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.

Next Leg

The next leg appears to be from Manchester to Copenhagen. Have to figure out if the connections work, but that's the way we're headed.

Just wait, it'll change

So I explored a bit on American Airlines' website, found out that you could reserve 330 days ahead of time on ff miles. Had no clue. Still kept putting of making reservations. After several more Opal's Evenings, we finally decided to go ahead and get reservations. I check every damn major (and some minor) European city anywhere NEAR where we were going to go, and no dice. I was too late. The only flights left were to Manchester, England.

After a bit of thinking, we decided that's not such a bad thing. We have a 10-hr. delay in Chicago going and 7 coming back, but again, not such a bad thing. We'll take the train into Chicago, Segue around, go have lunch at our favorite restaurant, etc. We might not be so happy about it on the way back, but what the hell. So we're set. June 27-July 10. Next step is to figure out where we want to go from Manchester to arrive at the starting point of the "Big Circle". Easyjet goes several places, RyanAir to Oslo, so we'll chat that up a bit.

Coincidentally, Vergard Lien contacted me on Yahoo instant messenger while we were thinking about making plans. He's an ex-student of mine from Belton HS back in the day. He was born and raised outside of Oslo, and now lives there. Two kids, and we'll make it a point to stop to see him. That's it for now.

About Tivoli

Tivoli Gardens is kind of like Disney in Denmark. The exception is that there are a LOT of beer gardens and restaurants there. Don't know if it's a place we'll hang out at the end of day two. But there's no shortage of people-watching. This is the place where Ol' Ed, Frances, Mary Kaye/Jon, and Mary Kay/myself spent an evening. Has some pretty fond memories, as Daddy and Frances danced to 40's music from a live big band. Didn't see them dance many times, and that was pretty magical there in Denmark. I think it might be more our speed to catch a place to watch the masted sailing ships and have a cold one.

Some Movement

Little bit, anyway. I had some time the last weekend before school started to do some more planning. If we get in to Berlin mid-morning, we will probably have time to do a couple of things in Berlin, like Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, anything else we have time for. Then hit the hay. Next moorning start out CLOCKWISE, head towards Copenhagen. Gotta catch a ferry going from Rostock, Germany across to Gasden, Denmark. Probably Copenhagen is the end of day 2. And that's all I have, while sitting here waiting on the oil to be changed in MK's car. We might end up taking it easy and going to Belgium and hang out, who knows?

June 30 Dreaming

We've been kicking around the latest. Here goes:
1. Big counter-clockwise circle from Berlin to Berlin
2. Fly in to Berlin, rental car east through Germany into Poland; head NE through the Baltic states of Lithuainia, Latvia and Estonia; Ferry from Estonia to Finland; see the sightes in Finland, ferry across to Stockholm; drive across Sweden to Norway. Ferry south to Denmark, finish the drive around to Berlin
3. This might be just way off base in several ways, no way to know until we do some mileage estimates, cost of ferries, etc.
4. Train might be the way to go if we're going to try to cover that many miles.
5. That's all for now!

Planning for 2012? HUH?

Figured that if we were going to use ff miles, we better be able to have an idea about where we want to go by Jan. 1, 2012. Thus planning next year's trip while on this one! So since we've had a beer in 20 countries and 29 states, we figure we better keep adding to that while we can. So the two alternatives that came to mind on our 2011 Deep South Tour were:
1. Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland)
2. Southern Europe (Spain/Portugal)
In infinite wisdom, Rob suggested somehow trying to get both of those in. So research will go that route. Preliminary internet cruising indicates that RyanAir goes from suburban Copenhagen to several places in Spain. First casual thoughts would be
1. 10-12 day trip
2. Train mostly in Scandinavia due to distance
3. Drive a bit in the coast areas of Spain/Portugal, train across Spain if needed
4. In to Copengahen
5. Out of either Barcelona or Madrid (that's pronounced "MAD-rid" if you're from Missouri)
Next piece of research.....airports available to American Airlines, which discount airlines has the best routes/fares in Europe.

Mancation Dreamin'

So here's what a little research threw together. Enough for three weeks. Prolly.
Rob & Ed's Dreamlist
Potential Mancation things to do June 13-18, 2011. They are cleverly sorted into two categories of bars and non-bars.

