A trip to Bastogne, Belgium

On Saturday, June 21 we joined two Des Moines engineers visiting Josh's John Deere factory for a day trip to Bastogne, Belgium, site of the Battle of the Bulge. This was a pivotal battle in WWII, late in the war in Dec 1944 and Jan 1945. German troops made a final offensive attack but American forces held them off and eventually defeated them, against the odds. Many lives were lost, including about 19,000 Americans.

The Ardennes area (the region surrounding Bastogne) contains many farms and small villages, and seems peaceful now. But, many old tanks, tank turrets, and memorials are reminders of the war. There were also many American flags, and it felt good to be an American there. A small museum details the battle, and we took a car tour through the countryside that stopped at a series of memorials in various villages that were affected by the war. I could see foxholes in the woods by the road as we drove by.

Here we are in front of a tank in Bastogne's centrum.

A large memorial in the shape of a star lists all 50 states around its perimeter, in honor of the Americans who died in battle.

You can climb to the top of the memorial for a good view of Bastogne (on the right) and a big gravel pit (on the left).

One of the nearby villages contains a huge cemetary of German soldiers who died in the battle. Identical gravestones cover many acres, and each gravestone marks three graves.

Here, three John Deere engineers assess a tank turret and contemplate using similar technology on their new sprayer.

A brief tour of our house

We love our new home, a nice four-bedroom house in the small town of Deurne. It's larger than a typical Dutch house, with a large garden.

This is the front of the house, with lollipop-shaped (pollarded) trees.

There is a patch of miniature roses out front.

In the back, there is a smoketree and many other trees, shrubs, and perennials, and a little lawn.
And there is a covered patio where we often eat dinner.

My favorite thing is the fishpond in the back.

But my favorite perch is on the side of the house, where there is a large window seat that catches the morning sun. It is a good place to read or watch people go by. The garage is to the left, and the door leads to the back garden and patio.

Inside, most floors are tile, and there are many windows. This is part of the living room.
This is part of the dining room.

I like the spacious kitchen. The oven on the right is a combination microwave and regular oven, which is very common here. Unlike most Dutch homes, we also have a bigger oven, in the laundry room. The fridge is below the microwave, much smaller than an American fridge, and without a freezer. We were able to rent a stand-alone freezer, which is also in the laundry room.

Our upstairs bedroom is comfortable, with built-in storage space and a sink. The double bed is actually two twin beds adjacent to each other, which is how they do it here. You have to be careful not to fall in the crack while you're sleeping. The windows let in fresh air, but unfortunately they also let in noise. The train is across the street, and can be hard to sleep through if we don't close the windows.

This is a view of our back garden from above. You can see the covered patio on the left.

That's a brief tour! We're very happy with our new home.

Welcome to our blog!

We arrived in the Netherlands on Thursday, May 15 but did not get internet access until last week. Things move more slowly here than in America! Now that we're settled in and online, we hope to record some of our adventures and observations here in our blog, as a journal for our family and friends, and for ourselves in future years.

So far, we're enjoying our new life in Deurne, the Netherlands. Josh is busy working at the John Deere factory in the town of Horst, and I am learning to love being a "huisvrauw" (housewife) and starting to look for freelance scientific editing work.

We're enjoying our new church, Trinity Church Eindhoven, which is a medium-sized English-speaking Anglican congregation. The congregation is very international, with members from England, Austria, India, China, Thailand, the Netherlands, Columbia, the US, Australia, New Zealand, several countries in Africa, and countless other places.

In the month we've been here, we've already been able to take several day-trips on Saturdays. We have seen the famous Keukenhoff gardens in the Netherlands, as well as Dusseldorf and Cologne, Germany, and Bastogne, Belgium. We're looking forward to more trips. The Netherlands is one third the size of Iowa, so everything (including other countries) seems very close.

We hope you'll check out our blog as often as you like--and leave a comment or send us an email! We'd love to keep in contact with all our friends and family back in "the States."