Less than a week to go...

It's unfortunate that there's less than a week to go here, time has flown by fast. We have been spending so much time doing so many things, that its hard to really just kick back and relax, and I haven't had much time to post on this blog --and, admittedly, when I have, I have had trouble remembering. In the past three days, we have done some pretty exciting things. A few days ago, we went to an American military service for Memorial day, presided over by the American ambassador to Luxembourg and a few other officials at the American war cemetary where General Patton himself is buried. That entire day had been quite interesting; before we went to that cemetary, we went to a German one so that we might experience firsthand the contrast between the two, and it was remarkable. The crosses in the German cemetary were not religious in nature, but were Nazi crosses, and needless to say there were of course no Jewish headstones. They also featured 3, 4, and sometimes even 5 names per headstone, each of which was made of weathered (but natural) stone. The only large monuments on the whole premises were a large stone entryway, and a ten or fifteen foot cross at the end of the cemetary signifying the location of a mass grave. The entire thing was niceley shaded, and almost ominously serene.

Meanwhile, at the American cemetary, nearly every stone surface was made of white polished marble, and there were a number of huge monuments dedicated to the soldiers buried there, including an outrageously tall marble tower engraved with words describing it as a "humble tribute" to the American casualties of WWII. There were also two giant murals, one describing the direction of offensives in the West, and another describing solely the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. The landscaping was unbelievably well kept, and the entire walkway surrounding the marble tower was lined by a tall green hedge, with not a single branch uneven. There was also only one soldier per headstone, and to each unknown soldier was written a small epitaph describing the nature of who was buried there, something along the lines of "here lies a fallen soldier known but to god" or something (the german graves had been "ein deutsch soldat" or "zwe deutsch soldaten." Later, we came back to the house to have a small party with many of the people who had attended the memorial service, and were given a chance to meet the Ambassador herself, who had been a hold-over political appointee from the Bush administration. After meeting her, I can say that I am thankful she is on her way out, and that we as a nation are no longer being represented by someone such as her.

The following day, we went on an all-day cruise down a river to a winery, which was a lot of fun. The cruise itself wound its way down the river marking the Luxembourg-Germany border, and we were able to just sit and relax and talk while enjoying the absolutely beautiful (and apparently extremely unusual) sunny, 85 degree weather. The winery itself was interesting, very dark, and very cold, and the tour guides spoke only Dutch and French, so we had to piece together what was being said as we went along, but it was still a nice experience.

Yesterday was perhaps the coolest day yet, we went to a castle in a small town called Vianden. It was seated up in the mountains, which was strange to me because prior to coming here, I had no idea there even were mountains. Through each of the rooms, there was a small model documenting the progression of the castle as it was expanded upon throughout the years. It would be difficult for me to adequately express the regality of the building in words, and I'm a little crunched for time at the moment, so later tonight or early tomorrow morning I will upload as many good pictures of the castle as I can, keep checking back frequently; I just need to go through the hundreds that I took and find only a few I can post on here.

I'll post again by tomorrow morning at the latest with all the pictures.