Last day of Spring Break

Rouen and Bastogne

Patrick and Joan of Arc have the same birthday. 

We most definitely bought the tiny melons! 

My favorite thing about this is that the German translation is completely different than the French and English.

We left Rouen with a excellent supply of meats, cheeses, and tiny melons.

Forward to Bastogne!

The centre of town has a visitors centre and a couple of memorials.

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Someone left a small stone commemorating the anniversary of WWII.

And here we take a Lincoln time out...

All the war stuff made this Lincoln's favorite vacation by far, until just after this. We were wandering off and heard a lot of screaming. Lincoln had gotten off balance sliding off the front of the tank, it didn't end well.

Patrick did an assessment to make sure that his chin was all that needed medical attention. I ran into the visitors center to get directions to the hospital.

Fortunately Bastogne doctors are well practiced in stitching up Americans. 

His attending was actually an EMT. She had him stitched up quickly, even if it wasn't pretty. 

I will never complain though. She worked quickly, he barely has a scar, and the entire trip only cost us 110 Euro.

The oxygen bag had some kind of sedative in it. After we got Lincoln a new shirt, his other was covered in blood, he had to sit for about 15 minutes until his world stopped spinning.

And now, back to our vacation.

The Bastogne war museum.

It's one of the better war museums I've been to. It doesn't just show you stuff, it tells a story as you go through the museum.

Aurelia's first go at a rotary phone. 

Lincoln did finally join us, even if he was still a little blurry.

The museum has a theater that does a good job at immersing you in the Battle of the Bulge.

Aurelia SMASH!No, Aurelia, don't do it!

NO! AURELIA SMASH!!! 

The museum follows the progression of the war through to the end.  

The Mardrasson Memorial.

Some people didn't want to go up top.

I have always loved that my two states are side by side.

Along the top of the memorial are the states. On the pillars are the units that participated in WWII (Europe only I suspect). Patrick, very reluctantly, stood by the ones he's served with. He's never big on advertising that he's in the military, even though he's proud of it.

He wouldn't point to the 1st ID, said it would look funny. So I mad a comment about HIS looks and we moved on.