Monticello, 931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway Charlottesville, VA 22902

Appomattox Courthouse 113 National Park Dr Appomattox, VA 24522

International Bluegrass Music Museum 117 Daviess Street Owensboro Ky 42303

Harpers Ferry Nat'l Historic Park - 171 Shoreline Drive, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Cape Hatteras Lhouse - Cape Hatteras Seashore Service Road Buxton, Hatteras Island, NC 27920

Wright Brothers National Memorial-1401 National Park Drive, Manteo, NC 27954

Museum of the Confederacy - 1201 East Clay Street Richmond, VA 23219-1615

Mr. Vernon - 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, Mount Vernon, Virginia 22309
Gettysburg Battlefield - 1195 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg Pa., 17325

North Carolina Transportation Mus - 411 S. Salisbury Ave Spencer, NC 28159 (South's largest)

Battleship N Carolina-#1 Battleship Road, Wilmington, NC 28401 +34° 14' 11.58", -77° 57' 16.14

Old Fort Mountain Music-Old Fort, N.C.-Live bluegrass, free admission Fri nights only

A.J.'s Tavern - 114 N Broadway, Pennsville, NJ 08070
"The Horse You Rode In On" Saloon-Fells Point, Baltimore 21231 (estab 1775)
The Tavern- 222 East Main, Abingdon, Va. 24210 (estab 1779) (also a pricey restaurant)
Middleton's Tavern - 2 Market Space, Annapolis Md. 21401(Est 1750)
Old Talbott Tavern - 107 W Stephen Foster Ave, Bardstown, KY -(Est. 1779) home cookin' too
Patrick Sullivan's Saloon - Knoxville, Tenn 0 100 N. Central Ave. 37902 (Est. 1888)

2011 - Minimal Planning

I guess we kind of spent ourselves on last year! We know we're going to fly into BWI, head over for a quick beer in Jersey somewhere, then catch Maryland and Delaware, then head west to the Virginias, try to get in Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas. That's about all we know. Guess that means we gotta jump on summer 2012 early!

Thursday, July 8

A great, relaxing 4-hour train ride from Zurich to Paris in a super-smooth TGV train going 200 mph. I got a video of the biotch in the train. Turned her on and had to turn the volume down..."recalculating"...we obviously were'nt on a road, and she struggled. But figured out we were going that fast on the train!

Pulled in to Paris on time at 11:30. Took us a couple of hours to change money, eat, check in to hostel.
Then we went out and did what all Parisian tourists do.....got exhausted just getting around! Went to tour the "Catacombs"; we were pretty excited about that; in the 18th century the authorities decided to dig up all the church cemetaries. Remains were contaminating the ground water; so it took them several decades to move the remainds all to this one underground area, all neatly labeled; well, we wandered around trying to find it, aSnd ended up getting there 30 minutes after it closed. Dammitt.

So on to St. Sulpice, one of Rob's favorite cathedrals. Famous organ maker built the organ there . Beautiful church, no organ music yet. Rob's 3rd visit not hearing it. Dammitt again.

By the way, it was about 94 degrees in Paris, which is a spectacular heat wave in Paris. There's no AC here, y'see. So on to do a Seine River cruise. Hop on Hop off. That turned out to be a giant convection oven....glass boat, no ventilation. Did that for a while. Hopped off at the Eiffel Tower. Pictures. Went to the Metro, which is the underground. Subway. It's how you get around in Paris. The most interesting metro experience of our lives. Packed like sardines. Dripping sweat. Touching strangers' sweat. Eeeewwwww. Struggled to get off at our stop. "Par DOAN"....Get the F out of the way, I'm getting off...." like that. Wow. Finally made it back to our hostel area. dinner at outdoor bar. No air moving. Hot. Did I mention it was hot here?

Back to hostel to tuck ourselves in. Huge crowd of drunk college kids. 98 degrees in our room while I type this. We definitely saved the best for last. That is all. This blog is history. A good time was had by bofus.

Wed., July 7

We some some more breathtaking Bavarian Alps scenery today....just kept on comin'. We went through about 20 tunnels, some as long as 7-8 km.

We left Ruhpolding this moring, drove to a small village in Lichtenstein for our obligatory "beer in that country" and lunch. Then steadily made our way across Switzerland to Zurich, with some more beautiful mountains on the way. Biotch found us restaurants and gas stations. Dropped the rent car off at the airport, caught a train to central Zurich, about 20 minutes away. Then, as a final contribution to the trip, Biotch helped us find our way on foot from the train station to the hotel.

