Trip 2 Day 5 Bastogne!

What a fantastic day! Absolutely surreal. Today I got to see the sight I was most interested in in Europe. I got to see the town of Bastogne. Although it may not look like it now, it was once severely shelled and bombed by the German army during WWII and the American soldiers there held tough. I have wanted to see this town for as long as I can remember and today I got my chance. It was somewhat of a pain to get to the town but it was sure worth it. Upon arriving the first stop I made was to the 101st Airborne museum. The museum was great. It had a lot of the equipment used by the soldiers and the way they constructed the exhibit was phenomenal. While I was wandering the exhibit, I started to hear voices coming from the hallway. I look out and see the unmistakable pin that was his jump wings. Coming up the stairs was a veteran who fought in Bastogne. He was extremely cheery and loved to share his story. It turns out he's from Minnesota and was a mortar man during the war. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to his stories. Before we had to leave I shook his hand and thanked him for all he had done. It was a pleasure to meet him. Not much could really compare with that. We made our way to another museum and looked at that exhibit, although it wasn't as good as the first. Unfortunately the barracks, which is still being used today, did their last tour about a half hour before we got there so we were not able to go through it. With that tour done and gone then there was not much left to do but head back to Brussels. It was truly an astonishing day.