Off to the World Cup!

We began our journey with a healthy breakfast of pain au chocolats and juice, and then made our way through the entirety of Luxembourg, which took many an hour tops. We made a stop in Luxembourg city for a little exploration. I had been here when I was much younger - 13 to be exact. I remember buying a Swiss army knife at a market. While this seems silly, it actually makes sense now because everything in Switzerland is ridiculously overpriced. 13 year-old Brian was unknowingly a very wise consumer. We walked into the old part of the city and looked over the city walls. There were a few pianos placed around the city and in squares. I tickled the ivories for a spell with the few songs I could recall such as Star Wars and the theme to Apollo 13. . . the classics if you will. Our parking permit was only for an hour, so we weren't in the city too long.

We also wanted to make sure we got to Reims in France with enough time to chill before the upcoming match between Thailand and the United States. It was another two hours on the road to reach Reims. We weren't staying in the city, but rather in the town of Hermonville, about 15 minutes to the northwest. It's set in the heart of Champagne country, where they make . . . champagne. After watching the rain fall outside our windows, we got decked out in our various U.S. attire to support the American women. I was wearing a t-shirt with a profile of one of the player's, a defender named Becky Sauerbrunn, the unsung hero of the defense, who has never scored a goal. Nicole had an old jersey for Carli Lloyd, one of the veterans of the team, but layered it with a t-shirt for Tobin Heath because we thought it might be cold. Greg had purchased the new official jersey. Representing in style, we drove into town, parked, and had crepes for dinner. From there we walked across the bridge into the stadium.

We made sure to purchase some merchandise and I bought a sandwich since the crepe had not adequately filled me up. It wasn't long before the game was underway. The United States was well represented in the stands, but not just by Americans. There were many French in the stands cheering on the U.S. women, which I admit surprised me a bit. If any other team wins this tournament, it is likely to be the French. They benefit from playing in front of their own country as well as being well stacked with talent. Earlier this year, they beat the U.S. 3-1. While there were fans for Thailand, they were few in number. At first the U.S. looked a little sloppy, missing some passes, and it seemed like they were nervous for their first performance of this World Cup. Within about 15 minutes, however, they started finding their groove. First Alex Morgan, then Rose Lavelle scored the first two of the match. Having had a large Fanta before the game, I had to pee and wanted to beat the rush at halftime, so I decided to duck out with about 15 minutes before the half. I didn't think I would miss anything, but as it turns out Lindsey Horan scored while I was away. As we all settled in for the half, the score was 3-0, a fairly normal and expected score for the U.S. playing Thailand. What happened after the half however was otherworldly, and everyone around me began to notice. Every time there was a corner kick and the U.S. women began pushing toward the Thai goal, everyone brought up their cameras because there was almost a 75% chance that it would result in a goal. The game ended with a staggering 13-0 with Alex Morgan scoring five alone. It was a spectacularly entertaining game, one that of course ended up in controversy, because nothing's allowed to be fun anymore. I will get to this in a later post.

In any event, it was an amazing thing to watch and we walked back to the car. On the way, a French man asked who won. I responded in French and gave the score. I don't think he believed me, but he congratulated us and said it was great. The following morning, our hosts at our B&B-style mansion joked that it would not be the same result when they played France. We, of course, agreed. I doubt the rest of the tournament will see anything quite like that record-breaking performance.

As we left Reims, we reflected on the previous evening like it was some kind of dream. We had actually watched a game at the world cup, and not only that, a historic one. We drove a bit around Hermonville and the surrounding villages where we saw vineyards and poppy fields. After this,
we drove steadily north until we reached the town of Leuven in Belgium, just outside of Brussels. It is a college town, but a historic one with very pretty dormitories along the river and an old town square that was ripe for photographs. As we exploring the town, we got caught in a massive downpour. It lasted for about 15-20 minutes, and then we were able to continue our stroll about town. We ate at an outdoor cafe where I had some Belgian fries and a chicken sandwich (and of course a beer). The town was not large, so we were able to see a lot of different parts of it without too much effort. We did not encounter many (if any) tourists. Nicole did a fantastic job of getting us to some relatively unknown locales that gave us a more authentic experience as a whole. While incredibly brief, it was a very memorable trip.

BeLux

After a stressful day of nonreving that resulted in about five changes to our original plan, and an unfortunately long sit at Heathrow, we somehow ended up in Brussels on British Airways to meet our old friend Mr. Poopers (sometimes known simply as "Greg"). He had been on a direct flight from O'Hare and had arrived early in the morning. He had the chance to make a day of it and explored Brussels in a big way. We arrived sometime around 7pm. We got a rental car and drove into the city. We had one stroke of luck for the day, it was some kind of national holiday, so parking was free on the streets. But for the exact same reasons, there was not a lot open for dinner. We had burgers and a much-earned beer. The three of us crashed without much effort.

The following day, we began our drive south out of Belgium, but first made a stop at the very cute town of Dinant. We parked on the opposite side of the river from the town's main church. It was a very scenic vista as the church is positioned below a sheer rock face. The nice part about this town of Dinant was the lack of tourists. While they existed, they were few. We didn't have to bob-and-weave like most other places in Europe. We walked across the bridge to look inside the church and also do a bit of beer shopping. Belgium is well-renowned for its beer making and we capitalized. While in the store, it began to rain outside. This allowed us to take more time in choosing our beers. We ended up getting four different bottles and a chocolate bar for Nicole because she was on her best behavior. By the time we finished our transaction, the rain had mostly subsided so we walked back across the bridge and back to our car.

From there we drove toward Luxembourg, but first made a stop at Bastogne, a town known for its role in the Battle of the Bulge during World War Two. We went to the largest museum there, but we had to wait a bit to get in due to numerous tour groups cutting us off. I don't care much for tour groups in case that wasn't already apparent. Ultimately we got in and were shown a movie with an unnecessary use of 3-d glasses. We ended up ducking out of the movie early since it was just a drawn-out intro to the entire war. It wasn't the best museum from that perspective. There was kind of an over-the-top use of technology without it being used effectively. Audioguides that played automatically when reaching a certain area was about the only feature that was worthwhile. Nicole expressed her disappointment in the lack of a ride. All the best museums have rides. Outside the museum was a memorial to the Americans who lost their lives in the besieged town and the battles in the surrounding area to push the Germans back.

From Bastogne it was a short drive to Luxembourg and from the border, a mere 20 minutes to the town of Clervaux. It is also closer to Germany than Belgium, which demonstrates just how small the country of Luxembourg is. It was a grey evening in the town, but we were able to explore the chateau and the small pedestrian area of the town before it started raining. We took refuge inside our hotel's restaurant where we had beers and pizza. We briefly retired back to our rooms, which by the way were larger than our apartment in LA, and then reorganized for another walk around town. We learned about more about the history of Clervaux and discovered that an American Sherman tank on display just outside the chateau overlooking the town is the actual tank that defended the town from a German attack. It would quickly drive out from behind a building, fire a round at the Panzers attempting to advance down the road, and retreat back behind the building. Shockingly this tactic proved to be fairly effective, and it suffered only a glancing blow during the battle. For whatever reason, the Army elected to pull it from action and it remains pretty much where it was left...a fascinating piece of history.