Bastogne Band of Brothers Tour: Luxembourg and Belgium

November was a full month of day trips and 4 day weekends.  We opted again for a USO tour to see Bastogne and other World War II sites along the way.  I wanted to plan this trip myself, but when I saw they already had an organized tour with a knowledgeable guide it just made sense! Ryan loves this kind of history and was super excited to go on this little day trip.  We had one annoying older couple who bickered the entire time and complained about everything Europe. Its kind of embarrassing and rude when we are driving through quaint villages and the man can only say things like "Well, in America its better.  We have this and this and this is just strange, etc."   We fell asleep on the way home and woke up to them blaring Frozen on their iPad.  I mean thank goodness I like that movie, right? What if the whole bus doesn't want to listen to Frozen? Maybe invest in some earbuds? Okay, rant over! Otherwise, it was an enjoyable time.

Our first stop was Luxembourg American Cemetery as well as the German Cemetery.

From there we went to Die Kirsch another village affected by the war and now houses a great Museum.  At this point we were pretty hungry and there wasn't much in the way of restaurants open and time to spare, so we grabbed a french pastry (YUM) and luckily I had brought some snacks along.

The tour continued on to see the 101st Airborne Memorial and the forest where that unit fought the Germans.  We got to see the fox holes and the viewpoint out to Foy where they continued their fight.

We made a stop at the Bastogne Museum and had a little time to fly through it.

Finally, the tour ended in Bastogne where we saw other highlights shown in the Band of Brothers Mini Series and could break for dinner.  Dinner was amazing at a little pizza joint where we enjoyed some local brew.  I wish we had more time to explore the town of Bastogne, but thats ok!

We really enjoyed this tour and it was interesting to see some amazing pieces of history where so many men paid the ultimate sacrifice. I think Ryan wanted a little bit more history and to see even more, but thats just how it goes on a tour like that.