Luxembourg-The City

A view of Luxembourg. The building on the right was used as General Omar Bradley's

headquarter's during the Battle of the Bulge.

The 3 spheres of Our Lady of Notre Dame Cathedral.

The "White House" of Luxembourg. This is where Grand Duke Henri conducts

offical goverenment business. The country of Luxembourg is the only remaining

Dutchy in the world. This means it is ruled by a Grand Duke.

This is a statue of Grand Dutchess Charlotte, grandmother to the current Duke Henri.

She and her family exiled to London during World War II and she is

seen as a national symbol of unity.

The Ducal Palace within the city of Luxembourg.

The orginal entrance to the city of Luxembourg.

Neumunster Abbey Cultural Centre.

The original abbey was destroyed in 1542 and was rebuilt 1606. It was destroyed again and rebuilt. Since then it has been a prison and currently it is used as a cultural centre.

Casemates

The casemates are a labyrinth of defensive passageways that helped forge Luxembourg’s impressive military reputation.

American Military Cemetery-Luxembourg

The American Military Cemetery was our first stop on the

USO tour to Luxembourg.
This is a memorial erected in memory of the many soliders who were killed in World War II.
It says: "1941-1945, In proud remembrance of the acheivements of her sons and in humble tribute to their sacrifices this memorial has been erected by the United States of America."
The front view of the memorial. Inside is a small chapel.

The cemetary. There are 5,075 men and 1 women buried in this cemetary. There are 22 brothers buried side by side. There is 101 Unknown soliders.

General George S. Patton, Jr.

Patton's wish was to be buried with his men. Originally, when he died in December 1945 from complications from a car accident, he was buried with the others in the main part of the cemetary. However, so many people came to few his gravesite, they had to move him because the grounds around him were being destroyed. So he was moved to the front of the cemetary, facing out towards the soliders.

Another view of the cemetary.

If you are interested in more about this cemetary, here the booklet they give you at the cemetary.

http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/lx_pict.pdf

Heidelberg Castle

The city of Heidelberg, Germany. This bridge is called the Karl Theodor Bridge and was built around 1786.

A view of the city.

The actual castle is considered a ruins and some of it has been preserved. This is called the Powder Tower or the Exploded Tower. The piece which is laying at the foot of the tower was blown off in the War of Palatinate Succession in the year 1693 and fell into the moat.

Hopefully you can see this a bit. The camera does not have a great flash on it. Alex is standing on a keg. Actually the Great Barrel of 1750 is what it is actually called. This is the 3rd great barrel because two had been previously destroyed, however this one holds the most at 58,000 gallons. The top in which Alex is standing on was once a dance floor. You boys would never have to leave the house for a beer run.

The Friedrich Building. One of the few undamaged areas of the castle and has an intact interior. We were unable to tour the inside because we had gotten to the Castle a little later than planned. This part was believed to be built around 1601. It was reconstructed in the early 1900's.

A view from the courtyard.

I do not remember what this tower was called. The german word for castle is schloss. But that is a bit simplistic. Actually I think it goes like this...

The difference between the two words lies in the connotations... If someone talked about a "Burg" picture one of those medieval well-fortified castles where protection against enemies was the main aspect. Thick walls and ditches and drawbridges... a castle built up on a hill... with a dungeon.

"Schloss" has emphasis on the pomposity and splendor of the castle... a palace...beautiful, grand, representative...

And as usual, Alex and I try to take our picture by ourselves. We were on the tram which takes you to the top for those of us who mind walking a steep incline.

Switzerland-- land of cheese and chocolate

The bear statue over the river Aare. We took this while walking over the Kirchenfeldbruke, which is a monumental iron bridge 40 meters above the river and it was constructed between 1881-1883. On the other side is where all the museums of Bern are located. We attended Kunsthalle Bern, which is a modern art museum. Very modern art. Some people like it..Alex and some don't..me.

Our 60 franc lunch. So Alex and I decided to have a traditional swiss lunch...Fondue. Being innocent newbies, we asked the waiter at the Restaurant Anker Bern if one fondue pot would feed both of us and he said no, just enough for one. It was enough for four when it was all said and done. But it was wonderful...there was so much white wine, the fumes were just wafting out of the pot. Delicious.

