Bastogne, Belgium
Sunday, March 13, 2005
We got to
Bastogne in the late morning and went straight to the WWII museum. It was really a very well done museum, with all sorts of personal accounts of how the war affected not only the soldiers, but also the civilians who were just trying to survive. The entire thing was very polished and really drew you in. It kind of reminded me a little of the Holocaust museum in D.C. on a smaller scale (although this one had four floors filled with information and exhibits). The whole thing was in four different languages (French, English, German and Dutch) so there was no problem in missing anything in translation. One of the things that I was kind of surprised by in Europe was how many of the museums have English captions on everything. Even in
Prague every museum we went to had Czech and English for all of the exhibits. The only place that really doesn't cater to English is France, but that is more of a cultural thing than anything else. I don't have any pictures because they didn't allow cameras in, but it really was a very well done museum
. After the museum we had some time to grab some lunch. Avi and I went to a crepe place. I love crepes so much. I had a delicious ham and cheese crepe and a nutella crepe for desert. It was excellent. Avi was not feeling so hot from the night before so we just chilled there for the whole time before we had to get back on the bus. We all went on to the next museum, which was in the middle of one of the primary fields where Battle of the Bulge took place. This one was the permanent museum and basically had a lot of things crammed into two or three rooms in order to display as much as possible in the small space. Inside they also had a movie that Jerry wanted us to see about the battle. It sounded like a great idea until we all actually got in there and they turned the lights off. All around you could see people doing the characteristic head bob as they fought against the sleep. I had to try my hardest to keep my eyes open and pay attention to the film. It is amazing how quickly sitting in a dark room can induce sleep when you are always on the go like we are. After the film was over we walked out in the snow to the monument to the US soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge. It is a really big monument overlooking the fields where the battle was fought. Around the top is the names of the States where Americans who had died in the battle were from. We climbed to the top and looked out over the snowy fields....as they would have looked during that cold winter and it was really moving. One thing that I really have to Jerry credit for....he really does have us experience first hand everything that we learn about. History is so much more meaningful if you can actually walk in the footsteps of the people that you are learning about. This is really one of the best study abroad programs I could have imagined. We really get to see and do so much more than I ever expected...and Jerry really is an excellent guide. After the monument we all piled back on the bus and headed back to
Brussels for our last week before spring break.
