Down the River and Through the Woods

Day 17 – Tuesday, Apr 7 – Meeting Uncle Ray We awoke to another even more glorious day – very blue skies and warm temperatures. Finally! Hotel Selys has a spectacular breakfast buffet, including a machine to make fresh squeezed orange juice, and if you want honey, there is a big rectangular chunk of a honeycomb for you to take whatever honey you want. It just oozes out of the honeycomb. I have never seen that before!      Vincent and Severine picked us up at 9:30 in front of the hotel to go to Henri-Chapelle, a very small town in the Belgian countryside with gorgeous rolling hills covered with farmland and dotted with little villages and the ever-present church spire in the middle of the town. When we arrived, there was construction in the front of the cemetery, so we had to park around the side. Steve wandered over to a small area across the street where there was a flagpole and seating area. I was reliving my first visit to Henri Chapelle in 1992. I stood there th...

Day 16 – Monday, Apr 6 – The Big Surprise Prelude If you care to read about some remarkable Ruberg family history related to WW II, then by all means read on. It is a personal story but one that has profound meaning and probably would resonate with you no matter what your history and connection (or lack thereof) to WW II might be. The next two days are a story motivated by our Uncle Ray who fought and died in the largest battle in US history – the Battle of the Bulge (yes, bigger than the storming of the Normandy beaches). The Battle started on December 16, 1944 when the Germans launched an enormous surprise offensive (250,000 troops with many tanks and air support) along the German-Belgian border. The American heroics and sacrifice to initially slow, then stop and then reverse that offensive over a period of two months is a part of history that the BELGIAN people are committed to preserving in perpetuity. This part of the trip was arranged through a connection with a local famil...

Day 15 – Sunday, Apr 5 – Easter Our plan was to attend Easter Mass at the Basilica of St. Nicholas, which was a short water-taxi ride away. [BTW: it was sunny but cool and VERY windy; the weather said 30 mph with gusts to 40mph. So, what else is new?] It was Steve’s job to scope this all out, and it is a good thing he double-checked on Saturday. A couple of weeks ago, the website said Mass was at 11:00; on Saturday when he checked, it said the Easter Mass schedule was different and Mass was at 10:30. So, we planned to get there no later than 10:00 because we suspected there would be a crowd. Our timing was exquisite as we arrived a little before 10:00, and we took a couple of pictures outside before going in at 10:00.  It’s a good thing we did proceed in at that moment because the church was full – all the pews in the large Basilica were taken and we moved to one of the side naves where chairs had been placed, and we got some of the last available chairs. Of course, the church ...