FRIDAY, 9/1:
Loraine's not crazy. She just wanted
everyone to know that.
Greetings once again from Bastogne,
where, to quote the title of my favorite “M*A*S*H” episode ever,
we had a “full, rich day”. We probably put 250 kilometers on the
car exploring and visiting various parts of this area of Belgium, and
came away from the experience with everything from cows to (sadly)
road construction to perhaps the most unique lunch we've ever had.
But let's start with one of the most
important reasons we come here, and that's for Loraine to do a little
research and for us to honor those from our home area who paid the
ultimate price during World War II. To that end we made a stop at
the Henri-Chapelle American Military Cemetery right outside the cute
little town of Henri-Chapelle, and said “hey” to the seven men
from Marquette and Alger Counties who are among the 5,000+ people
buried here, including Marquette's Harold Crawford.
Despite the fact that his grave marker
says he was from Wisconsin, he was born & raised in South
Marquette. He was a member of a field artillery battalion and died
in early February, 1945, as the Allies were making their final push
in Germany.
In a strange way it's sad; whenever we
go to an American Military Cemetery that's not named Normandy we're
usually the only people there. And with the exception of an elderly
Belgian couple out for their daily stroll, it was the same way today.
So make me a promise—if you're ever in Belgium or eastern France
and happen to see a sign for one of these cemeteries, stop by and pay
your respects. The people buried there deserve it.
The area around Henri-Chapelle is
beautiful; in fact, you ooh and aah as you drive around every corner
and are greeted with views like this--
Not only that, but you also know what
happened there a couple of months ago? The Tour de France rode
through, and they decorated the place with bikes everywhere--
If you were reading these last year you
may remember that I may have gone slightly overboard in taking and
posting pictures of towns decorated up for Le Tour. Well, I promise
not to do that again this year, if only because we aren't planning on
passing through anywhere else where the race went. Of course, I said
that several times last year, and ended up breaking my promise each
and every time, so take this year's promise with whichever grain of salt
you would like.
Before we left I wrote that one of our
main objectives this year was to avoid any road construction. Sadly,
that wasn't the case today, as we visited several towns where streets
were dug up & closed to such a degree that it even made Marquette
look like there was nothing going on (and for those of you who don't
live there, almost every street in our home town is undergoing some
kind of work or expansion this summer). I'm referring to the towns
of Eupen and Chaudfontaine, which I'm guessing we could've totally
avoided except for one small fact--
Those were the towns with the chocolate
stores we wanted (nay, needed) to visit. Eupen's home of the Jacques
Museum and outlet store--
While Chaudfontaine is where they make
Galler chocolates--
While they're both little pieces of
heaven on Earth, we weren't expecting what we found at the Galler
store. Not only do they sell the most amazing chocolate you may ever
find, but every one of the chocolates they were selling had free
samples, so you could try them out and see if you wanted to buy them.
Yup...a chocolate store with free
samples. Guess what we did for lunch today?
8-)
I'm almost afraid to show you, but
here's the damage we did (not including the free samples, of which we
estimate we each had [gulp] 15 or 20)--
But, then, you only live once, right?
And I have two weeks after we get back before my annual checkup and
the cholesterol test that comes with it. That's more than enough
time to undo the damage we did at “lunch”, right?
Right?
One bar that I do have to single out would be the Galler you see on the right hand side of the picture, the one with the white top. It's a Cointreau Blanc, which is a white chocolate bar with an amazing cream filling made of Cointreau, which is an orange-flavored liqueur. It just melts in your mouth and leaves it coated with orange-flavored yumminess.
Aah.
About the only way you could make a day
with that much chocolate even better is to add cows to it, and we
were able to do that in spades. We got lucky today; the forecast
called for rain all day, and aside from seeing a few drops here and
there we were totally spared. However, when we stopped in Chaumont,
the town where the subject of Loraine's book “Elden's True Army
Tales” was killed, there were black clouds with bolts of lightning
off in the distance. However, we were still bathed in sun, as were
the cows right in front of us--
Those black clouds you see behind the
cow? The thunder and lightning they produced sure must have scared
the sheep in the next field, as they cowered en masse into a corner
and started bleating louder than Metallica with an extra set of amps.
They were really loud.
Want another picture of another cow?
Of course you do!
Okay, no more. I promise. Well, at
least I promise for today...
Finally, the reason why Loraine's not
insane. One of the things we wanted to do today was to check out a
new memorial they have here in Bastogne, dedicated to Renee LeMaire
and Augusta Chiwy, two Belgian nurses who took care of Allied soldiers
during the Battle of the Bulge. LeMaire, in fact, died when the aid
station in which she was serving was bombed, an event fictionalized
for the TV series “Band of Brothers” (the same attack, by the
way, that also took the life of Sundell's Leo Robinson). Anyway, the
memorial was dedicated last December, but no one around here knew
where it was. We did an internet search for it, and found nothing.
That's right; even Google didn't know about it, and Google knows about everything. It was almost like the monument was never put up. Loraine, however, knew that she saw pictures of
it once, so it had to exist, right?
Well, it took a little while, and a few
Facebook messages to a friend of Loraine's in England who then got in
touch with one of his friends over here, but in the end, we
triumphed. Here's a picture of one very sane woman with the very
under-publicized “Nurses of Bastogne” memorial--
Now, hopefully, if someone ever does a
Google search for “Nurses of Bastogne” memorial, hopefully this
one blog will show up and prove to the world that it does it exist.
Because it does.
And because Loraine's not insane.
Tomorrow, we meet up with a friend and
tromp around in the woods. And, with any luck, eat a slightly
healthier lunch.
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