Bärengraben . The bear is the symbol of Bern and having bears in the

den has been a tradition since 1513.

Kindlifresserbrunnen--the fountain of the child-eater, which represents a ogre eating a naked child. One of the most famous fountains by Hans Gieng. Scary.

I wanted to see this fountain because the girls at work say it should be on

a EDIS shirt that states: "If we don't fix em by three, we'll eat them".

I work with some sick puppies.

Anyway, at lunch I was looking up where this fountain was located, trying to plot it out on the map when I look up and we had been sitting next to it for an hour.

Vikki and Alex...July 19, 2008

We took this picture ourselves on the park bench outside the Bern Bear Pit.

Aare River in Bern...the water runs off the Alps. The color was actually
the color in the picture. It rarely gets above 18C (64F).

A view of St. Vincent's Cathedral. The spire was being renovated and this cathedral is beautiful example of gothic style.

So Alex and I had a wonderful time on the USO tour to Bern. Took about 4 hours to get there. The day was magnificant. Perfect weather and the sky was so blue. The was barely a cloud in the sky. If you look at the picture of the orge fountain, the sky was that blue most of the day. Next Luxembourg...

We Have Wheels!!!!!!

We finally have wheels...Because we are here under the SOFA agreement we could not drive in Germany until we had a USAEUR license. This required us to to go to a 3 hour orientation where we watched a really bad video reminincent of the early 80's videos about drinking, driving and STD's. Then come back another day after studing a 82 page driver's manual (I am not kidding) about the dos and don'ts of driving in Germany. The test is 100 questions long--you can only miss 15 to pass. I missed....15. Just by the skin of my nose the instructor said. Alex passed too and we proceeded to the nearest rental agency to procure a set of wheels--a VW Golf. My little CR-V will be here in a few weeks and it is considered a giant vehicle here. There are around 138 different road signs in Germany...if not more. The priority road is the thing that will get you and the roundabouts...must like the circle thing because there are a million of those here.

My Kingdom for a Air Conditioner

They were right when they said that German's don't believe in air conditioning...what I wouldn't give for the icy cool blast of a cranked up air conditioner, even the hospital is without air...unless you are a patient. Then by all means, air is pumped into your room. You have to be ill to be cool. Of course, this would have to be an usually warm summer-in the mid 80's someday and me without short sleeve shirts.

They do have in every resturant, store, movie theatre and cart...my favorite, Mineral Water mit gas...or as we call it sparkling water. Yep...gassy water for me.

Went Over The Big Blue Ocean

Well, we did it. After a quick bout with Tourette's Syndrome and cool down time where I informed my husband I absoulutely was not going to Germany and he could go without me...here I am. To describe the above pictures (I apologize that pic #1 is sideways, the picture is correct in the album)

1. This is the street outside our hotel room in Landstuhl, Germany.

2. This is the view outside our window...Nanstein Castle, google it.

3. This is our hotel room. It is a mini apartment.

So far, all toliets I have encountered have been normal-none of those crazy poop inspection shelves so many have talked about...but I have really only seen the bases. And have I seen bases. There are a total of 9 military bases in this area. And in order to get your processing done-and boy are you processed, you have to go to several different ones in order to get your ids. I have a id to allow me on bases and id to allow me into the hospital; ids for Alex because I sponsor him...we have been joking today that he has lost his identity because everything has to be processed under my name. It is a bit overwhelming, especially since I have never been around military. Guns and acronoyms about sums it up. There is acronoym for everything you can think of. I think there are acronoyms for acronoyms. And they expect you to understand this gibberish.

Jet Lag was hell-if I could have taken a picture of us at 6:00 yesterday evening it would have been a sight. But I was too damn tired. We literally fell into the bed and went straight to sleep. They had us running yesterday the minute we got off the plane and we did not stop until 6:00. Crazy.

Well, that is it for now-love, kisses and Auf Wiedersehen.