Metz Cathedral

Thursday, January 4

We planned a day trip to Luxemburg today.  We did make a stop at the American Military Cemetery, but our efforts to see more of the central city were thwarted by pouring rain and an inability to find any parking for our two huge vans.  So after a couple of drive-by views of the fortified walls of the city, we decided to drive south another 45 minutes and see the city of Metz, in northeastern France.

Our parking bad luck did not follow us and we easily found a surface lot near a huge cathedral.  Our only challenge (which we never figured out) was how to pay for parking.  The lot provided 50 minutes of free parking, but we were not able to figure out how to add more time.  Not to worry, as it was nearly 4 pm when we arrived and with the cold and rain, we were not in need for a long stay.

The cathedral was remarkable.  It was constructed over a 330 year period from the 1220 to 1552.  The cathedral was open to the public to walk through. It's claim to fame is that by surface area, it has the most stained glass of any building in the world (69,920 square feet).  I'll post some photos, but given the late hour and rainy weather outside, most are dark.  If interested, I would recommend checking it out on Google Images.    

Metz Cathedral 

Left side of the Altar

View from the back of the Cathedral

Walking in the footsteps of Easy Company

Wed/Thurs - January 3-4

"Band of Brothers," the historical account of the men of Easy Company, Second Battalion, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division is a famous HBO Mini-series based on the book by Stephen Ambrose of the same name.  The book and show follow a company of American Paratroopers from their advanced training in Georgia through to the end of the war.  The unit was highly decorated and participated in many significant battles in western Europe, including jumping into France before the Normandy invasion; the failed Operation Market Garden campaign in The Netherlands, liberating a concentration camp and capturing Hitler's "Eagles Nest."  But the true fame of this unit was gained during the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium between December 18, 1944 and January 13, 1945.

Our time in Belgium is right smack in the middle of where the battles took place 78 years ago and there are reminders all around us.  Many buildings still show pock marks from bullets and shrapnel.  We have visited the village of Foy (about 6km from our home) and walked the town that Easy company recaptured to break the back of the German encirclement of Bastogne.  We also stopped at the Jacques Woods, where for nearly two weeks Easy Company braved sub-zero temperatures with little food, ammunition or winter clothes when undergoing regular artillery shelling from the Germans.

A farmhouse in Foy with battle scars still evident

Donovan stands beside memorial at the edge of Jacque's
Woods. The memorial lists the 14 members of Easy Co.
killed during the battle. 
Another 68 in the company were wounded.

  

We spent an afternoon at the Bastogne War Museum just north of town.  The museum is excellent and tells the story of the battle through the eyes of four individuals:  a 13 year old Belgian boy whose father was executed when a radio was found in a nearby home; a young school teacher, recruited by the Belgian Resistance to bicycle coded messages through enemy lines; a German infantry lieutenant and a US Army Corporal from the 101st Airborne.  All four were real-life individuals and eventually came together for a couple of days in the cellar of a café in Bastogne during a German bombing attack (the German had been captured and was being taken to HQ by the US soldier).

Memorial erected on the grounds of the Bastogne War 

Museum.  The names of all 48 states are inscribed.

The museum provides headphones and narrations are triggered throughout the exhibit based on your proximity.  There are also three theaters where short movies are shown.  The museum provides a complete overview of World War II, but focuses on the events taking place in and around Bastogne.  Some in our group whom have been to other similar museums in places such as Normandy said this was the best WWII museum they had seen.

On Thursday, we drove south to Luxemburg City and visited the US Military Cemetery.  Here, thousands of US soldiers have their final resting place as they paid the ultimate price to help liberate the people of Belgium, Luxemburg and The Netherlands.

My attempt at a panorama view of the American Military Cemetery at Luxemburg.

On to Belgium

By shortest route, our next house in Belgium is only two hours away from the one we are leaving.  With an 11 am checkout and a 4 pm check-in, that gives us time to take the scenic route.  We decide to sweep south and stop in Trier and then go through Luxemburg City on are way to the countryside near Bastogne.

Trier is the oldest city in Northern Europe, and was occupied by the Romans in the 4th Century BC.  We stopped to admire the Porta Negra (the Black Gate) that is an icon for the city.  We also drove by the Roman Coliseum that once hosted events that could be watched by 18,000 citizens.

