Our first few days were spent in Koln, taking in the city life by walking everywhere and seeing the major sights together. The main attraction in Koln is the Dom (cathedral) that was started in 1248 and completed in 1880. It receives 20,000 visitors a day and is the most visited site in Germany. It did receive damage during WWII, but remained standing despite the rest of the city being flattened by the end of the war.
Rory is quite a history buff so we took advantage of this and traveled to Bastogne, Belgium and spent a day with a guide who showed us all of the major spots where The Battle of the Bulge took place. He told us individual stories of soldiers he has met over the years and put a very personal spin on an important time of the war. We visited many villages around Bastogne that played major parts in the events of the time. There was a beautiful monument to all the veterans built on a hill overlooking the town of Bastogne.
We followed up the trip from the battlefields of Belgium to Luxembourg on the next day to visit one of the many American Cemeteries here in Europe where our troops are buried and honored. There are 5,076 Americans buried - a very sobering sight. We had seen one of the German cemeteries the day before and the kids both commented about how different they were. The American one is very well kept, bright and leaves you with an awesome feeling of honor and appreciation for the military.
In Frankfurt we met up with our next visitors, Jillian and Nikhil! We spent an evening at an outdoor cafe watching the European Cup being played. Unfortunately, Germany had lost to Italy days earlier so we only got a taste of what victory feels like on the streets of a European city. As it was there were horns honking well after midnight on the streets of Frankfurt. We all took a river cruise on the Rhine and saw beautiful castles along the river cliffs in between some raindrops. I had taken a cruise on the first sunny day we had in March and the Rhine was gorgeous then, but was much more grown and green now. It is quite an awesome sight. We parted with Jillian and Nik and will meet up with them this coming weekend when they come to Koln to stay for a visit. They are off visiting friends in Switzerand first.
We finished their visit with a trip up to Amsterdam. The drive into the city was memorable - not an easy city to drive in. There are bikes coming from all directions and they appear to have the right of way everywhere! You throw canals and one way streets in and you can picture the scenario. The scenery in the city was just beautiful - bridges, canals, boats, flowers, and cobblestone streets. The highlight of the visit was probably the Ann Frank House where there is a wonderful museum in the storefront/hiding place that the family lived in for 2 years. Of course, we had to take a boat ride through the canals which gives you a totally different perspective of the city. It is a very busy waterway with houseboats, tour boats, pleasure craft, pedal boats and even a yellow taxi service. We ended our trip with a wonderful dinner overlooking a canal. We so enjoyed seeing Europe through their eyes and opening them up to more adventures in the future.
