Normandy Scout Trip

In April Alex and I went down to Normandy, France for the World Scout Camporee.  Scouts from all over Europe joined together for an amazing event hosted on this hallowed land.  While most scouts were Americans who live in Europe, there were scouts of many other nationalities such as French, German and Polish. In all there were an estimated 4,500 attendees.  We went down with some friends from our ward, and met up with some old friends (the Alleys) who came from Geilenkirchen.  We arrived on a beautiful Friday afternoon, it rained that night, then Saturday was dry, then pretty much rain the rest of the time, until right AFTER we took down our tents.  But it didn’t damper our spirits; if anything, it heightened our appreciation for those who suffered unimaginable discomforts, pain and even death on these shores.

This is Omaha beach. We camped just above it.  In this picture it is high tide.  During the invasion, Allied troops waited until nearly low tide because the high tide would prevent them from seeing, and thereby avoiding, submerged obstacles set up by the Germans.

Alex and Thomas doing what boys do next to water with an unlimited supply of rocks.

On Omaha beach looking toward Pointe du Hoc, the cliffs at the far end in this picture, which was the first point of landing by the Allies (Army Rangers) who scaled near vertical cliffs to do so.

The Cathedral at Bayeux, a few kilometers inland. 

Memorial service attended by hundreds of scouts, leaders and families.  A new bell for the tower was dedicated in honor of the 70th anniversary of D-day on behalf of the scouts.

Alex asked if that was the pope.  Nope. 

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A plaque outside the cathedral explaining how Bayeux was the first city liberated by the Americans on D-day.

And the explanation of Pointe du Hoc (zoom in to read).

Back to Omaha beach.  This is low tide.  That’s the same pier visible in the first picture.  Now you can get a sense of just how far the troops had to run, in full combat gear, soaking wet, through barbed wire and iron stars, with bullets raining down on them.

Same.

There were a few events on Saturday, one of which was a multi-media presentation, which meant there were two jumbo screens showing historical footage.  There was also a French-American actor who thought he was more famous than he really was (I’d never heard of him even though he said he was famous), a choir (?), and a real marching band (best part if you ask me).

Said marching band.

Said marching band actually marching!! They were behind us as the whole way as we hiked 2 km back to the campsite for dinner (which was paella by the way.  the vegetarian version was MUCH tastier than the chicken and shrimp version).

Still marching.

No pictures of dinner, so just imagine.  Neither did I think of taking pictures of the campsite, so this shot of the flashlight hanging on the tent ceiling will just have to spark your imagination.

The only photo of Alex and me together.  Two happy guys.

Sunday morning rolled around and we found ourselves at a touching memorial service at the Normandy American Cemetery.

Veterans from the Normandy invasion were present at the far right next to the columns.  By the way, it was raining the whole time.

Alex was selected to lay one of the wreaths next to the garden.

Laying said wreath.

Trying to figure out which way to go. FYI he went the wrong way, to the other side of the crowd and had to wait until everyone was done before he could cross over again.

After the ceremony, there were flowers available for anyone who wished to lay one next to a grave stone.  It’s one thing to walk around a cemetery like this just looking at the gravestones, but when you take the time (a few seconds really) to bend down and place a flower next to one of the grave markers it somehow makes it more meaningful.  Alex was proud to do this small act of service.  And I was proud of him for showing so much respect.

An excellent conclusion to an amazing and memorable trip.

Oh, did you know that Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (the president’s son) is buried at Normandy?  Gen Roosevelt was the only general officer who landed in the first wave.  He survived the initial invasion only to die of a heart attack a little over a month later.

We happened upon Clifford Watson’s grave marker and we made sure to look him up when we got home.  See the link:

http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvmemory/vets/watsonclifford/watsonclifford.html

What an honor it was to visit Normandy, especially with my son.  And to have the unique privilege of attending a scout camporee there was just amazing. 

