We made it to Luxembourg
safe and sound. Too bad we can’t say the
same for our luggage.
Greetings from Bastogne, Belgium,
our home for the next three days. Well,
it’s a “home” in the sense that we’re sitting in our hotel room with a laptop,
a camera, a spare change of underwear, and not much else. You see, our American Airlines flight
yesterday from Chicago to London
left Chicago 40 minutes late, and
while we made it to the gate for our British Airlines Luxembourg flight just
fine, our luggage, sad to say, didn’t.
Oops.
Our luggage IS on its way; in fact, we just received a call
saying it’ll be here before midnight. While that’s a good thing, it means that
we’ll be woken up sometime with a phone call saying it’s here. And since we haven’t slept since 5 am yesterday morning; well, let’s just say
that we hope it gets here sooner rather than later.
On, now, to things much more fun. We had two important tasks to accomplish
today once we reached Bastogne. Oh, and speaking of which, here’s Bastogne!
Home of a chair in the shape of a giant shoe—
As well as one of our favorite grocery stores in the whole
world, the former Super GB turned Carrefour.
Why is it one of our favorite grocery stores in the world? You mean you need to ask?
Let’s see...I bought a dark chocolate and blueberry bar and
an orange-cranberry bar, both from Jacques, as well as several of my favorite
from Cote D’or and Galler. Loraine picked
up a bunch of her favorites, too. One
day of chocolate shopping down, ten more to go!
Of course, we’re here for more than just chocolate. Well, let me rephrase that. Loraine’s here for more than just chocolate,
and that was our other activity for the day.
As some of you may know, Loraine’s wrapping up work on her second book,
one that deals with the life and untimely death of Elden Gjers of Republic, who
died around these parts on December 23rd, 1944.
Elden was part of the 4th Armored Division, which was racing
toward Bastogne during the Battle
of the Bulge, only to be stopped by Germans in the very tiny town of Chaumont. We visited Chaumont for the fourth time
today, and also drove along the (very) narrow and winding roads that Elden’s
division drove to get there.
Mind you, the picture doesn’t show just how sharp that curve
is and mind you, that picture does not show a Sherman tank trying to get around
that corner at full speed on an icy December day, but trust me—it was wicked.
Finally, I have something for you I haven’t been able to
share for the past couple of trips—
I know that for some reason some people enjoy seeing
pictures of cows, and since there was a curious bunch of them looking at us as
we explored Elden’s last days, I was able to convince one to pose for you.
That’s it for now.
I’m just hoping I can get a nap in before the luggage arrives, and then
change out of the clothing I’ve been wearing for almost 36 shower-free
hours. Tomorrow, we buy more chocolate. Oh, and do some other stuff, too.
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