WWI Battlefields in Verdun

Driving back across France we decided to make a WWI pit stop at the grounds in Verdun.  It is not too far from the German border and only about 2 hours away from our house.  Few traces of WWI remain in Europe today, but the battlefields of Verdun provide a glimpse into the horrific battles from nearly a century ago.  We drove directly to the L'Ossuaire de Douamont, a tomb of the 130,000 French and Germans who lost their lives in Verdun.  The artillery shell shaped tower and cross design of the tomb symbolizes war and peace.

L'Ossuaire de Douamont

The tiny windows at the base of the monument are where you can peek into the tomb of the soldiers.

It was a bit eerie but all the while very moving, after experiencing the film inside and looking through the little picture boxes of actual photos taken during the war.  Over 800,000 lives were lost in WWI.

Then we made our way to the nearby Fort de Douaumont.  This was the most important stronghold in the network of forts built to protect Verdun.  It was built into the hillside and served as a command center for both sides at various times.  There are about 2 miles of hallways inside (that we didn't go into) but the Fort was completely useless by 1916 when German shelling rocked it.

Fort de Douaumont

Since much of the land is now covered by forest, only monuments are placed at the sites of former villages that were completely wiped out.  Thirteen villages in fact were never resurrected.  While there are ruins of shelters in the hillsides, it was really awesome to be driving along and see one of the Trenches along side the road.  The picture below was most likely French because it is dirt, while the Germans were built with concrete as in the second picture.  Those Germans, always so logical.

WWI Trench with dirt construction

WWI Trench with concrete construction

The Trench of Bayonets is a memorial and tomb of an entire company of soldiers who were buried alive.  Here, the soldiers bayonets remained above ground for decades.  The concrete monument surrounding it was donated by the US.

Trench of Bayonets

Former site of a village that was never rebuilt after the war destroyed it.

We stayed overnight in Verdun, which really is not a great place to stay overnight in.  Our hotel was about a 20 minute walk from the city center where there a many restaurants a few monuments of the War.  It was sunny and warm so we sat down next to the Muese River at Viv's Pub for a drink.

Couldn't resist a stop here at my mom's namesake pub :)

We then found a nice French-Italian place where no English was spoken, had a nice dinner and walked back to the hotel.  In the morning we checked out and made the short 2 hour drive back home.  Had we realized before that we didn't need the entire day in Verdun we probably would have driven home the night before but we didn't know what additional WWII or WWI stops we were going to make on the way.  It was a very interesting and historical long weekend as we toured through all of the sights of WWII and WWI. 

 

 



The Beaches of Normandy at Utah and Omaha

We knew we were in for a long day and Gott sie Dank it was a beautiful day!  After a nice French breakfast we drove about 40 minutes to Utah Beach to the D-Day Landing Museum.  We were definitely not going to cover all 75 miles of the Atlantic Coast, just mainly the American sites.  We arrived at the opening and were very impressed with the entire complex.  It is newly built around the remains of a concrete German bunker and is nestled in the sand dunes on the beach.  The museum is filled with unique artifacts not seen at other museums, a lot of war memorabilia and fascinating facts as well as personal accounts and belongings of some of the GI's.  It also includes an impressive display of restored vehicles, including the B-26 war bomber "Dinah Might" inside.  We really enjoyed the 20 minute movie depicting the D-Day events too.  You can read as many books as you like on the subject of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy and watch Band of Brothers 1000 times, but the museum brings to life the experiences of the day and helped fill in many gaps in my knowledge of the events.

D-Day Landing Museum at Utah Beach

 

Restored B-26 Bomber

Since the museum sits right on Utah Beach, being able to look out the large glass windows through some of the old defenses just added to the whole impression.  It certainly brings a sense of realism to the displays, but nothing beats standing at the memorial overlooking one of the beaches where it all happened.  

Awesome display in the museum

 
We walked outside to visit some of the monuments on the beach and then drove into the town of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.  To be standing on the grounds where such a war occurred that changed the course of history...what a feeling.
 

Utah Beach - anti tank wall

Saint-Marie-du-Mont lies at the end of a long causeway linking the beach to higher ground and was therefore a principal objective of paratroopers of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division.  We walked around the town reading the stories that were posted on buildings that had specific purposes back in June 1944.

Shop in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont with a pretend paratrooper!

Next stop was the Point du Hoc Ranger Monument which was the Germans' most heavily fortified position along the D-Day Beaches and it was literally bombed to smithereens.   

