You know what I didn't do? I didn't take any pictures of the church/museum. Here's one off Google
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Last day here and I'm still getting lost! I headed out on my own this morning to Amsterdam planning to visit the Anne Frank house and the Our Lord in the Attic museum/church. I didn't find either one after wandering the city for 2 hours so I just headed back to Amstelveen. Aunt Jean was kind enough to be my tour guide this afternoon and we found the Anne Frank house pretty easily though we're unable to get tickets. So we headed off for the Our Lord in the Attic museum and after a few failed attempts we found it! It was definitely worth seeing. The bottom few floors are just a typical old Dutch house, very small and relatively simple. But the attic is an fairly elaborate Catholic church. It was used during the time when Holland was a Protestant country and thus other churches such as the Catholics were forced into hiding.
You know what I didn't do? I didn't take any pictures of the church/museum. Here's one off Google
You know what I didn't do? I didn't take any pictures of the church/museum. Here's one off Google
Monday, February 5, 2018
Guest post by Antony...
I happened to be in Ghent, Belgium, with cousin Sammy when we decided to make a detour to France and- contrary to both our characters- visit some French beaches.
Saint-Mére-Èglise, though a town and not yet a beach, was first on our list. It is a quaint little town with a beautiful little church, and except for the cars, doesn't' seem to have changed much in the last 80 years.
In fact, you may even recognize that hilly street in the background on this picture:
And the church courtyard, too:
That is an 82nd Airborne Paratrooper running to avoid getting shot by a German sniper. The night before he and all other Airborne troops and gliders landed all around Ste-Mére-Èglise, their mission to disrupt German reinforcements going to the D-Day beaches. Appropriately, the town has an informative Airborne Museum. It was neat, but the pictures aren't worth posting.
Airborne troops weren't the only soldiers to fight in support of Overlord (DDay). A group of 225 Rangers landed at Pointe du Hoc. Now Pointe du Hoc was important to the Allies because the Germans had placed artillery there. These were in range of both Utah and Omaha beaches, and so had to be neutralized.
The only problem? They were situated on 90 foot cliffs.
The craters you see are the result of aerial bombing runs.
On D-Day the Rangers were to climb the cliffs at exactly the same time as Allied wavers were to hit the Normandy beaches. But due to stormy weather and navigational errors, they arrived 40 minutes late, thus losing the element of surprise.
Nonetheless, under heavy fire the Rangers found a way up, destroyed the guns, and then defended against fierce German counterattacks for 2 days, until relief from Omaha Beach finally broke through. By that time, only 90 Rangers were still capable of fighting.
Grenade and bullet scars still pockmark the bunkers today.
Seeing these cliffs it is suddenly easy to understand why the sites for the 5 landing beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword) were chosen. These beaches were relatively flat and had easy access inland.
That is Omaha Beach.
The next picture is as far west as you can get in the sector. Pointe du Hoc is just beyond sight.
Top is a German bunker overlooking roughly the middle of the Omaha sector.
Standing just below on top of a second bunker with a clear, unobstructed view of the beach:
Note the people walking their dog.
The American view:
Note the bunker with the memorial on top to the right, and another bunker below the dead tree.
It took the Americans 3-4 hours to move past the cover of that gravel. Eyewitness accounts say soldiers were lying on top of each other all along that bit of cover, trying to get under the sight of the German guns.
Then it took the Americans another 24 hours to move beyond the gravel and clear the immediate dunes and villages beyond:
-note from Sammy: walking from the beach to the top of the dune took us about 5 minutes
Only after more than a day of fighting did they finally succeed in establishing a beachhead.
The cost:
The white crosses stretch far beyond what you see in the picture. Roughly 9500 Americans are interred here.
It is moving beyond words.
... end guest post...
He left out the WWI stuff that we visited also. We had planned to go to the Flanders Museum in Ypres but they were closed today so the information lady sent us to a different location to see some of the trenches outside the city, but they were closed too. We still were able to take a few pictures through the fence. Ypres itself is a city full of history as well. They have an abundance of WWI memorials scattered throughout the city and countryside, but I will let the pictures tell the story.
In one panoramic horizon (which ended up being two pictures) we could see 5 church towers.
