It just so happened that Easter... Chad's birthday... and our local school's spring break all coincided into one weekend. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. We typically spend our Easter at home doing nothing. We do nothing not necessarily by choice but because Easter is more important in Germany than Christmas and the entire country shuts down Good Friday through Easter Monday. True story.
This year we decided to take advantage of the holiday and get out of the country for a bit. Unfortunately, we were extremely limited as to where we could go because as it was spring break here and a holiday... our dog kennel was booked about 7 months in advance for this very weekend. We had no choice but to travel with canine. This pretty much removed the majority of places we wanted to visit from the table. No Ireland or Spain this time around. And so, we decided on someplace a little closer to home. Belgium. Five and a half hours and two countries away (and dog friendly).
So in the early morning of Good Friday- myself, my husband, our child and our dog headed North with visions of frites, waffles and Belgium chocolates dancing in our heads (okay, mostly my head since Chad was driving).
Our first stop was in Bastogne, Belgium. I've wanted to go here for YEARS I tell you. YEARS. This is no exaggeration. I'm not a World World II historian by any means but ever since reading The Diary of Anne Frank in the 4th grade (and supplementary texts) I've had a slight fascination with the era. I've read books from the American perspective, the German perspective, and the French perspective. Chad and I have visited Hitler's Eagles Nest, Dachau, the Anne Frank House, etc all of which have fed into my curiosity and peaked further interest into this time.
Bastogne is about an hour and a half outside of Brussels. It was the perfect stopping point for lunch and potty breaks. You know.... for Meatloaf. Also, we were mainly stopping there to see the various monuments (although there is an 101st Airborne Museum that we didn't visit) and to see Easy Company's fox holes. All dog friendly.
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You know it's going to be a great trip when it starts out with an 105 Euro gas bill. Nice.
If you're not familiar with the story of Bastogne and it's history... you should read or watch (or both) Band of Brothers. Seriously. It was absolutely amazing to be able to go and pay our respects to the men who fought so fiercely in the most unforgiving of environments...
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And even though we weren't there to enjoy it, we left our Easter tree up for the neighborhood to see.
Frohe (very belated) Ostern!
Brussels next....
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