Not rolling hills at the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument

We stood here at the cliff's edge and thought about the US Army Rangers climbing it with borrowed ladders from the London fire department and getting shot at from the Germans.  The Monument in the picture below is in memory of the 2nd Rangers Battalion. Commanded by Colonel James E. Rudder of the 1st American Infantry Division, they assaulted and captured La Pointe du Hoc battery; the memorial is built on a control firing casemate where bodies of the soldiers still lie under the ruins. 

The little John Deere is doing his rounds around the grounds

We traveled back towards Omaha Beach and had lunch at Hotel Casino on the beach.  It was here that the Americans assembled their own floating bridge and artificial harbor. The pontoon bridge was just up the road but we didn't get a picture. 

Omaha Beach in front of Hotel Casino

We were just down the road from Omaha Beach where we were the night before but could spend time at now since it was a beautiful day. The highest casualty rates occurred at Omaha Beach, nicknaming it "Bloody Omaha."  After all that we had seen that day it was hard not to picture what this scenery was like 69 years ago.  The metal sculpture on the Beach rises from the waves in honor of the liberating forces, and to symbolize the rise of freedom on the wings of hope.  It was made by a local artist and looked absolutely beautiful.

Finally, we were off to the American Cemetery.  We had visited the one in Luxembourg as well almost 2 years ago.   There is something so peaceful, so serene, and obviously so sad as we wandered through the 9,300 white marble crosses and Stars of David.  My heart felt heaviest as I realized how many of these fallen heroes were the mere age of 18 or 19 and what they had done for our country. I have goose bumps as I write this.

 

There were so many marked this way.

Behind this statue in the picture below, are the names of the 1,557 soldiers that were never found.  A small metal knob was placed next to a name whose body was eventually found but there weren't many.

Statue represents the spirit of American youth

It was a great day.  We were just down the road from our Hotel where we went back for a short rest before venturing out for dinner.  Port-in-Bessin was a little fishing harbor west of Arromanches in Normandy, it was situated between two landing zones, Omaha Beach the Vth American Corps sector, and Gold Beach the XXXth British Corps sector.  We walked along the harbor and found a nice restaurant where Dave could try mussels.

Yuck. But he said they were delicious.

The town of Port-en-Bessin

We were so happy to have been able to experience what we had in Normandy.  We were just a few days away from the 69th anniversary of D-Day too!  Another iconic piece of American and World history we can check off our list during our time here.  We are truly blessed!
 

Mont St. Michel

For more than 1000 years Mont St. Michel was a popular pilgrimage, perched high on a tiny island in total solitude.   For us, it was a 9 hour journey on the checklist during our Western France and Normandy visit.   We left the house on a Wednesday evening with a 5 hour drive in mind to overnight in Saint Quentin, France before continuing onto Mont St. Michel.  We knew there might be some traffic issues due to the holiday on Thursday but one very important thing to check before any lengthy car trip is the setting on the GPS.  We had no idea that our GPS was set to avoid tolls therefore our friendly female navigator took us through some really pretty French countryside.  It turned out to be longer than 5 hours and we cut it pretty close to check into our hotel by 11:00 pm.

The next morning was a bit rainy as we headed to Mont St. Michel.  It was really awesome to see it in the distance as we approached.

We parked in a new lot on the mainland and walked into the town to take a shuttle across the causeway.  The tide was low so there was nothing to worry about but it was windy and raining and a pretty far walk.  Once we were on the small island we stood in awe at this massive construction and tried to image the Monks building it, bringing in supplies and rocks with the tide.  Amazing.  We walked up to the Abbey along the Ramparts, looking at the little village below and the vast bay that surrounds the island. 

"the little tomb" island in the bay

We did a self tour through the grounds and the Abbey (as captured in the pictures) and then ate a traditional omelet and crepes in the village before leaving.  The rain had let up and we enjoyed the 40 minute walk back to the car.  On the way out we made a pit stop at  L'Atelier St Michel, cookie factory across from the Abbey for some free samples and then purchases!

mmmm free cookies

We now were not far from the hotel we chose to stay at to explore Normandy. The Domaine de l'Hostreiere was in an excellent location right down the road from the American Cemetery and Omaha Beach.  It was secluded and peaceful and quite large for French accommodations.  The staff was friendly and immediately suggested a place for dinner before we had the opportunity to ask.  Restaurant L'Omaha was directly across from the war monuments on Omaha Beach and only about 5 minutes away.  It was a nice intro to the next few days and after dinner we went back to our peaceful French accommodation and planned out our itinerary for the next day.

