Marriage retreat at Edelweiss Lodge and resort

We were able to go on a unit sponsored marriage retreat led by our Battalions Chaplain. Edelweiss Lodge and Resort are at the base of the  Bavarian Alps.

 We had a chance to go hike the Hollentalklamm Gorge through he Alps.

 The views were breathtaking

 The hike was not an easy one, the climb in elevation was crazy

 Seeing the amazing views of the waterway through the gorge was going to be hard to top

 The trail lead in and out of caves

 Huge boulders overhead just stuck in wall 

 Some awesome waterfalls

 Waterfalls everwhere

 The water was so clean and clear i filled a water bottle of it to drink.

Although Exhausting we had a wonderful time at this beautiful area.

Summer Vacation; Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, and Berln

For our summer vacation we decided to drive and visit a few countries and camp in between spots. We started off with the country of Luxembourg and visited the Luxembourg American Military Cemetery here there are 5076 American graves here.  Almost all that are buried here died during the Battle of the Bulge.

General George S. Patton is buried here as well in the front of the cemetery between the two flagpoles overlooking all the Soldiers.

This is the view from General Patton's Grave

 While we were there the park ranger asked if I was military and when I said yes she asked if Jonah and I would like to retire the colors for the day.

 I felt extremely honored to retire the colors during 4th of July weekend surrounded by all these great Soldiers.

Jonahs Cub Scout training paid off on the flag folding

This is a Memorial Chapel at the front of the cemetery

We had a great visit, I would recommend anyone who is visiting Europe stop by this small country and visit some of our American Heroes.

Europe camps a little differently than we do in America. Campsites have full amenities, each site has water and electricity, there is usually a nice playground on site and all of them have a restaurant on site. 

 This is our 4th of July BBQ at the campground, we even found a Dr Pepper at the local grocery store

 Jonah challenged me to the obstacle course

In the town center was the Museum of the city of Brussels

The Manneken pis is a little fountain created in 1619 of a boy peeing 

 So many decisions on what chocolate to buy

Godiva chocolate factory window 

 Yummy

 A trip to Belgium would not be complete with out eating a Belgium Waffle on the town square.

 Next we drove to The Netherlands, above is a picture of the old and new wind turbines.

All of the waterways though out Holland were beautiful to look at. There are rotating and movable bridges everywhere to allow boats through the area. It started raining pretty heavy so we did explore Amsterdam, instead we went to the largest indoor flea market in the Netherlands. Then we drove to Berlin.

 For our last night of vacation we decided to stay in a hotel, this is the view from our room.

I can remember the day that the Berlin wall fell in 1989. 

The wall separated East and West German. You can learn more at history.com/berlin-wall

 Old sections of the Berlin wall, now looked at as art history

This is a reproduction of how the two sides where divided and shows how hard it would have been to try to get across.

 The famous Check point Charlie is still standing for visitors to see and take pictures of with some "American Soldiers" (they are Germans in American Uniforms hired by the city). This was the main passage between East and West. read more: checkpoint-charlie

 Built in the late 1700's the Brandenburg Gate is the last remaining gate of the separated Berlin. See brandenburg-gate

Our last ting to visit was the Holocaust Memorial, this is a piece of artwork in remembrance of the over 6 million Jews murdered during the holocaust. Holocaust memorial