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.