Rob

Holland: Amsterdam By Bike

We had one last day left in the Netherlands, and that was the day we had to explore Amsterdam. We checked out of our place early, headed towards the city, found a park and ride with no problem…and couldn’t pay for it. The concierge said that only a certain kind of credit card was accepted—Maestro and something else that no American carries in his wallet. I was pretty much fuming inside because of the thought of getting everyone packed back into the van and trying to search for another park and ride, but then Robert put on his puppy eyes, and the guy was nice enough to let us pay cash while he just swiped his card to pay for our parking ticket. I gave him a tip, and now I am thinking how often he does that to make some extra euros-hmmm.
Without any more adventures, we hopped on the tram that took us into the heart of Amsterdam. We had about fifteen minutes to spare before our bike tour was meeting, so we went into a souvenir shop and…bought some Amsterdam hats for the kids, as the day was turning out to be a bit colder than the forecast predicted. Half of the store was definitely not PG-13 even, so I practiced my “distracting and walking quickly pass souvenirs” skill. That was the case in every souvenir store in Amsterdam, more than other places we’d visited, I must add.
Okay, so call us crazy but we decided to take a BIKE tour in Amsterdam. In AMSTERDAM! Here are some fun statistics bike facts for you (from What’s Up In Amsterdam blog):

In Amsterdam there are about 550.000 bikes and 215.000 cars.

That’s about 1.5 bike a person.

According to estimates 15% of the bikes in the street are never or rarely used.

The lost bikes depot holds 12.000 bicycles.

About 40% of these bikes are eventually being picked up by their owners.

About 50.000 bikes get stolen every year, which is 8% of the total amount of bikes. The rate for bike theft is going down fast.

6 out of 10 people who live in Amsterdam have a bike parked in the centre which they don’t use. Yes, I was a bit nervous, but I also knew that our older kids are very confident bikers. Mark got to sit in a cool trailer but Robert…oh, Robert…got to ride something that felt like maybe a tricycle? He said it was easier to maneuver it than it looked.

Forgot one detail. We show up to the meeting point, and who do we see? One of the dental techs that Robert worked with in Misawa! He is now stationed in Germany, and was here for a weekend with his friends. So of course, it was fun to hang out with someone familiar. Besides them, we had one more couple of British people, and that’s it, pretty much it was a fun private tour.

Looking back now at these pictures…everything is kind of tangled up in my memory. The narration about certain places sounds so interesting during the tour that you think you’ll never forget those facts, no way. But then you get home and—poof!—the facts are gone.

I’ll do my best.  The reason why we chose this particular tour is because this was the only one that seemed to be going in less touristy places plus omitting the Red Light District all together. Our tour lasted over three hours, as we rode through beautiful Jordaan area, passed many canals, learned why so many houses have metal hooks up by the roof (they were used to help load up purchased food through the windows) and how powerful the Netherlands once used to be.

We visited a famous area in the Jordaan district, where the poorest people of the city used to live. Over the years, it has become a very popular place to have a central flat as it was nicely cleaned up. Our guide took us to one of the very pretty courtyards that were build to house widows in the last years of their lives.

Canals, canals, canals…

We stopped for a quick bite to eat, while kids had fun drawing with chalk.

Mark drew Alex, that looked kind of like an owl, can you see it?

We rode through beautiful Vondelpark.

And all the way to the world famous Rijksmuseum, that houses masterpieces by Vermeer and Rembrandt among many others. I remember visiting this place when I was a teenager, it’s fascinating.

Despite a chilly start to the day, it really warmed up. Katya and Mark still wanted to wear their cozy hats.

And of course, a picture of me and Robert.

And this is where we had about twenty jumping pictures taken….this might be the best one…still mastering this skill-haha.

Or maybe this one…

Did you know that when Rijksmuseum was going through renovation, the people of Amsterdam said that they must have a way to bike through that massive building no matter what? Yeah…so although it was very expensive to do that, the builders made sure there is a bike path THROUGH the museum. Of course biked through it as well.

