September 2024 – Page 2 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

September 10, 2024 Bastogne BE

Our plans are to head towards Vienna by driving thru the Alps, but we decided to pick up a couple of places that we have been meaning to visit, but always seem to just miss. So today found us in Bastogne Belgium. This place has been on my list of places to visit since we first started coming but we always just missed it.

It was an easy drive over to Bastogne, and while the traffic was not light it never slowed down the whole trip. We arrive at the campground around 1:30 and headed over to the museum for the battle as soon as we checked in.

The excellent museum dedicated to the Battle of Bastogne.

The Battle of Bastogne that the museum is dedicated to took place in December and January of 1944. The battle was the last offensive that the German Army tried in WWII, the overall campaign became known as the Battle of the Bulge. It initially caught the American forces in the area by surprise and the Germans reconquered a significant area of Belgium around Bastogne causing heavy casualties to the American defenders. The key to stopping the German attack was a stand taken by the 101st Airborne and 10th Armored Divisions at Bastogne. For about a week they were surrounded in the town which was a key transportation hub that the Germans needed to take. Despite all of the German efforts the American forces prevented the Germans from capturing the town. The battle of the Bulge caused the most casualties of any battle fought in WWII by American forces.

A memorial to the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” who became famous as the Battling Bastards of Bastogne.

The museum tells the story of the battle thru the eyes of 4 participants, an American paratrooper from the 101st. A German Grenadier from one of the attacking Panzer units, and two Belgian civilians a young teenager and a school teacher from a nearby village. The museum is very well done and the stories of the four are interwoven in a very interesting way.

It took us over 3 hours to get thru the museum and we really enjoyed ourselves. As you leave the museum there is a monument built by the people of the Bastogne shortly after the war in honor of the defenders. The monument is a simple series of columns with all 50 US States at the top and a list of the units who defended Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

The monument built by the people of Bastogne commemorating the US forces who defended the town.

In our own personal battle the mouse is still present in François. Apparently Dutch mice don’t eat peanut butter like American mice so we have now added bits of Gouda cheese to the mouse trap to hopefully appeal to his Dutch sensibilities and entice him into the trap tonight. Last night he taunted us by walking right past the trap to try to chew into some of Tons Thai spices. Fortunately he didn’t succeed or we would have had to go nuclear on him.

September 9, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Today was a maintenance day for François. We needed to have the oil and filter changed, so we asked for some references from the storage yard and were directed to a local garage. The people there were very nice. The work was done quickly. We spent the time talking to the owners wife who is a nurse, and a customer who is a security guard at the US Embassy in the Hague. The time passed quickly.

When I found out they didn’t take credit cards I had to find an ATM nearby. When I told them I was going to walk to the ATM which was about a kilometer away, the security guard insisted on driving us. In addition to getting some cash, we found the location of two more grocery stores close to where we store François. So thanks to everyone who helped us today.

We arrived back at the campground around noon and just as we settled in it started raining pretty hard so we decided that was a sign that we should just relax and try to get over the jet lag for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will be off towards Bastogne in Belgium.

The mouse was quiet last night, but he did not end up in any of the mouse traps so we assume he is still with us.

September 8, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We battled jet lag last night and while we had a couple of nice conversations in the middle of the night we were not up and about very early. We did hear our new nemesis the mouse rattling about a couple of times so one more stop was added to our plans for the day.

About 11 am we joined the Sunday exodus from the campground but instead of heading on we were just heading out. The first stop for the day was a nearby Praxis (the Dutch equivalent of Home Depot) to purchase a couple of mouse traps.

One of the benefits of Amsterdam as a starting point for our trips is there are several Asian Groceries. We visited a couple of them nearby so are well stocked with essentials for Ton.

The disadvantage of Amsterdam is the conventional groceries (Lidl and the local chain Albert Heijn) are difficult to access in a motorhome compared to other cities. We picked a location that had both a Lidl and Albert Heijn, but when we got there about a third of the parking lot was dug up so parking was impossible. Ton remembered there was an Albert Heijn near the campground so we headed over there. The parking lot for the store was full, but we were able to find a parking lot a couple of hundred meters away, so we have adequate food for the next few days.

We arrived back to the a much emptier campground and had our first proper meal of the trip and relaxed for the rest of the day.

September 7, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We went to sleep during a huge thunderstorm and then slept somewhat fitfully until after 11am this morning. I made our coffee and was sitting outside while Ton lingered in bed.

I had tried listening for mouse noises, but had heard none so I was hopeful that the mouse had moved on before we arrived. It turns out I was wrong. He is still in François and it turns out is a bit of a jerk. During the night he gnawed his way into a packet of cookies that had passed inspection yesterday, and to taunt us dropped a piece cookie in the bed during the night to announce his presence. Ton woke up to find the cookie under her in bed.

We debated whether to go shopping today for a mouse trap, but by the time we had eaten breakfast and gotten organized enough to get going it was 2pm, so we decided to go tomorrow. So the mouse gets one more night before we start hunting for it in earnest.

Ton has been fascinated by the pizza machines we have seen near roads and in shopping centers around Europe. Since we last stayed at this campground they have installed one. One of the highlights of Tons day was studying the operation of the machine up close. The machine here delivers either a cheese or pepperoni pizza for about €13. It looks like you deposit your money, and about 5 minutes later a hot pizza appears already boxed for carryout. I asked Ton if she wanted to try one and she laughed and said only if I have not had any food at all for about 3 days. So fascination with the machine does not equal consuming the product for Ton.

September 6, 2024 Amsterdam NE

The trip was off to a good start. Our flight on Delta was on time and uneventful. As normal neither one of us managed to sleep much if at all on the flight. Immigration was a little slow, but that meant our bags were waiting for us when we came out.

We arrived at the storage place for François at 11am and he was waiting for us in front as promised. A quick look around and everything seemed ok. We turned on everything and it worked. So far so good.

The next stop was a local grocery near the storage to pick up enough food to last a couple of days while we recovered from jet lag. Our shopping was a little disjointed as we were pretty jet lagged, but after about 30 minutes we had a slightly weird selection of food, but adequate for a day or two until we got out for a proper shop.

The drive over to the campground was stop and go, the worst traffic we had seen in Amsterdam so what should have been a twenty minute drive took a little over an hour. We checked in and had our spot by 12:30. Everything was going exactly to plan.

The plan for the rest of the day was to unpack our bags, have a light dinner and relax to try to get over the jet lag. When we opened the closet where we store the cleaning gear and things like spare paper towels and toilet paper our plan came to a screeching halt.

It was clear that François had been occupied by a mouse while he was in storage. All of the paper products had been shredded. Opening other cabinets, different food products and plastic packages had been gnawed thru. We had a couple of boxes of milk products that in Europe can be stored as dry goods until opened. The mouse had gnawed thru those containers causing the milk to leak out all over the cabinet.

The next three hours were spent emptying out all of the cupboards, sorting thru all of the dry goods we had left in the cabinets to see which ones had been chewed thru. We ended up throwing out quite a bit of food we accumulated . Interestingly the mouse preferred rice products over noodle products! We finally gave all of the cabinets a good scrubbing and washed all of the dishes and pots and pans.

Finally about 6:30 Ton decided that things were clean enough. By then we were both too tired to eat, and just crawled into bed. The only question left is the mouse still on board, or has he moved on.