Busy Day in the Eifel Area of Germany

Monday October 3, 2011

This morning we were off for a very busy day........we started by visiting a location that contained the foundation of a WW II, German V1 Rocket launching site.  This site contained the remains and concrete foundation of where the Germans launched V1 rockets, by steam power, to Belgium and England during WW II.  It was interesting to see, because it brought an eery sense of history.  After leaving here, we headed over toward the German / Belgium border to see the Siegfried Line or "Westwall". This "wall" was a defense wall built by the Germans in the late 1930s to act as a defensive line against tanks, and was also known as "tank traps".  This too, was rather eery, as it brought to my mind what was actually going on at these locations 75 years ago.  For me, a former history teacher, these were exciting sites to visit.  After leaving the Belgium border we were off to the town of Reifferscheid, where the remains of a castle built about 1,000 years ago remained.  This site too was quite interesting, as it has such a sense of history. Next we went to see Burg Wildenburg, the site of another castle from hundreds of years ago.  After visiting parts of the castle and church we had a nice lunch in an outdoor cafe here.  So, as you can see, we had a solid day of history so far.  We now decided to go home to rest a bit before the evening activity.  Tonight, we were going to visit someone I had not seen since I was in the Eifel area around Rheinbach in 1983.  We visited Robert at his home for a very nice BBQ and I had a chance to meet his entire family, which I had never met before.  This was a very exciting evening for me........here I was in a suburb of Bonn, spending the evening and having a wonderful time totally engaged with a large German family.  We drank bier, ate, talked about old times, laughed and generally had a wonderful evening.  This is the type of evening that the average tourist never has a chance to experience. By about 9:30 PM, Peter and I had to leave, which was sad for me, and I hope that it is not over 25 years before I see my "friend" Robert and his family again.  What a great evening.

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