June 5, 2013

This morning, I hope we are taking time to tour the Bastogne Barracks, which is a guided tour with a military person.  These are the barracks of Gen. MacAuliffe during the war, restored to help keep the memory alive!

And then we are off to Bruge.  This is a place that Jo, in particular, wanted to visit - and to take photographs. 

Jo has made a reservation for us at a most phenomenal place...called the Medieval House in the Center of Bruges.  You may google that and see for yourself!  The house looks so grand, I may just want to stay home all day and wander from room to room, and pretend its where I live - like in a fairy tale!

We also have a very dear AFS friend who lives in Bruges with his wife.  Eric was a student in Marshall MO the year before we had our daughter, Ani - and we love him dearly.  Both Carl and we have visited his parents when they lived near Amsterdam on earlier trips of ours - and we adored his parents as well.  Eric & Veronique are struggling right now with her ailing mother - so we don't know what the future will hold and if we will actually get to see them or not - but we hope so.

Meanwhile, we will spend the nights of June 5 & 6 in Bruges, and as much of the day on the 7th as we want, before we head the Brussels and find overnight accommodations at the Brussels airport in preparation for our flight back to Dallas all day long on Saturday, June 7th.

Thanks for following us on our journey - we look forward to sharing our trip with you in person or via blogs after we return home!

June 4, 2013 (Tuesday)

Please meet Roby Clam, our guide for the day for our Battle of the Bulge tour.  You may google him and read about his work, if you wish.  Roby's goal is "keeping the memory alive", and we look forward to spending this day with him and having him share his wisdom and viewpoint with us.  We have been reading about BOTB, visiting with knowledgeable friends about it (thank you, Bill Stofft), and watching "Band of Brothers" (thank you, Jo & Scott), but nothing will compare with actually being there.  (Roby is also on Facebook!)

So the day is in his hands and we are excited about it.  We recall so vividly our day spent on the beaches of Normandy with a fabulous guide - and weather that matched the original day of invasion.  We can hope that won't happen this time - but it just made it even more memorable on Normandy.

June 3, 2013 (Monday)

After completing our explorations of Amsterdam and spending one last night in the Hotel Vondel, we will be picking up a rental car and driving to Bastogne, Belgium.

We are booked for 2 nights at the Le Merceny Motel in the heart of the city of Bastogne.  The city is about 150 miles northeast of Kaiserslautern, Germany, situated along Belgium's hilly border with Luxembourg.  An old Sherman tank is prominently placed downtown, around the corner from a stone monument to Gen. George S. Patton.  We will be going to the Mardasson memorial, a big star-shaped structure with 5 points.  The story of the battle is engraved on the monument's walls.  A steep, spiral staircase leads you to the top, where you an take in the hilly view and contemplate all the fighting that took pace during the siege of Bastogne.

There is a museum to the 101st Airborne we also hope to visit.

June 2, 2013 (Sunday)

Its time to bid farewell to Carla and Delvin, as they head for the airport and their flight back to the USA.  Prayers for safe travels for everyone!  Jo, Scott, Jerry and Mary will be spending another full day in Amsterdam, sightseeing and taking hundreds of photos to share with you when we return!

June 1, 2013 (Saturday)

After breakfast on board the Iris, our bike/barge tour comes to a close.  We will be transferred back to the Hotel Vondel and have the day free to do more sight-seeing in Amsterdam.

Carla is planning on a reunion with Stanley & Santi Tjahjadi in Amsterdam  They were classmates at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (PSCE).  Stanley & Santi are from Indonesia, now serving a church in The Netherlands.

May 31, 2013 (Friday)

During breakfast this morning, the barge cruises to Huizen.  Here we cycle along bike paths through the forest to fortified Naarden Vesting and to the fairytale castle of Muiderslot.  Enjoy a guided visit of the castle and lunch in Muiden.  After, we may either shuttle back to Amsterdam OR continue cycling via the town of Weesp, along lovely rivers and impressive brand-new city islands to our barge's home mooring in the center of Amsterdam.  Dinner will be on board this evening.

May 30, 2013 (Thursday)

After breakfast, we ride from Hardeerwijk through the lovely open countryside.  The final segment of our ride follows a bike path to the pumping station at Hertog Reijnout.  This was built in 1882 and is the only remaining working pumping station in Western Europe that uses external water wheels.  From here, continue along the river banks until we reach Spakenburg, where we meet up with our barge for lunch on board.

After lunch, we may visit the small local folklore museum and see the ancient shipyard where wooden boats are still crafted.

Our afternoon cycling option takes us on a loop through the open countryside around the twin villages of Bunschoten and Spakenburg.