More Canals…thank you Mark for taking a ton of pictures.

Cool buildings all around.

Oh, this looks so Dutch to me. I love this type of houses.

We stopped by at a very interesting courtyard called the Begijnhof, which is the only inner court in the city founded in the Middle Ages. This is where we found the Wooden House, one of the two wooden houses that are left in the center of Amsterdam.

This is the view of the inner court.

And more canals and pretty buildings.

We were very happy that this particular bike tour finished without anyone getting lost or hit by a car. If we survived Amsterdam, we can survive any bike tour, seriously. Bikes were EVERYWHERE! Cars were zooming by us on the narrowest streets, and I am just amazed that Alex and Katya remained intact.

After the tour we went and got some yummy Indonesian food recommended by Rick Steves. It was super yummy but too spicy for Mark (not sure why).

So we had to go back to the central street and get some boring pizza baguette for the little guy before hopping on the tram to go back to our car.

What do we think of Amsterdam? Well, we think it’s very pretty with its canals and bridges BUT we all agree that the smaller towns of Netherlands, such as Haarlem and Delft had a lot more character and charm.

If I had to rate our top three things on this trip, I’d say:

1. Dutch people

2. Canals

3. Windmills (Mark wants to add #4 Herring)

Lyana.

Holland: Arhnem

Arhnem Open Air Museum (the Netherlands).  In one word: HUGE!  Two words: TOTALLY WORTH IT!  Wait, that’s three words.  Never mind.  Point is, we went there and we all (including the kids) had fun.  Let me tell you the best thing about an open air museum: it’s outside!!  (mostly)  Better for the kids, for sure.

Let me show you. 

Take a tram instead of walking.  Here Alex checks the map to make sure we know where we’re going.  Can’t go wrong when the tram goes in a circle.

Surprisingly, one of our favorite spots to visit was also the first stop on our tour.  It was the house of collections.  Basically the museum gathered odd and/or impressive collections from around the Netherlands and put them in this building.  There really was not rhyme or reason to the collections they chose to put up here.

For instance: the largest collection of money banks (??)

How about this most impressive collection of air sickness bags?!  Aye, aye, aye!!

Not the biggest collection I’m sure, but the display wouldn’t be complete without a gaggle of garden gnomes (we added a few ourselves).

Really what the museum is meant to do is introduce visitors to the history and culture of the Netherlands by showing life as it is and was through the years.

Like this example of a mid-20th century neonatal center. 

An old dining room, complete with table, chairs, plates and hungry children.

Now this one is interesting.  At first glance you might think that Mark is just doing the disco in the back garden.  In reality, Mark is dancing the disco in the back garden, but it’s where the garden is located that is a bit different.  The museum had a set of four rowhouses, each set up in a different era (like the 1970s, 1870s, 1770s, or something like that) and inside each house was an example of what a house might look like in relation to childbirth.  Three of the houses (including the 1970s one, which also was playing 70s music – hence the dancing Mark) were sort of happy occasions, celebrating the birth of a child in the home.  One of them, not so much.  It had a casket with a mannequin baby inside it.  (infant mortality was a real problem in the 1600s and 1700s)  We decided to move on and so should you now that I spoiled the mood.

Let’s talk about cows.  That’s a happy topic.  Here the kids are “milking” cardboard cows.

And Katya the Dutch milk-maid.  We really should get one of those yolks for home.

True to his heritage, Watsons always look good in the seat of tractor.

In this children’s hands-on display, there was furniture from different ages.  The kids’ job was to try out the furniture, then pick which ones they would like in their house or bedroom. 

Katya wants the luxury royal covered bed. (in your dreams)

Mark just wants a bed with a ladder (“cool”)

Mark wants a horse and buggy too.

Look, it’s a windmill . . . in the Netherlands!!  Surprise! (Mark, why are you on the ground)

It’s a famous farmhouse (not sure how a farmhouse becomes famous, but this one apparently is).  Let’s go inside and check it out, shall we?

