France to Belgium

Well we have made our way from Paris to Belgium by the way of Bastogne. We left Paris at 730 this morning, stopped in a wonderful little village named Boullion for lunch, then moved on to Bastogne, where we were met by Henry. He was born in 1936 and was 9 years old when the Germans came and took his city for the first time. It was vey fitting that as we were standing and listening to him at the beginning of his first presentation, the winds blew up and it began to snow. Yes, SNOW!!! Pretty amazing. We went on a quick bus tour of the town and then out to the old barracks area where the famous "nuts" response was made in response to Germany's request for the allied surrender. They have a museum of old tanks and other jeeps, etc. so that was cool. We then went up to the Bastogne Memorial, then to a German cemetery (much different that the beautiful American cemeteries) and even found a soldier buried there by the name of Josef Fuchs. We then had probably the most poignant moment of the trip and that was to stop and see fox holes that had been dug in the Ardennes Forest. We had read and learned so much about that and it was quite amazing to stand around a real foxhole to see what the soldiers had to deal with. Our 3 hours in Bastogne were amazing and what the trip was all about. We had a bite to eat before we left and then drove on to Liege where we are now and will spend the night. Tomorrow we will stop by another cemetery, but this one has both American and German graves in the same place. We will then move on to Cologne for about 5 hours there, including a tour of the Cathedral, and then catch the train at 645 to Berlin. All is going well and the kids are wonderful to travel with. I will write again when I can.