Spring Break Day 1: WWII Sites

When Darin looked at a map of how we would travel to the Netherlands for spring break, he instantly knew that we needed to make a day out of the WWII cities that would be along the route. 

First stop was in Malmady, Belgium.  Site of the Malmady Massacre.

There is a plaque on the site of the massacre as well as a list of names and a US flag flying.

I really like that Europeans see fries as a meal.  They have "Fry Shacks" everywhere.  They love to load them up with sauces of all sorts of flavors and eat them with a fork.  We, Americans, just may not appreciate the fry for what it is worth.  Davis, who is always full of information, informed us that fries actually started in Belgium and are referred to as Flemmish Fries instead of French Fries.  (I totally stopped fact checking that kid years ago, but you can feel free.)  I don't care what they are called, because we call them lunch and they are delicious.

Second stop:  Aachen, Germany.  This was the first city in which the Germans were attacked on their own soil.    The cathedral was damaged some, but had been repaired.  It was a really neat cathedral. 

Ok, for a moment of snottiness, the first thing that I thought of when we walked into the cathedral was how much it reminded me of the Hagia Sopia in Istanbul. The ceiling was covered in gold mosiacs.  There snottiness over.  It was amazing.

We've noticed that all the big churches have some "claim to Christ."  This is one that I call Mary's Garage Tote. It supposedly contains Mary's clothes (maternity clothes?  Just toss them in the tote), Jesus' swaddling clothes (put them in the tote for the next kid), and the cloth used in John the Baptist's beheading (that is just gross). 

This is Charlemagne's church so his remains are here too, as well as his throne.

This was kind of funny to me.  The little "doll" reminded me of  my childhood with Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.  It kind of looked like the puppet that was a girl, but kind of looked like a boy.

Aachen has a famous spicy cookie.  This is inside the store where we bought our large chocolate covered gingerbread-ish cookie.