Alex does the moon walk in wooden clogs.  Not to be confused with clogging.

And that’s the tour of the famous farmhouse.  Let’s move on to the playground.  There we spend a good chunk of our time.  Resting?  Just Lyana.  The rest of us were riding the rope snake swingy thing that went really high and (thankfully) no one fell off.

Okay everyone, pose for the camera!  Good job Alex and Katya.  Mark, seriously, what are you doing?

Yup.  Best picture ever.

The laundry room next.  Here, we learned how the old-timers used to bleach and clean linens.

Those buckets are full of hot, steaming, water (and bleach) and the wooden beams leading into them are moving up and down like pistons, smashing the sheets clean.  Why should you care?  Let’s just say after visiting this building, I will never again complain about doing the laundry at home (not that I do much of it anyway, but that’s not the point).

Sadly, this was not the last time we would walk through the laundry building.  Later in this post you’ll find out the circumstances for our second visit.

Of all the pictures we could have taken of our lunch, this is the one we got.  Not us eating and enjoying lunch at a tiny table just big enough for two slices of bacon.  But a photo of the guy making our little pancake thingies which were then served obliterated with powdered sugar (‘excuse me ma’am, I think you forgot my pancakes.  All I got was this plate of lumpy powdered sugar.  Oh, wait, never mind.  I just found them.”) and chocolate sauce or brown sugar.  Next time, just skip the pancakes and go straight to the old-fashioned sweet shop next door and get too much black licorice flavored gummy things, huge lollipops and marshmallow triangles.  Oh wait, we did that too.

Outside the café. Can I just say those bikes are a lot harder to ride than they look.  Alex, are you getting on or off the bike?

There were about a dozen of these bikes for kids to ride.  No brakes and no chains.  Pedals attached directly to the wheel.  If you stopped pedaling, the bike stopped right where you were.  It was like the kids suddenly froze in place, then tipped over in slow motion. 

After a few attempts at the bikes, Mark (thankfully) chose a safer mode of travel.  Well, safer for him anyway.  It didn’t protect the people directly in front of him when he wasn’t watching where he was going and then suddenly couldn’t’ steer.

It’s a proven fact.  Three children will not eat sweets at the same rate.

Oh, this boat.  If only you knew the trouble we had with this boat.  Well, not this first trip anyway.  It’s just a rope attached to a boat, and to get to the other side you just pull on the rope.

Quick diversion – this a drawbridge.   They’re everywhere.

Okat, back to the boat.  Continuing the first trip on the boat.  It was the second trip attempt that did not fare too well.  As we were getting in the boat from that dock on the right, I swung my foot backward and crack, my foot met Mark’s nose and that was that.  Blood and tears came gushing out immediately.  The boatmen behind us came rushing over, visibly concerned.  A first aid kit was sent for.  Several staff members came offering assistance (if it weren’t for the gravity of the situation, it would have been funny with all these people from the 1800s crowded around us).  “Do you want to call help?  It could be broken!” they said of course.  And what I wanted to say was, “He’s a tough guy, he’ll pull through.  I’m a doctor, I can handle this thank you.  Please don’t call the ambulance.  He’s already been in the horse and buggy today.”  In reality, “thank you thank you yes I’ll take that ok he’s fine yes I’ll go with you I think the bleeding stopped now there’s blood all over the both of us oh look there’s a big red puddle on the ground now ok you’ll get that thanks.”

And then the nice Dutch lady took us back to the laundry room (see, I told you it would make a return) through to a little kitchen area where she sat Mark down, cleaned him him up and decided that his nose was indeed not broken.

Then we went back to the boat and crosses the pond successfully. 

And everyone was fine after that.  We did some more fun stuff.  Kids never even complained that there was too much walking (at least I can’t remember) and at the end of the day, all was well.

And now you have to go too.

Rob