It has been a few months since their visit, but better late posting than never posting! Maren's grandparents, my Mom and Dad, visited in November and brought lots of good loot for Maren from all of Maren's family and friends - thanks everyone!
My mum and pop hadn't been to Belgium before so in addition to loads of Maren time there was a lot of Belgium to see. They arrived just in time for the Armistice Day commemorations, and this last year they were particularly noteworthy as it was 11-11-11. The Ypres Salient is considered by many to be the center of activities on the Western Front of WWI and today has the most extensive Armistice Day activities. For more info on the significance of Ypres in WWI, check out Simone's post from last year on our Armistice Day in Ypres.
We observed the Armistice Day ceremonies at Menin Gate . . .
. . . visited the In Flanders Fields Museum . . .
. . . where they have, amongst much else, an exhibit detailing the Christmas Truce of 1914, where German and Allied troops laid down their arms and celebrated Christmas together in No Man's Land between the trenches. Below is a statue they have in the In Flanders Fields Museum depicting the event.
We then visited the Bayernwald trenches just outside Ypres. Bayernwald means 'German wood' and is named as such because the Germans controlled this area for much of WWI. Bayernwald is also where Corporal Adolf Hitler served in WWI. Hitler visited Bayernwald again during WWII in June 1940.
We completed our Flanders Fields WWI tour by visiting the Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial.
No visit to Belgium is complete without a visit to Bruges! A foggy day didn't deter us from seeing all of the sites and canals.
In Brussels we made the obligatory visit to Grand Place, where the Christmas tree had just been delivered, but wasn't trimmed yet. You can see part of it in the picture below with the Hôtel de Ville in the background.
We even got my Mom to participate in our iconic 'mimic a statue' photo tradition in the Petit Sablon in Brussels.
Yes, that's Maren snuggled in tight under my jacket in the picture below :-)
Unfortunately, the museum in Bastogne was closed for renovations, but we did visit the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial where many of the interred sacrificed their lives in the Battle of the Bulge in Dec '44 - Jan '45. The Ardennes Offensive, as the Battle of the Bulge is also known, was Germany's final great offensive in WWII and was the largest WWII battle fought by the Americans.
After our visit to the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial we had lunch in the smallest town in the world, Durbuy. OK, so it isn't actually the smallest town in the world, but that's been it's marketing line for, well, I don't know how long, but a long time! At any rate, it might not be the smallest town in the world, but it has been recognized as one of the top 10 rural destinations in Europe. Here's a good picture of Mom and Dad in Durbuy:
The final weekend of my parents visit was also the first weekend of the Christmas Market in Aachen, Germany. Aachen is a beautiful Germany town sitting at the borders of Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium, and hosts a fantastic Christmas Market every year. We were lucky to have it open just in time for my parents to see it before the end of their visit!
The Aachen Cathedral is a Unesco World Heritage site built on the orders of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) in 792 A.D and today the cathedral holds his remains. "For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, the Aachen chapel was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens" (wikipedia). Here is a photo of Mom and Dad inside the Cathedral:
Maren wasn't so interested and decided to sleep through all of the hustle and bustle of the crowded market and cathedral.
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