23 December 2013

Metz Nöel - Monday

My birthday!!

Up early again to open my cards that Claire has brought with her, then breakfast

By 0920 we were on the road heading north along the same route as on the way down.

Again we dropped into a Luxembourg fuel station and I squeezed €12 in the tank. Topping right up the pipe to enjoy as much of the cheap fuel as possible.

The plan was to stop off in Bastogne. On the 21st December 1944 the town was encircled by German troops and the US 101st Airborne under General McAuliffe held the town until relieved some seven days later by elements of Patten's 3rd Army and 10th and 11th Armored Division.



The Airborne museum was closed today, I expect it was open on Saturday as it was the anniversary!


We dropped in the tourist office and picked up a leaflet on the new museum opening in March to commemorate the Battle of the Bulge and the Siege of Bastogne. 

I can feel a trip coming on!

From Bastogne the Tomtom route was via N4 towards Namur before we rejoined the A4. Tomtom also chose to return via Brussels rather than the way we got down there.

No real problems with traffic thus far.

As it was my birthday and the Shuttle wasn't booked until 8pm we tried to get into Gent and then Brugge before aborting due to excessive traffic and lack of parking. 

In the end we stopped at a frituur on the way out of Brugge. So birthday lunch ended up as sausage and chips. 





Claire's was the brochette of pork and bacon!

From then it was plain sailing back to the Shuttle and a £3 surcharge to travel two hours earlier........

With dire warnings of poor weather in the channel we were glad we were on the train. At the tunnel we found the wind had got up but it didn't affect the train. 

The high winds and driving rain had caused flooding and damage from Canada all across the Atlantic and Southern England was being battered.

It was a really good weekend and I am glad I booked it. Metz is a nice city and we enjoyed the whole thing. 

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