Luxembourg

Gates to the American Cemetery

Today I was supposed to go on a tour that stopped in Bastogne, Belgium on the way to Luxembourg; the site for the victorious Seige of Bastogne for the Battle of the Bulge in WWII.  Well, long story short..I found out the morning of that the tour was actually overbooked.  Damn.  So, I was going to have to skip Bastogne because there was no way I could get there by bus and still get to Luxembourg and back in one day.  I made my way to the train station, missed the train by 5 minutes, of course, but managed to catch a 10:30 train for the 3 hour ride to Luxembourg.

Names of those missing in action

Alex Penkala

After arriving at the train station, I worked out which bus I would have to take to get to the American Cemetery, which is actually located just outside of the city in Hamm, Luxembourg.  Then about a mile walk from the bus stop to the actual cemetery itself through a deserted path.  A little unnerving, especially with threatening skies and me with no umbrella and no where to go for shelter.  Fingers crossed the weather holds out.

Warren Muck

William Mc Gee

5076 service members lie here, including one woman, most of which lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge and the advance to the Rhine River.  The cemetery was established on December 29, 1944 by the 609th Quartermaster Company of the US Third Army.
Some notable people buried here:  Some of the "real" Band of Brothers of Easy Company 101st Airborne Division. 
Other men from the unit buried here include: John Julian,, Kenneth Webb, and Patrick Neill.

General George S. Patton himself is also interred here.  He was severely injured in a car crash in Heidelburg, Germany just after the war, and expressed his wishes to be buried here with his men.

Patton, overseeing his troops.

 I was amazed that I had the cemetery all to myself.  After about and hour I headed into the main city.  Here is the looong road back to the bus station.

Luxembourg has the second highest GDP in the world and was ranked first in personal safety.

The Gelle Fra monument commemorates those who volunteered for service in the armed forces of the Allies of WWI.

German travelling singing group:  "Too Young to Shave."

Great singing!

The oldest pub in Luxembourg

70 meter deep gorges which are part of Luxembourg's natural topography.

I was really paranoid that I would miss the last train back to Brussels and therefore miss my flight back to work in the morning.  I grabbed some food at a shop to take home for my dinner because I knew I wouldn't make it back to my hotel until 10pm.

My great hotel/apartment.  

On the way back to my hotel from the subway in Brussels, I saw a man from behind picking through the garbage. I got on the train, and the doors closed.  I looked again and the man was drinking from a paper cup he found in the trash.  I felt bad, and wished I would have given him some of the food I had bought, but it was too late.  In the morning, I would head back to the UAE and back to work.  Summer of fun was over.