Bastogne to Gondelsheim

From Bastogne, the path leads through the Ardennes Forest into Luxembourg. I could live in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. So much of it is pastoral farmlands and forests interspersed with the occasional castle.

Esch-sur-Sûre

Finally, we drop down into Luxembourg City, a hive of international activity. If I were the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, I would live here, and Jayne would be the Grand Duchess. A step down from Absolute Empress of the Universe, I know, but not a bad gig.

Duchess Jayne at the  Chateau (castle) gate

From here it's a quick hop on the Autobahn to Gondelsheim, a small village which is almost a suburb of Stuttgart. It's rural enough that tractors still run down the main street.

The Lowen-Thor

This roadhouse has been here at least since 1701. The beer is the best I've ever had - 11.4% alcohol. Brewed in the bottle. I liked it a lot, and I don't particularly like beer.

A wagon from the 1700s

It would be insignificant to most, but it's the village from which the Kellers came. I have been able to trace the family back to here in the late 1600's.

Schloß Gondelsheim

The family never lived here - they were farmers

Brugge to Bastogne

Mostly the drivers here in Europe are much better than those at home, but occasionally the French truckers will do the moving roadblock thing

Jayne wants to see Calais, and perhaps stand where Queen Elizabeth did when she was annoying the French in the 1560's

The ferry to Dover

Somewhere behind us are the white cliffs of Dover

In Calais we pick up victuals for a typical French lunch, which we have in Armentiéres

I'm not a big Gouda fan, but vintage Gouda is fabulous

We arrive in Bastogne, where we will spend the night. Bastogne is famous as a pivotal battle site during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

Our hotel

The 101st Airborne division and elements of the 10th Armored Division held the town for almost two weeks while surrounded by the Germans. When asked to surrender by the Germans, the American commander, General McAuliffe replied simply "Nuts", him not being a swearing man. The Germans didn't know quite what to make of this.

There is a brand new museum just outside of town which does a nice job of covering the battle from  American, British, civilian and German points of view.

M4 Sherman tank

 A Jeep somewhat older than Jayne's

 A German Hetzer tank - named afer a dog (inside joke)

 A typical American Aid Kit

The outdoor monument

This direction is the village of Foy, where E company, 1/506 PIR held ground.

Easy Company, of course was made famous by the miniseries Band of Brothers

Amsterdam to Bruges

The first order of business upon leaving Amsterdam was to pick up a car. Since shipping our bike over for the trip proved to be too expensive, we decided to mix cars with the bike. For the Amsterdam to Munich leg, we wanted a convertible that would do well on the autobahn.

This should do nicely. Mercedes SLK.

I was a bit disappointed that it was the 200 instead of the 350, but it is adequate.

When we can, we avoid the freeways. So from Amsterdam to Rotterdam was mostly on B roads

Once in Rotterdam, it's out for a little shopping then an evening out clubbing

From Rotterdam, we went through a lot of quaint Dutch towns. Gouda's Stathuis has been there since 1603

Almost all of the Netherlands is crisscrossed with canals, as much of the country is at or below sea level

From Gouda it was out to the coast

At Kijkduin we had to get some beach sand for our friend Ruby

There is a cool mix of new and old windmills

From there it was on to Middleburg for lunch.

You'd think with a landmark like this clocktower, you couldn't spend a half hour getting back to the car, but you would be wrong

Dutch pancake with bacon and cheese and a braised apple-cheese-walnut salad. Yum 

The municipal garbage cans are big bins with an underground vault. The garbage truck comes along with a crane, grabs the bin and lifts it over the truck where it is emptied. Except that it empties garbage juice all over the car parked between the truck and where the bin came from. Glad our convertible wasn't there!

From there it was on to Brugge in Belgium. Brugge is another medieval city with some gorgeous architecture, including city walls.

In the city square, you can have a beer as big as your head and some Flemish stew and frites

After dark, the city is gorgeous

No midgets (see In Bruges)

A fairly uneventful flight has landed us in Amsterdam. A bit of shopping and sightseeing has us ready to hit the road.

Our hotel is on the Damrack about 300 meters from the central railroad station.

All the back alleys are fun to explore here is a typical one with graffiti.

This church has been here since 1647

Off to get the car and hit the road!