Trip to Verdun France

This weeks blog is brought to you by Mike.  I have been busily trying to find a Beemer to replace our rent a wreck Mercedes (we rented it for 30 days when we first arrived).  It's hard to believe we have been here a month but I had to turn in the White Rhino as Travis calls it.

 Travis had a top 10 list on his face book account and I am adding a few other peculiarities about Germany.  Most of the houses have a bathroom right by the front door.  That comes from a very old tradition. Years ago, anyone working the fields could go to the nearest house and ask to use the facilities and it was a polite German custom to open your home up to strangers.  They have quiet hours every day from 12 to 2 or 3 if you want a little extra nap and all day Sundays.  You do not wash your car, rake the leaves, or mow your lawn on Sundays.  The autobahns are a hoot, most German drivers are polite as long as you do not drive in the left lane, it is reserved strictly for passing and a rule of thumb is: if you need to pass you should be going at least 20 to 30 KM faster than the guy in the slow lane or the next guy will catch you.  Truckers only pass if there is a big difference in speed and they never match speed with another truck blocking the fast lane.  Trucks are not allowed on the road on Sundays.

  Travis and I went on a scout outing this week to Verdun France to visit the WWI battlefields.  It was a neat outing. We slept between an old church and a French pill box.  Saturday morning we toured Fort De Douaumont and saw the trenches and battlefields.  The hills were full of bomb craters where the land was shelled.  The Germans fired 2 million bombs from cannons in one 9 hour period during the battle.  The  pictures of the battlefield looked like the pictures you have seen near the site of Mount St Helens when it erupted.  It was the deadliest battle of the war with over 700,000 casualties.

Our household goods shipment is about two weeks ahead of schedule and it will be delivered tomorrow. That is the shipment with all of our furniture.  Corri met a couple in our ward today who are from Vale, small world huh.  Their names are Ethan and Natasha Saunders, I think they are related to the Saunders Mom and Dad grew up with.

Corri will have a mid week update for the blog with pics of the chaos after our household goods arrive!

-Mike

Hey its travis and i just wanted to add that nearby where we slept there was a sign that said the city that used to occupy the spot we slept at (the city was totally leveled by all the german bombs) wasn't allowed to be rebuilt and repopulated because the soil was contaminated with mustard gas and there was also unexploded ordinance near us. pretty cool huh.

-the palmers