History Trip

Ah, Super Bowl weekend! Most of you were planning what food you were going to have for your big party or making arrangements for where to watch the big game. We had no plans considering we don’t have cable. Mike was just getting out of a rotation so our plans were just to have a low key weekend, but then the Army gave us a surprise 3 day weekend and we decided we are Schumachers. We don’t do low key, apparently. So off we went to see some WW1 and WW2 sights that have been on our list but we never knew when to fit them in.

We left Saturday afternoon when Mike got home from work. We stayed in a little gasthaus about 3 hours from home. It broke up our drive nicely. Side note: we are loving these gasthaus’s. We will almost always rather stay in one of them rather than a regular hotel. The low rates (typically), onsite restaurant, bar, and 100% amazingly friendly owners add to the enjoyable experience. I digress. Sunday we woke up early and hit the road for Verdun, France. While on the road, we realized we were driving past Metz and off handedly decided to check it out. It was lunch time after all and food needed to be eaten. Metz is adorable. We parked by an original gated entryway into the city, walked the streets to the cathedral (which has the most stained glass of all cathedrals), and popped into not one, but two bakeries. My mom would be so proud. Croissants were consumed, coffee was drunk, fabulous time was had by all.

We finally made it to Verdun. Germany shot 2 million rounds of artillery on this area in a matter of 10 hours. As you can imagine, it severely damaged the earth and the effects of that devastation are still evident to this day. We drove around the area in awe of the damage before stopping at the museum and memorial. The museum is small. It houses a theater that shows a quick little video detailing Verdun, a gift shop, and a chapel to commemorate the lives lost. In the lawn sprawling out in front of the museum lies 100’s of grave sites. Seeing the crosses really illustrates the destruction that battle had.

The memorial was also nicely done. One of the better ones we’ve been to actually. Lots of information but not so overwhelming that you get tired of reading. We grabbed a quick dinner in the city center of Verdun before heading to our hotel on the outskirts of the city. Our hotel was adorable. To be completely honest, it looked almost like a little hobbit house from the photos. The owner was an older French gentleman that spoke very little English. He offered us a welcome drink and house made sausages upon our arrival. The beer was one he brewed himself and Mike said it was delightful. We were apparently the only hotel guests and when we went down to the kitchen for breakfast, we felt like royalty with this man doting on us. With a roaring fire in the background, he brought us freshly baked croissants, baguettes, and crepes. (So many carbs, I don’t know why I can’t lose weight…) He also gave us some homemade jam that was so amazingly delicious that I may have eaten directly with a spoon. Maybe. I honestly didn’t want to leave because he was so cute, but other sights were calling our names.

We debated swinging by Reims, France the “champagne capital” but decided to not shove too much into our weekend. We instead just headed straight to Bastogne, Belgium. Upon arriving, we walked past a little bakery that smelled like heaven so in we went. (Are you proud yet, mom? Ha)

A lot of the museums in Bastogne were closed the weekend we were there, bad timing I guess, but we still wandered around the city center, popping into a few shops before stopping at Le Nuts for lunch. Le Nuts is a restaurant that pays homage to General McAuliffe. According the Wikipedia, the general received this message from the German commander:

“To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.

The German Commander.”

To which McAuliffe replied “Nuts!” Before those in charge of a reply could format a response, they just sent:

“To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.”

And thus, Le Nuts was a thing. This cute restaurant has military decor throughout and loads of 101st Airborne material. Mike was excited because he was company commander in the 101st while stationed at Fort Campbell. From lunch we went to check out the forest and foxholes where the fighting took place. This was the forest where the “Band of Brothers” fought. According to history and those who fought during the war, it was the coldest winter that had been recorded. The foxholes are still present and it was very somber to stand between the trees. It was cold when we were there, only -2C. I cannot fathom the -20C that those men endured that winter.

Our hotel was in a neighboring town, Houffalize where the allied generals from USA and UK met on occasion during the war. Again, our hotel was adorable. It was more commercialized, but it was exactly what we needed for the last night. We had a relaxing, low key evening and did some research for other upcoming trips this year.

Tuesday we headed home, but with a quick pit stop in Luxembourg. Mike wanted to see General Patton’s grave site, which was located at the American Cemetery in Luxembourg City. It was snowing heavily and we still had a 5 hour drive ahead of us, so we decided against exploring the city and just had lunch before making the drive home.

I enjoyed this much more than I originally thought I would. Not that I didn’t think it would be interesting, but the nerdy historical stuff is more up Mike’s alley. However, it really impacted me. I do wish we could have explored Luxembourg City, but Mike also wants to go back there so I foresee we will back there in the near future.