The town was very quaint. It looked a lot like the pedestrian streets in Amsterdam, lots of little shops and packed with people.
There was a fair traveling through town. It was quite a sight to see a ferris wheel in front of an ancient gothic style church.
We stopped off in Bastonge on the way to Luxembourg and visited a WWII museum and memorial monument. The museum was filled with various items the soldiers carried from weapons to matches and contained several mannequins dressed in all the uniforms of the war.
The land is beautiful, filled with patches of trees which open to huge meadows. Our tour guide said that Hitler chose to attack Luxembourg because he didn't think the Americans could fight is such a wooded area.
The monument is a huge stone structure that has a breathtaking view of the town from the top. It was very peaceful.
After the museum we drove to the Luxembourg American cemetery. It is a 50 acre plot of land surrounded by a Forrest, quite a breathtaking sight. It was liberated by the U.S. 5th Armored Division on September 10th, 1944. It contains 5,076 graves of American soldiers, including one military nurse, who lost their lives in the war. There are 101 headstones that mark the graves of unknown soldiers. General Patton, who wanted to remain with his men, is burred here as well.
On the ground near patting grave there is an inscription that reads:
"All who shall hereafter live in freedom will be here reminded that to these men and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with grateful remembrance of their sacrifice and with the high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live eternally. Dwight D. Eisenhower"
I didn't think I was going to find it very interesting, seeing as I have done my best to remain oblivious to war, this one in particular. There is no escaping it here, you can feel it everywhere. It looms over everything. I find it all overwhelming but at the same time I am longing to learn more.
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