the castle tour, we made the return trip to Antwerp, home-again, home-again. 3 countries, 4 towns, 3 days…and it was still probably the most relaxed (and cheapest!) of our trip.