Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery & Memorial, France

Yesterday we drove to Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial  in France. It was about a three hour drive from Baumholder. Most of our trips to France have been to towns just off the autobahn but on this trip we got to drive through quite a bit of countryside. The roads were winding and narrow and the buildings were very old. It was interesting to see real towns and not just tourist attractions.

This stretch reminded me of our home state of South Dakota

I love how there are trees planted on both sides of the road.

One of these days I intend to look up what those balls are in the trees.

We drove by too many French cemeteries to stop at so I took pictures out the car window as we went by. 

We went by just as many churches

...and more cemeteries

This entire road was about the size of a normal lane in the U.S. Good thing we didn't meet very many vehicles!

This is the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in France.

There are 14,246 military dead buried here, the largest number in Europe.

Top of the chapel

The frost made interesting patterns on the stone steps.

There was still a little frost on the bushes that were in the shade.

The cemetery covers 130.5 acres! It's huge!

My husband and fellow soldier climbing the steps to the chapel

Each arch has the names of the missing inscribed in the wall. There are a total of 954 names.

Inside the chapel

This is on the right wall when entering the chapel (in English)

On the left side (in French)

The guest book

The sheer number of headstones was overwhelming

The visitor's center

Looking from the visitor's center toward the chapel.

My soldier 

Where we get our mail...

The CMR was the busiest I have ever seen tonight! I don't know if all the backed up Christmas mail finally burst through but there was a line all the way from the pick up window around the corner. By the time I made it half way to the pick up window, that many more people had joined the line and it was still going around the corner our of sight! Crazy! We check our mail everyday (except Sunday when they are closed for pick ups) and we had 3 packages today! YAY! I absolutely love getting packages. How often do you check you mail? 

(I love her outfit btw!)

Luxembourg American Cemetery & Memorial (Our New Year's Eve)

The Luxembourg American Cemetery & Memorial is located in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. The only days they are closed is Christmas Day and New Years Day so we decided to make our New Year's Eve trip to Luxembourg this year for some history and shopping. Unfortunately we didn't realize most of the stores downtown would be closing early in observance of New Years Eve so our shopping consisted of us finding parking, walking to the shop I meant to stop at, finding the doors locks, making a realization and heading back to the car! It's OK. It's only an hour and a half drive from our home so we can go back on another weekend. I hope you enjoy the pictures from the trip.

Entering Luxembourg, leaving Germany

The visitors center

The Chapel

The ceiling of the chapel (This was too pretty for black and white)

Inside the chapel

Inside the chapel

Inside the chapel

The guestbook

downtown Luxembourg

Then we went back home to Germany to watch the fireworks from our apartment window.

Happy New Year!!