Heavy rains started as we left our lunch spot and we decided to make a bee-line for our next Airbnb house.  Our GPS system missed the mark and had us about a quarter mile away. We eventually found the spot and were greeted with a wonderful surprise.  Our new home is beautiful, very large, well equipped and very modern on the inside, yet old-world charming on the outside.  I will do my best to describe it, but will encourage those interested I checking out the photo gallery on Airbnb.  

That;s our place on the right.

 While sometimes photos make places look better than they really are, the photos in this case don't do the place justice.  Entering from the front door, you are greeted by a dining area with a table seating 14.  Beyond it is a kitchen designed for large groups, with two refrigerators (yes, they are US apartment-sized, but each is twice the size of either of our previous places); two 4-burner cook tops; two ovens and two dishwashers.

The main floor also has a living room with a sectional couch that seats 10 or more and a flat panel TV.  Up a ramp in the back is a large bedroom with a private bath that is all wheel chair accessible.  Shirley and I are occupying this room and getting a kick out the shower that doesn't have an enclosure.

A half flight of steps goes to a landing with coat racks, then another flight to the second level, which has a sitting area, three bedrooms (one with a loft area) and a laundry room.  The top floor has two more bedrooms.  There are also six bathrooms - two on each level.  The property also has two cats, two dogs and a donkey. 

Modern amenities include motion-activated lighting in most hallways and six wi-fi repeaters.  Suffice to say, everyone is very happy with our new accommodations.

Aufwiedersehn Joy and Cherry

Monday, January 1

While the rest of the crew has a week to go on our European vacation, some of us had to go back to the US for school.  (Note: while Cayden is also in school, he is on a year-round program and has our full time off).  Cherry needed to return to Portland to finish her senior year at Valley Catholic; and Joy her senior year at Seattle University.

Cherry (left) and Joy at Frankfurt airport

Both flew out of Frankfurt today:  Joy on Delta via JFK to Seattle; Cherry on Icelandair via Reykjavik to PDX. Our Mosel home was about an hour and 45 minutes from the airport, and Joy's flight was leaving at 9:40 am, so we made a very early departure.  The roads are likely lightly traveled on a normal morning at 5:30 am, but they were extra quiet due to it being New Year's Day.    I never saw an open business (including truck stops) on my round trip.

Both girls are now safely back in the US. Good luck to Cherry who will be going to school Tuesday with an intense case of jet lag.

Happy New Year, German style

Sunday, December 31

We rang in the new year from our house on the Mosel.  Shirley made a large beef roast and we had a great feast with mashed potatoes, tossed salad with home-made blue cheese dressing. 

Our New Year's Eve banquet at the Mosel Airbnb house

Donovan and Jess had warned us that Germans REALLY get in to celebrating the new year.  Throughout the prior evening and Sunday afternoon, we had heard an occasional fire cracker go off.  But I really wasn't prepared for what happened as the clock struck midnight:  Our sleepy little hamlet and the village across the river exploded with fireworks.  These were not organized, municipal events, but rather individual families and neighborhood-level events.  They put the U.S. Fourth of July to shame as nonstop explosions and light filled the air for the next 30 minutes.

We watched from our patio looking out across the river at the village of Enkirch.  As things began to die down, I headed for bed.  When I got to the front of the house, I discovered that things were still going strong on the street in front of our house.  Perhaps in part because the road was closed just beyond because of the flood waters, the street in front of our place was filled with young (and drunk) people shooting off more fireworks.

Fireworks across the Mosel River

Fireworks leftover all over the streets

The next morning, the remnants of the revelry were everywhere.  As I drove through Traben-Trarbach around 9 the next morning, city crews were out picking up the shell casings from the night before.  Later in the day, I came across similar leftovers in Trier.

The Mosel

Sunday, December 31

We have been staying in a house located on the banks of the Mosel River for the past three days, and tomorrow we move on to Belgium.  Before leaving, I wanted to share a little about the Mosel, which we are witnessing at flood stage as I write this.

The Mosel flows primarily south to north, beginning in the mountains near Alsace in France, and then flowing through Luxemburg and Germany before entering the Rhine at Koblenz.  We are in the middle section, which features a very winding section of the river with steep valley slopes. The region is noted for its highly regarded wines, most notably Riesling. 