This was part of the city wall originally built in the 10th century. Now parks adorn the top while goats mow the lawn beneath.
This is the Menin Gate. Engraved here are the names of almost 55,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers (India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada mainly) who were never found but died during WWI in the Ypres area.
This is the countryside where the fighting occurred.
Trenches as seen from outside the fence.
This is the Pool of Peace or Lone Tree Crater. It was created by a massive explosion. The crater is about 43 feet deep and 250 feet wide
I happened to be in Ghent, Belgium, with cousin Sammy when we decided to make a detour to France and- contrary to both our characters- visit some French beaches.
Saint-Mére-Èglise, though a town and not yet a beach, was first on our list. It is a quaint little town with a beautiful little church, and except for the cars, doesn't' seem to have changed much in the last 80 years.
In fact, you may even recognize that hilly street in the background on this picture:
And the church courtyard, too:
That is an 82nd Airborne Paratrooper running to avoid getting shot by a German sniper. The night before he and all other Airborne troops and gliders landed all around Ste-Mére-Èglise, their mission to disrupt German reinforcements going to the D-Day beaches. Appropriately, the town has an informative Airborne Museum. It was neat, but the pictures aren't worth posting.
Airborne troops weren't the only soldiers to fight in support of Overlord (DDay). A group of 225 Rangers landed at Pointe du Hoc. Now Pointe du Hoc was important to the Allies because the Germans had placed artillery there. These were in range of both Utah and Omaha beaches, and so had to be neutralized.
The only problem? They were situated on 90 foot cliffs.
The craters you see are the result of aerial bombing runs.
On D-Day the Rangers were to climb the cliffs at exactly the same time as Allied wavers were to hit the Normandy beaches. But due to stormy weather and navigational errors, they arrived 40 minutes late, thus losing the element of surprise.
Nonetheless, under heavy fire the Rangers found a way up, destroyed the guns, and then defended against fierce German counterattacks for 2 days, until relief from Omaha Beach finally broke through. By that time, only 90 Rangers were still capable of fighting.
Grenade and bullet scars still pockmark the bunkers today.
Seeing these cliffs it is suddenly easy to understand why the sites for the 5 landing beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword) were chosen. These beaches were relatively flat and had easy access inland.
The next picture is as far west as you can get in the sector. Pointe du Hoc is just beyond sight.
Standing just below on top of a second bunker with a clear, unobstructed view of the beach:
Note the people walking their dog.
The American view:
Note the bunker with the memorial on top to the right, and another bunker below the dead tree.
It took the Americans 3-4 hours to move past the cover of that gravel. Eyewitness accounts say soldiers were lying on top of each other all along that bit of cover, trying to get under the sight of the German guns.
Then it took the Americans another 24 hours to move beyond the gravel and clear the immediate dunes and villages beyond:
-note from Sammy: walking from the beach to the top of the dune took us about 5 minutes
Only after more than a day of fighting did they finally succeed in establishing a beachhead.
The cost:
The white crosses stretch far beyond what you see in the picture. Roughly 9500 Americans are interred here.
It is moving beyond words.
... end guest post...
He left out the WWI stuff that we visited also. We had planned to go to the Flanders Museum in Ypres but they were closed today so the information lady sent us to a different location to see some of the trenches outside the city, but they were closed too. We still were able to take a few pictures through the fence. Ypres itself is a city full of history as well. They have an abundance of WWI memorials scattered throughout the city and countryside, but I will let the pictures tell the story.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Welcome to Belgium where you evade bikers while driving down a cobblestone tram line. This place feels a lot more crowded than Amsterdam. It's neat how you have super old buildings right next to a modern building. We visited a medieval castle that is right smack dab in the middle of the city. Also saw some old cathedrals; very, very ornate. The cathedrals have the same "feel" as the one in Sioux Falls except they have less marble and more old brick. Had Belgian waffles and chocolate as well, YUM!
Waffles with chocolate and ice cream, yum! Antony's had apples too.
This is the medieval castle Gravensteen
Neptune watching over the fish market
This sword has a built in revolver
Ever wonder where the tracks end? Well, here it is.
Belgium is also known for their craft beer though we haven't tried any yet.
Sorry, no pictures of the chocolates; I ate them before snapping a picture
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