We're about a 10 minute walk from the train station. Good thing, because in the morning we catch a 7:00 a.m. train to Paris, have half a day there before starting home Friday. Tonight we'll have an outrageously expensive Swiss meal of some sort....beers are $7 per glass....and just try to get out of here in the morning without spending any more than we have to!

Random Thoughts:

• I forgot about the toilet paper here...uh...that would be sand paper
• Traffic lights....red....yellow....green......What the...?
• Gas is 1.40 euro per LITER.

Tuesday July 6

We THOUGHT this was going to be kind of an easy day, but ...nuh uh. Got away by about 9:00. We went across the Slovenia/Italy border about 30 minutes after leaving Bled. Again no border check. Stoppedin a little Italian town about 10:00 and had a tiny beer, to say we had. Town was evidently known for its market, which we saw while having out tiny morning beer. Stayed in town about 30 minutes. We were headed for our next destination, Ruhpolding, when we decided that we'd get there about 1:00 with nothing to do. It's a very small ski town in off season, so not much to do there. At all. So....we rubbed our two mental sticks together and actually came up with a fire!

• Thanks to American Airlines, we were robbed of the "Hitler's Nest" thing at the beginning of the trip. Turned out we had plenty of time to get there.
• On the way there, there, and on the way away, some of the most spectacular Bavarian Alps scenes. Plenty of pictures later. Got to Bechtesgaden (remember General Burkalter talking about that place all the time on "Hogans's Heroes"? No?. Sigh. Thought not) about 2:00 or so. Ate at the touristy restaurant, then caught a bus to the top o' the mountain, "Eagles's Nest".
• It was completed in 1938 for Hitler's 50th birthday. Given to Hitler by Martin Bohrmann on behalf of the people of Germany. There's some really famous footage of Hitler up there on the terrace of the place wearing a white coat. He only went there 3 or 4 times because of his concern for security. I'm trying to imagine the expense of building the road up there, the elevator shaft to the top. building the place.....damn. The final episode of "Band of Brothers" has some lengthy scenes shot up there. Or at least the movie set was really good. But I think it was actually shot up there.
• Anyway, stayed there, got our pictures, came back down, started raining like a sumbitch, so we set out for Ruhpolding, Germany, where we had a room waiting.
• Checked in hotel. Went to have a beer at the same place Rob/Joan ate and partied a few years ago when they came here. Of course, the owners had been talking to the owners of the Kodaly museum in Budapest, and this damn place was closed too. So we piddled around in the downtown area, then headed back to hour hotel to eat a very traditional German meal. Read that....very tasty. Yes, Mary Kay and Joan, you're correct about all those food things you're thinking right now when you see "traditional". But dang it was good.
• That's it. This will be our last big day. Tomorrow drive through Lichtenstein on the way to Zurich to return the rent car and stay the night.

Random thoughts:

• I remember now. Noboday in Europe...and we've done 8 countries in 8 days....knows what fresh fruit juice is. Watered down something-flavored pisswater. Just change the color of it and the fruit that's on the label, and people will think they're drinking nectar of the gods, right?
• Did I mention that every third woman has her hair dyed the colors of a Jimi Hendrix shirt from the 70s?
• Biotch yet again took us her "shortest way". There's one place we were convinced we were on a $%^#$$%  golf cart path in the middle of a rain forest. Oh, and it hailed on us while we were hearing the banjos again. (no damage to the car) BUT....as always, we ended up back in civilaztion, no worse for the wear. That is all... 

Monday, July 5th

We started out the day with a two hour walking tour of Ljubljana, Slovenia, with a guide. About 8 of us in the group. Very informative, as those things usually are. At the end of the tour we ate in a "feesh restaurant", as our guide called it. Had baked fish with garlic sauce, minced garlic, garlic soup poured on it, and garlic marinaded. In garlic, I think. From there we bolted to Bled, Slovenia, about a half hour away. An absolutely stunning resort town in the Julian Alps. Freshwater lake with a trail all the way around it. Boats to rent, the works. We found our hostel, and upgraded to a regular room with a view of the lake. Oh my gosh. What a beautiful place. Checked in, went to drive around and familiarize. Took about 19 minutes. Then for a beer overlooking the lake. Then a boat ride out to the island on the lake. Traditional rowboat, homemade boats in the familiy for generations, like that. Out to the island. Church. Good pictures. Back in town.