Monorail for climbing vineyard

In this section of the river, nearly every wide spot near water level has a small community (or larger if there is sufficient land) and every town has several wineries.  The hillsides are covered with grape vines.  While some of the slopes are gradual, others are nearly vertical.  We noted that there are monorails installed at regular intervals in these steep areas and little vehicles climb the rail with the aid of cogs.

The river is navigable for large commercial ships (up to 110 meters) from its mouth well into France.  There are 28 locks along the river, including one just across the river from our home.  Today, as a holiday, the river is quiet (at least regarding river traffic), but on Saturday, we witnessed many barges, pleasure tour boats and other commercial vessels moving up and down the river.

The Mosel begins to cover the road about 200 

meters downstream of our house

Heavy recent rains upstream from us have caused the river to rise.  Earlier today, maintenance crews put up a barricade just outside our house warning drivers that the road ahead was flooded.  Kurt and I drove down and snapped this photo about 4 pm with the road half-covered. This shot was taken about 200 meters from our home.  The forecast calls for the river to rise another meter tonight, which will put the road between our town (Kövenig) and the next town downriver (Reil) completely under water.

Barricade just outside our house.  The signs read: "Flood"  

and "Detour"

Castling

Saturday December 30

(Note - due to poor internet connection at our current house, my Google photo library isn't syncing with my laptop.  I will be adding photos later.  The photos included below are ones I was able to find online and download).

We found a website listing the Top 10 Castles to see in Germany.  The number 1 listed was Neuschwanstein castle which was a couple hours drive from our Farm Airbnb.  We had decided not to visit it due to limited access in the winter.  Now we see that the #2 and #3 castles are both within an hour of our place on the Mosel.

Cochem Castle from the parking lot below.  

Imagine an invading army having to rush this

hill...

We decide to make an early start for Cochem Castle, which is down the river about 40 minutes. The castle opens at 10 am and we wanted to get there early enough to hopefully get one of the dozen parking spaces at the base of the castle.  Otherwise, it appeared that a hike from the town below up over 400 feet of steep walkway would be necessary.

When we arrived, we discovered that even from the parking lot, there was a steep climb to the castle entrance.  We walked up to the entrance and were informed we could drove those not able to walk to nearly the top and then turn around and park below. 

After successfully getting our whole crew to the entry, we were able to get a discount as  group of more than 12.  Cochem Castle (aka Burg Cochem) was originally constructed over 1000 years ago.  It went through a series of phases of construction and growth until it was nearly completely destroyed in 1689.  The castle sat in ruins until the 1860's when it was purchased and rebuilt by a wealthy merchant from Berlin.  The exterior was restored to its original state, but the inside is "modern" to 19th century standards.

Our guided tour was conducted in German by a guy with an accent so thick that Donovan and Jessie could only understand a fraction of what he said.  Fortunately, they had printed descriptions of each room in English so we could all follow along.

We left Cochem after our tour and continued down river towards Castle Eltz, one we knew from reading up was closed for renovation, but we hoped to get some photos of the outside.  The further away from Traben-Tracham we got, the fewer open places we encountered.  We wanted to stop for lunch and ended up having to backtrack about 10 km until we found a Greek restaurant that was open and serving a full menu.

Castle Eltz - view from the observation point
walking down from the parking lot.  The castle
is closed for renovation - note the scaffolding
on the right side. 

After a tasty lunch, we again headed downstream, until we reached the turn-off for Burg Eltz.  Unlike Cochem, which sits atop a mountain on a bend in the Mosel river, Burg Eltz was inland.  I recall visiting here more than 25 years ago and recalled it being deep in a forest.  Visiting in winter, the forest was bare of leaves, but the castle still seemed to be set in a very unusual location.  We reached the parking lot and then walked down a long hill until we rounded a corner. Suddenly, far below us in the middle of the forest was the castle with a stream surrounding it on three sides.  We all took photos from an observation point far above.

We took a long, lazy ride back along the river, arriving home and capping off a wonderful day with a dinner of hamburgers and chips.

Suits of armor in the weapons room. They say
the tall suit was for an Austrian Knight whom
was 7-feet.  

Hunting trophies and stained glass crests of the various
families that have inhabited the castle.

Examples of the wood carvings and ceiling art
visible throughout the castle.

View from the Castle courtyard

Looking up at the Keep.

Dining hall