Casino

Our plan was to sleep in Cassino, drive to Rome and then come back after a day of visiting Rome.
Then sleep another night in Cassino and drive to Naples to go visit Pompeii!
Well we had a change of plan on our second visiting destination. We decided that going to Naples was going to be a little too long, so we ended up going to visit Monte Cassino.

For those of you who don't know about the battle of Monte Cassino here is some infos:
Monte Cassino
It was pretty awesome as we went up the hill.
Fog all over, and not small spot, you can see how thick it was. We couldn't see too far!!Between September, 1943 and May, 1944 the town was occupied by the Germans. The Germans had a great strategic position - on the mountain - and were able to see the entire area. The Allied Forces made many unsuccessful attempts to conquer Monte Cassino. Finally after a battle that lasted seven days, the Polish soldiers overtook the German army. 860 Polish soldiers died and 2800 were wounded in that fierce battle. The battle also resulted in the bombing of the monastery. More than a thousand Polish soldiers are buried in the Polish cemetery located on the mountain across from the abbey. The town of Cassino and the Benedictine Abbey were rebuilt after the war. After we paid our respect to those Polish soldiers who lost their life.We headed up the hill to the Abbey to visit it! It was just incredible. Everyone know that the Italian are amazing on their architecture.
This abbey was a pile of dust and rock at the end of WWII, and take a look of what it is now. Just amazing!!While visiting the inside of the Church, we could hear singing coming up from the
basement of the church, so we headed down and came up to the most
beautiful mosaic covered walls and ceiling.
A little picture that my mother took, just for you to see that I do exist, it isn't just a automatic flying camera that use the Happy Trigger Finger!! See it is I in my blue turban! LOL

We left early afternoon to get to our villa. Next stop the Tuscany hills!!

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Schoenenburg Fort Maginot Line France

Matt was put in charge of a visit of the Maginot line. And the Schoenenburg Fort was going to be one of the stop. So we decided to go and check it out. We went with Larry and Mike (and his sons). It was interesting, but a little weird! Miles of underground tunnels with rooms for divers use. Dormitories, dining room, mechanical rooms, air system purification room… First when you arrive you get to see a huge sign that say “Nobody goes through” (the humor is that, nobody came through from the East, but…. From the North yep!! They came alright!!) Anyway, here is a little history about the Maginot Line: "it was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defenses, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I, and in the run-up to World War II. Generally the term describes only the defenses facing Germany, while the term Alpine Line is used for the Franco-Italian defenses.

The French established the fortification to provide time for their army to mobilize in the event of attack, allowing French forces to move into Belgium for a decisive confrontation with German forces. The success of static, defensive combat in World War I was a key influence on French thinking. The fortification system successfully dissuaded a direct attack. However, it was strategically ineffective, as the Germans did indeed invade Belgium, defeated the French army, flanked the Maginot Line, and proceeded relatively unobstructed.

Military experts extolled the Maginot Line as a work of genius, believing it would prevent any further invasions from the east (notably, from Germany). However, the German army in World War II largely bypassed the Maginot Line by invading through the Ardennes forest and via the Low Countries, completely sweeping by the Line and conquering France in days. As such, the Maginot Line has come to mean a strategy or object that people put hope into but fails miserably. It is also the best known symbol of the adage that
"generals always fight the last war, especially if they have won it"."

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Bastogne Part I

This is what the weather is supposed to be for the “Bastogne Walk” that Matt is taking the boys to this weekend. He is leaving this afternoon with MY babies and coming back tomorrow. Mind you, I am NOT complaining about the fact that I will not be walking in the cold all day, I am just worried about them getting a cold over it. BUT it will be a nice Father/sons time I am sure and I will take my daughter to the upstairs and get her to do some stuff with me tomorrow! LOL!!
For those of you who don’t know what BASTOGNE is and where it is here is a little knowledge that came out of my hat (thanks Wikipedia!) ;-)
"Liberated by the Allies in late 1944, Bastogne was attacked by German forces shortly after. Hitler was, again, looking for control of the Ardennes. The goal was to advance to Antwerp, to cut off supply and separate British from American troops. On December 16, taking advantage of the cold and the fog, the German artillery started the so-called Battle of the Bulge by attacking the sparsely deployed American troops around Bastogne. A few days later, Brigadier General McAuliffe and the 101st Airborne Division along with elements of the 10th Armored Division arrived to counter-attack but, after heavy fighting, got encircled in the city. On December 22, German emissaries asked for the American surrender, to which the General answered quite briefly, “Nuts!” The next day, the weather cleared up, allowing air retaliation and the parachuting of much needed food, medicine, and weaponry. On December 26, the troops of General Patton broke the deadlock. The official end of the Battle of Bastogne only occurred three weeks later, when all fighting finally stopped."
For whatever reason the image that I have of the “Battle of the Bulge” is from a movie (which I don’t have any idea if it is actually true or not) where the German and American come upon each other on Christmas Eve and decide to have a “cease-fire” for the night and actually celebrate together! If this happen or not, I don’t know. I have seem multiple movies that depict this scene (you will remember that I am married to a military man who LOVES war movies and therefore will excuse me for that!) ;-)
Anyway, (coming back to the reason of this post/blog entry). Matt is taking the boys and I should be able to put some pictures about this on a later blog! So enjoy this part and a few pictures!

More later!!

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Bomb in Heidelberg

Some of you might have heard about it, but since it was to me a little fun in the moroseness of waiting for our car to arrive. So here it is:
On Monday the 10th of August I opened my email at 10pm and got an email telling us to keep away from the shopping area of Heidelberg. Reason was: A 500lb bomb had been found nearby.
Just think you are just doing your shopping when suddenly MP and Guard get everyone out and tell you to go home because a bomb has been found (Sandra (Head over hills) told me that they did not apparently mention that it was a WWII bomb) so I can only imagine the scares that those people got! Luckily I was home and didn’t hear about it until much much later.
However I thought it was worse giving a little story to my follower: so here.

I just found that on: http://www.bw.eur.army.mil/news/archivepages09/Aug/13aug2009-bomb.html

I then mention to the kids that between Nazi bombs and US doggie land mine here in our backyard we should just lock ourselves in our apartment and never come out. At least we should be safe right?
WRONG was I told: Fire could get us!!
DARN IT!! Nowhere is safe!