395th Infantry - 70th Anniv.

Wow, long time since the last post! So now for something completely different. I and my world traveling friend Rob will be going to France, Belgium, and Germany in Marcy of 2015. The intent is to follow the route of my dad's WW 2 army outfit....as much as possible...from his entrance at Le Havre, France, to his final stop in Hammelburg, Germany. His unit, the 395th Infantry Regiment, was part of the 99th Infantry Division, or "99ers", as they called themselves in subsequent years and decades. You can almost read the itinerary on the accompanying image of the unit's movements; 11/3/1944-5/9/1945. That map was prepared by Lester Ellis, of Jasper, Alabama. My dad spoke of him when I was young, and I remember that he visited Lester a few times in the 60s. The idea for taking the trip originated with this map; it hung in our house for years during the 60s & 70s, making its way to the garage, then passed to me and my garage. Each time I pass it in the garage, I can't help but wonder what on earth it was like to be a part of the monumental efforts of serving in the military in WW 2; locating, drafting, training, equipping, and finally moving several million men around the planet. And then continuing to re-equip, feed, transport, and redirect them during the course of a history-changing conflict. So my goal is to visit every single European village my dad "visited"; the trip will begin March 12 and will end March 20. Along the way we will drive about 3,000 miles in 8 days, and retrace the steps of the 395th through 47 cities, towns, and villages.

Edward J. Stein-1944, Camp Maxey, Texas

The 99th Infantry Division began their journey in Camp Maxey, Texas. They spent several months there, departing by train to go to Camp Miles Standish, in Massachusetts. From there they took a troop ship to Plymouth, England; hundreds of thousands of American GIs trained in England and sometimes generally killed time until being transported to France.

February Update

So now the blog page is part of a website. Should allow us some flexibility we didn't have before. The latest on the trip....while at TMEA, Rob figured out he'd like to play the oldest organ in Scandinavia. It's in a suburb of Stockholm called "Uppsula". So he emailed the organist, and heard back from him the next day! We're good to go on July 1 from 4:00 until 8:00 p.m. That day will consist of an 8-hour drive from Oslo over to Uppsula to catch the block of time for the organ, so we'll have what we fondly refer to as a "full rich day"! Besides that, I've found a couple of places to stay that look interesting...on boats! They're in Stockholm, so we'll see if that comes to pass. We also watched Rick Steves in Helsinki and Tallinn, and got pretty fired up for that. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I'm going to find a way to put our plans on the website instead of on a spreadsheet, so anyone can see them and keep up with us. That's all for now. More pseudo-planning at Opal Divine's this evening.

January Update

The big pieces are done, reservation-wise. Flight reservations from Manchester to Copenhagen, rent car reservation from Gemut, the same company we used in 2010. The last reservation will need to be the ferry. We've decided to go to Turku instead of Helsinki on the ferry. 16-hour ride to Helsinki, 11 to Turku, plus we really need to drive a bit in Finland, see the folks. It's only about 1/5 hours from Turku over to Helsinki, so we'll actually pick up some time by going to Turku. I'm putting together a list of things to see and places to stay in each city; we'll have a bit of flexibility as we get closer. I'm through Copenhagen, Goethenburg, and Oslo now with those lists. G.A.S. is breaking, I'll have to continue later.

Not Much of an Update

I've actually spent a bit of time beginning to put together things to do and places to go. But I only got the first night, Copenhagen, and the second day, to Gothenburg. Guess before long, probably in January, we'll need to start making ferry reservations, get the tickets from Manchester to Copenhagen. That stuff. Schedules come out after Jan. 1; oh yeah, and get a car reservation going, too.

1st Draft, Big Circle

Actually, it looks more like a big square, but the name "Big Square" doesn't have quite the right feel. At least the initial planning is complete. More time in the car than I would have liked, but it will probably be okay. Either all the "Old Towns" will be different or they'll all look the same, cause that's all we'll have time to do in a couple place in the Baltic States.

Mo' Stuff

Pooped around a bit once we figured out we were indeed going to catch Easyjet to Copenhagen. Get there evening, do the hostel thing. Found reference in several places to "Nyhavn 17" Bar. There's evidently been a microbrewery explosion in Scandanavia in the last 10 years. Hate to hear that. This bar has a little bit of everything, and is on the water. The picture on the right is indicative of a typical Copenhagen bar area, from what I can tel.
Hostel? There's one called "BB Lighthouse", which sounds spectacular! On the coast, an old lighthouse keeper's building that's been added on to. Checked availabiity, and says it's full June 29. I don't believe it. Going to check later. Figured we would sleep in, get our car, head north.
I guess we're definitely going counter-clockwise on the "Big Circle". Who knows. We have TMEA ahead of us yet to decide! Anyway, Gothenburg, Sweden, is a city of about 900,000, and 200 miles north of Copenhagen. Figured by the time we slept, got car, lunch, and going north, we should probably only drive about halfway to Oslo, which is Gothenburg. Frommer says there's some good stuff to do there, and all the best looking people in Sweden live there. Hmmm.The picture says it all.