Here is the update of our trip to Normandy, Bastogne, Munich and Berlin:
We picked up our rental car and a major debacle occurred, see
www.platform832.comJune 7th & 8th-stayed a t
http://www.hotel-paris-honore.comJun 8th- Traveled to the Normandy region from Paris and this is where the real fun to the trip begins we booked an Airbnb close to Omaha Beach. We did not realize the significance of this booking, especially not knowing the area real well. This residence was used by the Germans prior to D-Day and is featured in the movie The Longest Day (although in the movie it is not the actual house used). Our neighbors during our stay were German historians and gave us this information. Also, it was around the corner from the Overlord Museum,
The National Cemetery and Omaha Beach. [img]
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https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7626925?bev_ref=&eal_exp=1552786910&eal_sig=9d67c819a1b836c2c7ea2135d1912c6c84e9debd45ee37eaa141ec8973d41e2e&eal_uid=242507666&euid=159cbc07-7719-35ca-f553-146c10fd13b4&photo=&user_id=&source_impression_id=p3_1572473403_1Nj9NQq8bpve9XW7Jun 9th-Drove to Saint-Come-du-Mont to visit the D-Day Experience Museum. The C47 simulator is a must do. We mainly did it for our 13 year old son, but it is a very moving sensational experience.
https://www.dday-experience.com/en . While we were in the area we also did Dead Man's Corner Museum.
Jun 10th-We scheduled a full day tour with D-Day Battle Tours. Monica Baan was our guide and she did an excellent job. We started in Sainte-Mre-glise at the Airborne Museum (
https://www.airborne-museum.org/en/). Then we trekked our way across to various sites in the region involving the 82nd & 101st Airborne battle sites. Traveling to Utah Beach, Point-du-hoc (our son was given a Ranger cap and tab from two of my Ranger friends and he took them with him), Omaha Beach and ending at The National Cemetery for the lowering of the US flag. Monica was so careful to fully represent the accurate retelling of our history on this foreign soil. You could hear in her voice the reverence and appreciation to our military for rescuing Europe from Naziism. Also, it was quite moving to walk the hallowed ground of our cemetery as our flag was being lowered to Taps.
Jun 11th-Travel to Bastogne, Belgium. We stayed in Houffalize, Belgium at the Cocoon Hotel Du Commerce (
https://cocoonhotels.eu/en/hotel-du-commerce-ardennes/). We were 10 miles from Bastogne. We were unable to book in Bastogne, but I highly recommend the small village we stayed in.
Jun 12th-Battle of the Bulge tour with Roby Clam. Although we only met on the day of and spent an entire day with this fine gentleman, by the end of the day he was like family. I highly recommend his tour, a fantastic guide and honors the memory of our military by being extremely accurate and sincere in his retelling of our sacrifices. We traveled the southern portion of the Battle of the Bulge and in his telling of the famous General McAuliffe quote "Nuts" he relished in that the Germans did not know what that meant which is "Go to Hell"! He is the best and on our Christmas card list (
http://www.bobguide.sitew.com/#General_informations.A)[img]
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Jun 13th-Visited and toured the 101st Airborne Museum, Bastogne, Belgium (
http://www.101airbornemuseumbastogne.com)
June 14th-Traveled to Munich via Luxembourg. We stopped at The National Cemetery to see a Great Uncle who was KIA on Dec 23, 1944 in the Battle of the Bulge. They definitely put out the red carpet for us. We were personally escorted to his grave site and they brought along a next of kin box that contained sand from the beaches of Normandy and a US and French flag. The intern took the sand and rubbed it into the etching on the marble cross so you could easily read the name/unit/date. In addition, they gave us a packet of information containing all the information they have on our uncle. Then on the way out we met Commissioner Dorothy Gray who was appointed by President Trump for the the Board of Directors for The American Battle Monuments Commission. She was visiting the area and she wanted to know if there is anything they could do for us and if we had any input on our visit. She stated that this is one of President Trump's priorities for our veterans. We stayed at the Art Hotel (
https://www.arthotelmunich.com/de)[img]
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Jun 15th-Munich we were scheduled to visit the Eagle's Nest, but it was closed. So we changed plans and visited Dachau Concentration Camp. It was a very depressing to be honest, but informative. Never give up your 2nd Amendment rights.
Jun 16th-So just for filler we decided to tour the Nymphenburg Palace. Not much to comment here.
Jun 17th-Turned in rental car and flew to Berlin on the 0630 flight arriving around 0800 (~$120/person). We stayed at Midi Inn (
http://kudamm.midi-inn.de) which is right around the corner from the Luxury District.
Jun 18th-We took a private tour with guide Janna L. Ressel (
http://www.berlin-privateguide.de/en/your-guide-janna/). She was very thorough and informative of Berlin from Hitler to the fall of the Berlin Wall to current day. Where we had lunch is where they filmed the bar scene for the Inglorious *******s movie.
Jun 19th-Berlin to London flight.
Jun 20th-London to OKC.
Overall view: It took about a year and a half (type A personality anyone
) of research for us to plan and research this trip. We took in account that we would do one main event per day and not push ourselves to do the National Family's Lampoon Vacation
. Looking back what we planned worked out fine, but could not account for the airlines delay on the 6th.
At first we planned on just going for D-Day, but after looking at the map we decided Bastogne is within driving distance and this is the 75th Anniversary this year for that battle so let's go there. Oh look, we are not that far from Munich let's go visit the Eagle's Nest and Dachau. So since my wife's parents were going to be there and they were stationed in Berlin during the Berlin Crisis let's go there too. Our son is a huge fan of the Band of Brothers so we decided that since we are going to Europe we might as well just do as much as we can. We ate at all the local places (our kids really like American fast food), but we stated we are going to eat and experience the local fare which they really liked. We rented a car from Paris and drove all across that part of Europe to Munich. There are many toll roads especially in France. Interesting observation with the memorials across Europe our National Cemeterys are pristine and beautiful, the German cemetery near Bastogne is maintained (black crosses), but not as well as ours and the memorial to the Soviet soldiers in Berlin is a mass grave of 40,000 soldiers with the only names being mentioned are Lenin and Stalin.
Things we learned and did (most of you probably already know this):
- Use a CC that does not require a fee for European transactions (ours didn't), also increase your limit for emergencies
- Convert US dollars after arrival to Euros (you don't need that much cash)
- The rental car gave us more options and time to see things than using mass transit
- Know where Enter is to go down an underground parking garage (see blog post)
- The prices are comparable mostly to US prices
If you have any questions please let me know and I might can share in more detail.