• Took a drive up to the Bled Castle. Too late to tour, but got some great pictures.
• Back down to town, then got excited about doing the luge, which is on a ski slope. Went up there. It was for kids, dammitt.
• Back to the hotel. Sat out to have a beer on a stunning small deck. Private wine cellar right there.
• To the restuarant for a very good meal indeed.
• Back to the room

I'm short-circuiting how gorgeous this place really is, and how laid back. Lots of hotels and people scattered about, but it doesn't seem croweded at all. We really enjoyed this whole thing in Bled tremendously.
Random thought:

• More colors not found in nature. Wow.
• New wardrobe for Rob and myself must include white collared shirt, white capri pants, flipflops. Gotta do something with our hair, too.

Tomorrow, going in to Italy for a brief time, will end up in Ruhpolding, Germany. A Bavarian village we were supposed to stay in the first night, but American Airlines screwed us out of that. So we'll try again.

Sunday, July 4

Another absolutely whirlwind day.

We got up in Budapest this morning, after having a kinda lukewarm opinion of it last night. That certainly changed! Our apartment was in a "rejuvinating" section of town, and we went to the historical/tourist areas in the morning. Hero's Park, a castle that' been there forever, stopped by the Kodaly Museum (famous Hungarian composer, folk music, like that). Kodaly Museum was closed for restoration, of course, because they knew we were coming and that Rob REALLY wanted to see it. Then:

• Went to "Castle Hill", where everything important in Budapest really is. "Chain Bridge", built in mid 1800s, the Palace on top of the hill; funicular leading up to it; did the funicular, got a bunch of pictures, stayed around there for an hour or so.
• Biotch took us about 15 km. SW of town to a really unique park called "Memento Park", or "Monument Park". Some enterprising soul who is unnamed guy collected as many communist-era statues as he could get in 1989-90; most are from Budapest, but not all. Some REALLY famous stuff that we've all seen since we were kids. It was so unexpected to find this. About 15 people were there. Along with this exhibit outside was an inside exhibit that focused on the Hungarian Commnist party and uprising of 1956 and 1989. We were  both pretty entranced by this. They were playing Communist marching songs from an ancient radio at the rather spartan admissions booth.
• Took off for Ljubljana, Slovenia. Perfect, smooth, unbelieveably uninhabited freeway all the way. We got to a turing point and decided to dip in to Croatia to get a beer, add that to the list of countries. Stopped to gas up and grab that all-important beer. Took a swallow and poured it out. Brings canned Falstaff to mind.
• Arrived in LjubLjana about 8:00; this is a city of 265K, but doesn't seem like it. Capital of a very thriving country, but it's really laid back. It's about an hour from Italy, and about the size of New Jersey with a quarter the population. There is indeed a little city center, but about one quarter the size of the other old European center areas we've been to. Got directions from the hotel chickie for a restaurant; went on the search. Found out that they don't eat here, just drink. Beer. Booze. Coffee drinks. And on and on. We must have passes 20 jam packed sidewalk places that had no food available, only drinks. God bless the Slovenians. However, we did have to have food...found a restuarant with...count 'em....100 choices of pizza on the menu. Damn. Best we've ever had. They learned a bit from the Italian pizza gods here, I guess.

Tomorrow we'll do a walking tour of Ljubljana, then drive over to Bled, which is a popular resort area. We're going to try to get a bit of rest tomorrow. Lotsa driving and going up to now.

Random thoughts:

• Many MANY women have hair with colors not found in nature. (CNFIN) All ages. Doesn't matter. Red. Purple. Yellow. Gold. Green. Puce. Mauve. Connected Gray.
• More style additions to mine/Rob's wardrobe: purple spaghetti strap tops with brightly - colored matching striped boxers that..uh...er....exhibit the package. Really. No, really.
• Speed of 130 kph on the roads really means go as fast as you can without running others off the road.
• To use the baths in Budapest as a male, you MUST :
• Have a 60 lb. belly
• Wear a speedo
• Hit on the 20-something chicks