Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Videos

We planned to make a video of our whole journey to Belgium, but we forgot the camera charger in Colorado, so we only got as far as Kansas...but here it is!

This was our old apartment in Ft. Collins, the day we were moving out it was really cold, the firemen said it froze one of the pipes and made the fire sprinklers go off... nothing is ever easy with us...

Here is all of us in Las Vegas celebrating Breanna's 5th birthday, you get to hear our lovely voices singing happy birthday to her!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Bastonge




"may this eagle always symbolize the sacrifeces and heroism of the 101st airborne division and all it's attachedunits. December 1944- January 1945 The city and citizens of Belgium"































The center of the monument to the americans







Monument to thank the Americans



Tank







memorial on the side of the road


More thank yous for america











Memorial to "E" company








the path to the peace garden




It was a temporary cemetary for Americans after the war, each american had a tree planted for him after his body was transferred back to the states










Museum







Dirty magazine from the 40's lol









During the war and after photos












a very large gun














the rooms set up to look like they did during the war












a notary's book that had been hit by something very large











uniforms

































































HUGE!













really old rusty guns, knives, cantines, andgas masks fromthe war










American soldier's motorcycle












Nazi motorcycle













Mat in a tank..lol









We drove 2 hours to a town in Belgium called Bastonge, it is where the battle of the bulge took place, and there are a lot of WWII memorials and museums thanking the americans. The first museum we went was to was very cool, it had rooms set up to look like the town when they were bombed, and they were all filled with toys and household objects that made it through the war, and it was in english! there were a few memorials on the sides of roads where battles took place, or there were american foxholes. Seemed like they were very randomly placed, but they were very well taken care of, and most of them even had flowers in front of them, it was nice to see the appreication for America. There is also a very big monument to the Americans, it has all the states carved into it, and plaques about the war, its huge! They also have a museum set up, that is in english filled with old uniforms and tanks and guns,but they didnt let us take any pictures there. All in all it was a very good day, learned a lot about the battle of the bulge. so heres some pictures of our day, rainy cold day, but it was a fun day.


























pictures from antwerp

the Oldest building in Belgium, now a ship museum




mat and I in front of the canal

Really strange statue outside the really old building




oldest building again, pretty neat castle
"our lady of antwerp" at the cathedral we visited















pictures from the cathedral























the statue in the town center of Antwerp. the story goes, a long time ago there was a giant who taxed everyone who wanted to stop in the town and use the canal. a man did not want to pay the taxes and chopped off the hand of the giant and tossed it into the river. "antwerpen" means hand throwing.



















city center of antwerp












cool lion statue

antwerp has a HUGE diamond district






















downtown antwerp

















a random camel statue on top of a building













train goin' through town
















even the light poles have statues

















central station





inside of the train station






inside of the train station