Louvre

We spent quite a few hours at the Louvre looking at the artwork. This is a Degas painting of ballerinas.

The crowd around the Mona Lisa was most unpleasant.

The inverted pyramid in the foyer of the Louvre.

Saint John the Baptiste

Venus de Milo was purposely carved without arms because arms are prone to breaking off.

 

Montmatre

We had a walking tour of Montmatre. We got there early enough to have breakfast at Cafe Richard's. I had cafe Americano and a croissant sitting on the sidewalk watching the foot traffic, the bike traffic and the vehicle traffic. Later we saw an accident between a bicyclist and a taxi. Both were yelling at each other and the taxi driver started to chase the bicyclist. Our guide said both parties were at fault.

Apartment were once cheap in Montmatre which is why many artists, especially impressionistic artists, lived there. This is where Van Goth lived with his brother. This is a very hilly and unique neighborhood. We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe. The waiters were energetic and entertaining.

This is the Basilica du Sacre-Coeur de Montmatre. We waited in line for 30 minutes before we could get inside.

View from the front of the basilica. Statue of St. Michael on the left and Joan of Arc on the right.

A beautiful basilica.

 

 

 

I Love Paris In The Springtime

 We are staying in a Paris apartment. Out the window of our apartment we can see the very tippy top of the Eiffel tower. Our apartment is on the 5th floor. The bathroom appears to be in a broom closet. To flush the toilet you pull a chain on the overhead water tank. To wash your hands you have to walk to the shower room or the kitchen. We share the bathroom and the kitchen with others. The stairs to our aprtment are curving and have those triangle shaped steps as we ascent 88 steps. We walked to the Eiffel tower where we joined a tour which meant we didn't have long to wait in line. We took an elevator to the second floor and learned some history of the tower. From there we continued to the top without our guide. We saw Eiffel's office where they had a replica of Thomas Edison meeting with Alexander Gustave Eiffel. We walked around the top and ate some pistachio macaroons. We saw the landmarks of the places we wanted to visit. On the third floor is a net bridge that you can walk across the opening but we said  no thanks. After our tour of the Eiffel tour we took a boat trip on the Seine and learned more about Paris. For dinner we ate at a sidewalk cafe watching all the people stroll by. One thing I like about Paris is that some men wear classy leather shoes that really look nice. 

Our view from the top of the Eiffel tower.

Our view from the bottom of the Eiffel tower. That blue diagonal line is the mesh bridge you can pay extra to walk across. We passed on that.

War Museums In Bastogne

We went to a smaller museum first where we saw Patton's coat. Bastogne has cement markers around town showing every spot that Patton gave a speech.

The town was bombed on December 25th, 1944. Here is a diorama showing what it was like to be in a bomb shelter on that Christmas night.

Being in a bomb shelter during a raid must have been so frightening.

After lunch we walked a couple of miles to the larger museum. This museum was full of artifacts (helmets, bullets, grenades, uniforms, boots, etc) . But it also had the stories of four people that followed us throughout our tour. The four people included a young German soldier, an American soldier from Arkansas, a 13 year old boy living is Bastogne, and a 25 year old female teacher from a farm outside Bastogne. These were real people and their stories made this museum a hit in my book.

 

Private Tour

Today we had a private WWII tour given by Bob. Bob picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and we didn't get back until 5 p.m. The tour was personalized regarding my uncle. We started at the railway station in Saint Vith. The American forces protected this railway for three days against the Germans which gave time for American forces to join them.

The railway has been removed so now it is a bike path.

Bob has been studying world war two for 19 years.

He gives a great tour. Part of our tour was spent in Germany.

This is the Our river. Getting troops across was important in world war two because it is too deep to ford without a bridge. We think my uncle may have detonated several bridges. He also might have been involved in fixing up some rubber boats and laying wooden boards on top so American forces could get across.

We stopped at another town to visit a church. There was a woman in there mopping floors. Bob and the woman started talking. She was a young girl when the town was bombed. She and her family hid in the church basement for protection. Her father was taken as a prisoner of war by the Americans. When Christmas came they celebrated together. Only her father knew how to play the organ so he played holiday music on the organ for Americans and prisoners of war.

A beautiful red and gold banner, important to the church, was stolen during world war two. Forty years later, the cloth was returned to the church by the son of the man who stole it. The church goers were happy to see it back.

These are knee high or higher sturdy cement structures called dragon's teeth. Germany installed 5K of dragon's teeth to prevent tanks from entering Germany. The teeth are connected under the grass in both directions. They can be removed with dynamite but that gets expensive. The eventual solution was to pour tons of sand on top of them and drive over the sand.

This is an American tank pointed at the medieval town near Bastogne.

We had a fine day with Bob.

Travel To Bastonge

 This morning we got up early to leave our houseboat in Amsterdam. As we hauled our luggage out of the house the coot was there sitting on a nest built on a floating tire. We said goodby to the coot and headed for the train. We took the Eurostar train into Brussels. This was a fast and smooth riding train. From Brussels we took a slower train into Belgium. From there we took a bus that wove through winding, curvy roads to our final destination of Bastonge, Belgium. We walked toward downtown not knowing exactly where to go. A woman on the sidewalk pointed us in the right direction. We found a tourist building where we got a map of the building and exact directions. Now here we are in Bastonge, ready to start learning about the battle of the bulge. We can tell some things are different already. Cash is preferred in Bastonge. Credit cards were preferred in the Netherlands. French is the predominant language in Bastonge. English was predominant in the Netherlands. We will get the hang of this eventually. 

Annelies Frank

This houseboat comes with a pet coot. Here the coot is next to the dock between the house and the road.

We visited the Rek Museum to see the art work on display. The place was crowded with tourists and school groups. After that we had lunch at a cafe in the subway system.

At 2 p.m. we had an Anne Frank walking tour. We walked around the Jewish Quarter. Anne's read name was Annelies. This is at the memorial for the Jews and Roma who died in World War II.

This memorial is for the deaf people murdered by the Nazis. The location is outside the deaf school. The deaf school is now an art school.

As the Nazis took away more and more civil liberties the dock workers had enough and had a strike. All those involved in the strike were killed. More civil liberties were taken away. And the Dutch resistance grew.

There is a part of town called Dam Square. This was the original center of town and where they first dam was built. This is a war memorial. The chained people in the center of the statue represent the downtrodden. The men with barking dogs on the sides represents the fight against oppression. The woman above holding a child represents a peaceful future. Then we toured the Anne Frank house. Getting a ticket to tour the house is very difficult. When I was here ten years ago we couldn't get a ticket so I was happy to have one now. When we got to the part of the building where the family was actually hiding, people got very quiet and respectful. This was a moving experience that not everyone gets to enjoy.

We got home and our houseboat was warm from all the sunshine today. I left the door open so the hot air could escape. Our coot came by for a look see.