Memorial Day
Our first day traveling with my family during their visit we went to Luxembourg to visit the American Military Cemetary as well as the Bock Casements in Luxembourg City. Since we all couldn't fit in the van together we took just Emily and Natalie along with us and left Madison at home with Samantha and Abigail (it is so nice to have a live-in babysitter!) It was kind of gray and cold, but the weather wasn't too bad overall.
We have been to the Cemetary in Luxembourg before when Madison and Emily were little so it was neat for me to take Emily there again eight years later. I was excited to see Landstuhl (where Madison, Emily, and Abigail go to school) on this map of German and American offensives during World War II. Can you see it there by Emily's head?
Natalie mostly wanted to run around between the headstones so I had to convince her to use her "walking feet". She also loves to collect rocks wherever we go, she calls them her special rocks. It's a Jewish tradition to leave a rock on the headstone when you visit a grave so all there were a lot of rocks around and guess who wanted to bring them all home? We ended up compromising and telling her to pick up some gravel from the walkway instead. She loved the fountain and spent a lot of time just watching the water while we were there.
Next we drove into Luxembourg City to tour the Bock Casements. They are a network of tunnels that were carved in the 1600s. They were used for defense and could hold several hundred soldiers and 50 cannons. We used our GPS to find our way and it got us pretty close; we could see the Casements so we started to look for parking. We were driving around the downtown area and the roads were really narrow for our big American car. I saw a sign for parking that was pointing left so we followed the road down to the left. All the roads up to that point were cobblestoned and this one was as well, but even narrower than the other ones. We could see some tire tracks in the grass next to the road so we decided it was okay and went for it. After about 100 meters the road narrowed again and we were driving on this twisty little road between two stone walls. We kept driving up on people walking in the middle of the road. I thought it was because there wasn't a sidewalk so there was nowhere else to walk. Eventually we figured it out (have you?) we were driving on the sidewalk! The walls on either side of us seemed to me to be just inches from our car and I was freaking out in the back of the van and probably really annoying Jared. At this point there was no way to turn around so we had to back all the way back to the road. Backing up is not something that I am at all good at so I was grateful that Jared was driving and not me. He just put the van in reverse and drove up right back up the road. We got back to where I had seen the parking sign and that when we realized that the sign had been pointing to three parking spaces just across the street, not down the sidewalk that we had been driving on.
After that adventure I was about done for the day, but we did want to see the Casements, that was why we had driven to Luxembourg and all along their sidewalks. So we parked and then walked down the very same sidewalk we had just driven down and found our way to the Casements. There was a sign at the beginning that said if you have claustrophobia that you might not want to tour the Casements because the tunnels can be pretty narrow at some points. I didn't feel like it was that bad, but there were some spots where I could see how you might feel a little closed in. The scariest part to me were the stone spiral staircases. The steps were uneven and worn from 400 years of being walked up and down and it was a little tricky especially on the way down.
Without the arrows directing us which way to go I know that I would have gotten lost. All of the tunnels looked the same to me and it could be really easy to get turned around. I can't imagine what life was like when the tunnels were actually used for soldiers to live in; but probably dark, cold, smoky, and smelly. There were some spots where there were cannons and big openings in the walls where we could see out into the city. Natalie spent her time looking for dragons. Inside the Casements the city traffic sounded like the roar of a dragon so she decided there must be one somewhere. It actually worked out pretty well because it kept her moving and excited to be walking through tunnels where each one looked about like the last.
We explored a little after we left the Casements and made our way down to the river and gardens that we had seen from above. Emily walked out into the river on some to put a big leaf she had found into the current. .JPG)
It was a really fun day, and our adventure driving on the city wall was a great way to start our visit with our family.
We have been to the Cemetary in Luxembourg before when Madison and Emily were little so it was neat for me to take Emily there again eight years later. I was excited to see Landstuhl (where Madison, Emily, and Abigail go to school) on this map of German and American offensives during World War II. Can you see it there by Emily's head?
Natalie mostly wanted to run around between the headstones so I had to convince her to use her "walking feet". She also loves to collect rocks wherever we go, she calls them her special rocks. It's a Jewish tradition to leave a rock on the headstone when you visit a grave so all there were a lot of rocks around and guess who wanted to bring them all home? We ended up compromising and telling her to pick up some gravel from the walkway instead. She loved the fountain and spent a lot of time just watching the water while we were there. Next we drove into Luxembourg City to tour the Bock Casements. They are a network of tunnels that were carved in the 1600s. They were used for defense and could hold several hundred soldiers and 50 cannons. We used our GPS to find our way and it got us pretty close; we could see the Casements so we started to look for parking. We were driving around the downtown area and the roads were really narrow for our big American car. I saw a sign for parking that was pointing left so we followed the road down to the left. All the roads up to that point were cobblestoned and this one was as well, but even narrower than the other ones. We could see some tire tracks in the grass next to the road so we decided it was okay and went for it. After about 100 meters the road narrowed again and we were driving on this twisty little road between two stone walls. We kept driving up on people walking in the middle of the road. I thought it was because there wasn't a sidewalk so there was nowhere else to walk. Eventually we figured it out (have you?) we were driving on the sidewalk! The walls on either side of us seemed to me to be just inches from our car and I was freaking out in the back of the van and probably really annoying Jared. At this point there was no way to turn around so we had to back all the way back to the road. Backing up is not something that I am at all good at so I was grateful that Jared was driving and not me. He just put the van in reverse and drove up right back up the road. We got back to where I had seen the parking sign and that when we realized that the sign had been pointing to three parking spaces just across the street, not down the sidewalk that we had been driving on.
After that adventure I was about done for the day, but we did want to see the Casements, that was why we had driven to Luxembourg and all along their sidewalks. So we parked and then walked down the very same sidewalk we had just driven down and found our way to the Casements. There was a sign at the beginning that said if you have claustrophobia that you might not want to tour the Casements because the tunnels can be pretty narrow at some points. I didn't feel like it was that bad, but there were some spots where I could see how you might feel a little closed in. The scariest part to me were the stone spiral staircases. The steps were uneven and worn from 400 years of being walked up and down and it was a little tricky especially on the way down.
Without the arrows directing us which way to go I know that I would have gotten lost. All of the tunnels looked the same to me and it could be really easy to get turned around. I can't imagine what life was like when the tunnels were actually used for soldiers to live in; but probably dark, cold, smoky, and smelly. There were some spots where there were cannons and big openings in the walls where we could see out into the city. Natalie spent her time looking for dragons. Inside the Casements the city traffic sounded like the roar of a dragon so she decided there must be one somewhere. It actually worked out pretty well because it kept her moving and excited to be walking through tunnels where each one looked about like the last.
We explored a little after we left the Casements and made our way down to the river and gardens that we had seen from above. Emily walked out into the river on some to put a big leaf she had found into the current. It was a really fun day, and our adventure driving on the city wall was a great way to start our visit with our family.
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