Bastogne, Belgium

3 countries in one day. I'm getting a little ahead here, so I'll just start at the beginning. We started the road trip by visiting St. Vith, Belgium. Knowing this was a strategic city for the Battle of the Bulge, and located conveniently just up the autobahn from us, we thought we would spend the day trolling through the village, looking around the sites, and taking it all in. Well, we learned that St. Vith is quite small in spite of it's historical significance and location to major roadways. After enjoying a coffee and amazing pastry (a croissant filled with cocoa crispies....delicious), we brainstormed for what do the with the rest of the day. Not having a plan B....or a map for that matter, we consulted with the trusty Garmin navigator. Lookie there, Bastogne doesn't look that far away....perhaps 30 minutes from here? It's still early in the day....let's go! Now, I have to admit that most of our knowledge of Bastogne is centered around the historical Battle of the Bulge and the major battle that took place there. Before visiting cities, we normally research good places to eat, places to see, things to do, etc. We are going to Bastogne with none of this....which is great....we are looking forward to the adventure. We know we entered Bastogne when we turn the corner and see what looks like the Vegas strip. Since most of the city was demolished during WWII, they rebuilt the city with a modern theme centered around tourism.

We park the car, get our bearings (i.e., get some directions from the office of tourism) and head out to visit the Mardasson Monument. This three-story monument, in the shape of a pentagram, is dedicated to the nearly 80,000 American soldiers either wounded or killed while defending Bastogne in the battle. Standing on top of the monument was moving, offering a birds eye view of the surrounding country side. Not much of the landscape has changed since the winter of 1944, making it easy to mentally picture the battles that took place in the fields and primitive roads. The Bastogne Historical Centre next to the Monument displays the actual clothing and equipment used by the Americans and Germans. It's worth the admission price if you are in the area.

After our tour, we asked for a good recommendation for dinner "on the Vegas strip". We heard the Wagon restaurant had great food and atmosphere: you dine in an old rail car. They were right; the food was AMAZING!!! The only drawback was that the menu is in French....and most of the staff spoke only French. I'm sure they have English speaking servers in the summertime.....but not on our visit. Neither of us has studied French, which made this dinner all the more interesting.

After finishing off the delicious crepe's and ice cream, we punched in 'home' to the Garmin and expected the return trip to take about an hour. Somehow the Garmin didn't get that memo and decided to take us through EVERY small village between Bastogne and Bitburg. After an hour of driving through the Ardennes region......and coming into what felt like was the 100th small village, we almost turned off the trusty navigator. What stopped us was coming around a sharp corner and looking down into the town of Vianden, Luxemburg. The first site was the view of the castle lite up. An amazing sight at night. Driving through the village, it is easy to see why this is such an attraction for travelers. Cobblestone streets, old-style hotels, several bakeries......too bad it was 9pm at night and most stores were closed. Driving home, we discovered this gem of a village is a mere 35 minutes from our house! Once the warm weather returns, we plan to spend the day hiking up to the castle and enjoying great food and beverage on some patio overlooking the Our river.

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