Some more Hoffman's to add to the Adventure...Part II

During the second half of the vacation we focused more on localized day trips because there is so much to cover in about a 2 hour radius all around us!  Thursday we drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, our favorite medieval city where DH and I had been almost 2 years ago. We'd been meaning to go back for a night so that we could experience the Night Watchman Tour, so now was the perfect opportunity with the family.  We stayed at the Hotel Schwarzer Alder right in the old town with easy walking access to everything.   Rothenburg is a great town for stein shopping and we found more than what we were looking for at the Christmas trinket empire of Käthe Wohlfahrt store.  Mom, Dad and Carli visited the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum while DH and I putzed around the fun streets of the city.  We had a tasty dinner in a restaurant recommended by the owner of our hotel because he owned the restaurant as well!  "The best schnitzel in town," he said.  Carli said it was pretty good.   We headed over to the Markt Square to wait for the Night Watchman Tour to begin.  There was an enormous Medieval Festival that weekend and the festivities were being kicked off that night so we saw many people dressed in the attire and bands marching into the Rathaus.

Finally we saw the Night Watchman marching up to the Square.  Every night Hans-Georg Baumgartner takes tourists through Rothenburg streets and tells fun stories about history in his dry sense of humor tone.  We all had a great time on the tour.  There were probably 50 people on it with us!  DH and I had a nightcap in a biergarten around the corner from the hotel and the others settled in.  After breakfast the next morning we left town.  It was a great time in Rothenburg.



On the way back from Rothenburg we stopped in Heidelberg for a nice climb to the castle.  The weather was cooperating and there weren't too many people there.  We didn't do the English tour inside the castle but spent time walking the grounds and visiting the cellar with the larger than life wine barrels.  We went through the Apothecary Museum as well which was really informative and interesting.  I had never been through it and after 5 visits to the castle it was about time.

That night we stayed in and checked the weather for the weekend. It was looking the best on Saturday so we decided to do the unforgettable Rhine River Cruise out of Bingen.  This cruise will never be boring, even if we've done it a number of times. Where else is one able to float on a boat and constantly look left and right at castles high above the river!   We took the train to Bingen to catch the 10:30 K-D boat.  Everyone had a great time just soaking in the fairy tale scenery.  We had a bite to eat in the restaurant on the boat because we ended up riding it till the early afternoon to Marksburg Castle in Braubach. 

Marksburg Castle

We visited Braubach last year with The Mitchell's but weren't able to get up to the castle because of yucky weather.   There is a little green train that will take you to the top which we opted for and then only spent about 45 minutes wandering around and taking in the beautiful views of the Rhine Valley.  Back down at river level we took the train to Rüdesheim and a ferry across the Rhine to Bingen.  The sun was out and it was a nice opportunity stroll along the river back to the train station.  We stopped along at a Biergarten for some local wines and dinner.

Sunday was definitely a good day of rest as the weather was less than desirable.  We were having marathon viewings of Downton Abbey while taking advantage of the sunless day.  I think our guests (well mom and Carli anyway :) were hooked after the first show!  By the time they left to go home we had finished 2 full seasons!  It was a good day for them to get all of their luggage organized to make room for all of the fun things they had purchased so far. 

Monday was a Holiday in Germany and a great day to get one more road trip in.  We set out that morning in the direction West with 3 destinations in mind...just that no one could pick which one we should go to!  We decided on Strasbourg, France because it was the shortest distance and we had the option of taking a covered boat river cruise in case of rain.  While we managed to get a good amount of walking in we did take the cruise in time for rain.  Strasbourg is a lovely city with beautiful old houses and history.  Even though it was rainy it didn't ruin the day.  We chose lunch at Au Pont Saint Martin Restaurant right on the river that was full of charm and ambience.  Everyone had a delicious lunch and then we did a little bit of shopping to purchase some Alsace goodies.  Our last trip!

The day worked out well and we even got home in time to watch some more Downton Abbey!  It was hard to believe that nearly 2 weeks had flown by like it had but we all had such a wonderful time.  We hope it was a vacation of a lifetime for Mom, Dad, and Carli as it sure was one that we'll always cherish.