I arrived in Belgium at a good time - Tim's home town of Ninove was having a party to celebrate its existance. So we went into town that night and had some of the local brew, Witkap (or white cap, brewed historically by monks in this town), and some other beers (just enough to get us dancing at a local bar). They played a lot of music that I hadn't heard in ages, typical of small towns, but then surprised me with Bubble Butt by Major Lazer! And since we were a bit toasty, we had a hysterical dance and we must have sung that song every day after that (at inappropriate times of course, like during classical music or just in the middle of other songs). Great start to our vacation!
The next day we got the RV and drove with Tim's friend Amelie (also from Ninove) to Tertry, France. There, our other rider Julie's dad has a horse ranch/guest house. It was gorgeous! Big barns, loads of horses, and one barn turned saloon/dining area where we partied a little that night with other people from Ninove (some of them leaders of a boy scout troop). Julie's dad gave us a drink flavored with anise called Pastis, which is a little tough to get used to, but leaves a nice flavor in your mouth. We also had the normal Belgian pilsner, Jupiler, and Julie's dad also treated us to a hot coffee drink that had some local Belgian liquor in it and a homemade whipped cream on top. Yum!
Before going into town for some amazing pizza (good job, France! Win!), Julie gave us a tour of the ranch and we went into the enclosure with the female horses to check them out. There was one male horse in there though, Otto, whom Tim remembered from another time there and decided to take a ride. Otto was in a funny mood, so Tim jumped off, but Amelie decided to ride him too. I didn't realize that she was an experienced rider, so I got a bit panicked when Otto just took off and she wasn't hanging on! He had no saddle or anything and she had to quickly grab his mane to stay on. And he kept going too, hopping and chasing after the other horses! She finally got a hold of his bridle and calmed him enough to hop off, but we were dying laughing (and I was in cold sweats)!
Hmmm....?
We went to Lisieux and got some dinner then went out, but found out that there were fireworks in another town. But we just went out anyway, figuring people would come back to that town to party later on. Had fun that night, then headed off the next day for Normandy and Omaha Beach. It was really neat there, we got to see old concrete bunkers and canon mounts, plus there were still big concrete barriers out in the water. There was also a church there that a paratrooper landed on and got stuck, then pretended to be dead so the Germans wouldn't shoot him.
We camped here, right uphill from the beach. We had appetizers and aperitifs (wine with cheese and olives) then made dinner and hung out in the cool night. Just before the sun went down, I took a walk down to the beach by myself. On the way down I passed by bunkers and war memorials. Just before the sand, I found myself a little glowing bug and brought it with me. I thought it was a firefly at first, but figured out it was a glow worm, which I've never seen before. I hung out with my little friend in my hand and went to the water. It took a long time to actually get to the water - the beach is very shallow and wide. I had to pass over many pools from the tide. I found three fishermen with long poles stuck in the sand, standing and using headlamps to fish. I didn't see them catch anything, but I did watch one of them walk very far out into the water with boots on to cast his hook, then walk back and stick the pole back in the sand. Tim told me that they are weighted and fly very far out to sea. I watched the calm, black waves and shiny, moonlit water for a while from one side, and from the other side I could see a far off fireworks show for Bastille Day. It was incredibly beautiful and I felt very much at peace. I walked back up and took another glow worm to show my friends. The girls went to bed earlier than Tim and I, and we tilted the lawn chairs way back to just lay out and watch the stars and reminisce about our amazing times at PSF over two years ago. It really does not feel like it's been that long. We saw 4 or 5 shooting stars in that short time and made some wishes. That was definitely my favorite night of the trip.
Tim and I in a bunker - it had underground rooms and tunneled through the ground with multiple entrances.
Our portable dinner setup
Glow worms =]
In the morning we walked through the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It was immaculate and impressive! Beautiful headstones of white stone, marble maybe, and each name and division on the cross (or star of David). Some were simply crosses that said that only God knew who was buried there. That touched me the most. The gardening is amazing! Huge trees trimmed into cylindrical shapes, a clean concrete pond with pretty lilies, and perfectly maintained grass. As incredible as the cemetery is, it makes me wonder about what kind of message it sends us that we might not think about. While it's important to honor and remember those involved with WW2 and D-Day, and of course many other battles, I wonder if this is telling our youth that war is honorable and that they should do it no matter what. That resistance, antiwar activism, protesting might be dishonorable.
The way into the gorgeous cemetery
A map showed the idea of the day and it was on a platform that looked out over the beach and the terrain the soldiers had to climb up from the beach.
The huge cemetery is 172 acres and has graves of over 9,000 American soldiers.
It says "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God."
There is also a wall in the cemetery inscribed with the names of around 1500 soldiers who served there and died, but were not found or identified.
The memorial behind the pond shows maps of Europe as Germany took over countries and shows the general direction of the war before Normandy. It also has a large bronze statue of a twisting man, symbolizing the soldiers rising out of the sea.
After Normandy we drove further southwest to visit the Mont St. Michel, an abbey and tiny village on an island mountain. Currently 44 people live there, but in the past it has held over a thousand inhabitants. The island is tightly packed with the abbey on top and little shops and houses all around it with narrow pathways and stairs all over the place. It was very cool to walk around and see different architectural styles that show its development. For example the abbey itself was mostly roman, but has this intricate gothic addition. It's a bit hodge-podge, but dramatic and impressive! There was even a little cemetery tucked in there. We were able to rent some bikes for the morning and go by bike from the RV camp. Afterward we headed further south to pop into a rather anti-climactic vineyard (what? No castle?!) to camp for the night before working our way back up north to go home.
We had arrived too late that night to see the abbey, so we went out for mussels and chilled out in the camper, drinking wine and dipping our fingers in candlewax. =] Went to the abbey in the morning when we had more time.
After visiting a vineyard for a night and drinking local rosé, we decided to visit Étretat on the northern coast, as it's a nice place to visit and was on our way home. It's known for its white cliffs that are very beautiful! We ate a nice dinner in the town, had a few drinks and went to bed. We enjoyed the beach and hiked one of the cliffs in the morning before heading back to Belgium to clean and return the RV. I decided to stay in Belgium for the next week so I can go to the "Gent parties" which are outdoor festival-like parties that will be going on in the nearby city of Gent for the next week. There I will celebrate my 27th birthday, then head off to Paris!
Tim picked flowers for all his angels.
We climbed up one of the cliffs to get an awesome view.
There are more cliffs in the distance - I'd love to take a boat there!
We went out that night, the last night of our journey. Had the worst cocktails imaginable. They were all like "suicides" which is when a kid goes to a soda fountain and takes a little bit of each soda. Except in this case it was worse, because they were doing it with random alcoholic drinks. Nasty!
First one: name means "Ambush," how fitting! Made with blackcurrant liqueur, white wine, cider, apple brandy, and beer. Gross.
Second one: name means "Improv," got that right! Made with cider, apple brandy, and blackberry liqueur. Probably the least disgusting.
And Lastly, the one I had, "Le Yard," so far fetched I probably couldn't come up with a decent name either. Made with lemon zest, rum, sparkling water, and maybe ginger ale? What kind of "Schweppes" are we talking about? Also, peppermint and bitters. I suffered through less than half of it and then we just left.
Ahhhh, bière! I can stomach that =D
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