Back after a Month

[Rose]

Hello all! Well, I'm back after a great month touring around Europe. I went to Geneva, Rome, Pompeii (We drove past Monte Cassino on the way for all you WWII buffs), Tivoli, Tuscany, Florence, Pisa (leaning tower!) Lucca, Venice, Lake Como (Most beautiful place on the face of the Earth), AMSTERDAM (most fun city ever. although you walk around each corner and there's a cloud of marijuana smoke), Brussels, Bastogne (I have some amazing pictures of foxholes, etc. if you guys would like to see them), Gent, and Bruge.

Do any of you guys live in any of those cities? It really was the most fun trip.

Anyway... to get to the point: Did I miss any REALLY important sub-simming news/mods/addons/projects? Thanks :D

[Herazio]

hi there ! :P Have you been to Sea-Bruge (I'm Belgian myself). They had a submarine there. Don't remember which one but I believe it was russian. And fully black. If you ever want to see a real life U-boat (and base) you should go to Normandy. They still have one over there. Very nice to see ! Anyhow I'm not sure who you are :P But you don't have any idea who I am either. Just thought I'd reply ^-^. And yes. Amsterdam is a great city except for the drugs there.

Bryan,

[P_Funk]

So did you smoke a big fatty in Amsterdam?:rock:

[Dowly]

Drugs are bad, mmkay? :stare:

[Rose]

Is Sea-Bruge Zeebrugge in Dutch? I think we drove past it but of course I didn't know about the U-Boat so oh well... I can see U505 in Chicago if I want. The reason we went to Belgium after Amsterdam and Italy was because my dad lived with a family in Zwijnarden (sp?) outside Gent. The grandmother of his Belgian "brothers" turned 100, so we went to her b-day party. Point being, we were limited to doing "family" things while in Belgium. We DID had time to sight see though: Brussels' Grotje Markt (Grand Place), Manneken Pis; Brugge's Stadhuis (we climbed the belltower) and a canal tour around Brugge, and Gent's Gravensteen Castle. I really loved Belgium. Almost everyone you meet is multilingual, which is the coolest thing ever. Most people speak THREE languages fluently: Dutch, French, English. One of my dads Belgian brothers speaks three languages. Anyway, that was one of the most fun parts of the trip.

And no, P-Funk... I was with my family 24/7. Although I did step into a "coffeeshop" (a cafe that sells pot) without knowing it and was soon greeted by the putrid, musty smell of Dutch weed. Its amazing in Amsterdam; people just sit on benches in the "Pleins" and roll joints in broad daylight as if nothing else mattered. One hell of a liberal city. But that also makes it kinda fun ;).

[Eichenlaub]

I live in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I don't go to Amsterdam much though - them there westerners don't really agree with me. Of course there is much to see there and especially for foreigners who aren't used to having such a large red light district in the middle of the city. Last time I was there, it was to show an American lady around. Amsterdam has a decent naval museum which we visited back then, but there isn't so much to see about the World Wars there. Of submarine note, the war and resistance museum at Overloon (in Noord-Brabant, about 2 hours away from Amsterdam) has a German miniature submarine of the Biber class. It's now well-preserved inside ever since the museum merged with the Marshall museum a few months ago.
About 2 years ago, a miniature sub of the Seehund class was found on the beach with its torpedoes still in place! Don't know what happened to the sub after the torpedoes were removed and blown (they must have been blown somewhere).

It sounds like you had a great trip! Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. You saw most of the major cities in Italy and Belgium yet mysteriously confined yourself to Amsterdam while going Dutch...:arrgh!:
May I ask what you found so much fun about Amsterdam?

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

[Rose]

Well first of all, I'm 15, so this wasnt MY trip. I didn't plan it. My mom planned the whole thing and she took suggestions from me and my brother about where to go (my suggestion was Bastogne, which was awesome). It was my second European trip (my first one being London, Paris, Normandy... really chilling experience to stand atop Point-du-Hoc and Utah Beach) so it was sort of like another introduction for me especially to Flanders and Holland. Originally, we were gonna go through Bavaria and Munich (World Cup!), but the 100th birthday thing turned up, so all of the Holland and Belgium part of the trip was centered around this family that my dad lived with in Zwijnarden. Amsterdam has the Rijksmuseum, the van Gogh Museum, etc. and it is a great tourist destination for first-timers to Holland. My mom had never been there, so she wanted to go. I believe the Amsterdam naval museum you are referring to is the Scheepvaartmuseum. We were gonna make a stop there, but we slept in too late that day and didn't have time :shifty:. We DID make a day trip to the fishing village Volendam though. Next time I'm in Holland, I'll be sure to go the "Hell's Highway" route: Eindhoven, Nijmegen, Arnhem. Is there much to see in the way of Market-Garden "remains" along that route? Foxholes, museums, etc?

[HunterICX]

Drugs are bad, mmkay? :stare:

LoL, just picture the Voice of Mr.Anderson in Southpark with it! :rotfl:
but yes , I,m dutch myself...and its kinda weird that Smoking weed is so something of an Regular Daily Basis by people...but here in Spain its just getting started...every younger here is copying from those Hip Hop Movie clips on music channels, ''Bling Bling'' Cars(an Disco on 4 wheels), having a lot of gold Rings and necklaces
smoking 24/7 Weed and sniffing Coke and stuff..and ofcourse they are Agressive with high chance of use Violence against normal working people
And really...those Hip Hop music clip ripp offs on the street...they make me Puke
Dumb ass younger throwing their Lives away for some Gangstah Respect by smoking Weed and sniffing Coke? hanging around with Slut Hooker-like Dressed chicks till 3 am in the morning and next day they supposed to go to school?


:shifty: I Smoke Normal cigarettes and thats already unhealthy enough.

Sorry for going an Little Offtopic here:roll:

[Eichenlaub]

He Rose,

Your handling of the Dutch names is excellent, far above what I usually hear. Well done.

Yes that is the Scheepvaartmuseum, renowned mostly for its replica of the Amsterdam, a famous ship of the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or United East-Indian Company, one of the world's first major corporations).

I live in Nijmegen and when you really look for certain things of Market garden, you can still find a few of them though change has been abundant. I once took a bicycle tour of the Nijmegen and Groesbeek area to see the landing fields. Most of them are simply farm fields again. There is the occasional monument in the landscape but other than that, little remains outside. Not surprisigly of course, considering that the battlefields of MG were either farm fields or urban settings.
There are a few museums that honour MG. One is in Groesbeek, another one in Best and another one in Veghel. The quality of them varies a little.

You can still travel along Hell's Highway but the view has changed dramatically in many places. There is little in Eindhoven to remind you of MG (I grew up in the Eindhoven area, in fact, my home town of Nuenen was the scene of an episode of Band of Brothers). Once you start looking I bet you can find a lot but you'll have to use your imagination. Should you ever visit the MG battlefields, I advise you to visit around 17-20 september: there are usually some celebrations in Nijmegen, Arnhem and Eindhoven along with veterans whom you can approach and talk to.

I was in Nijmegen during the 60th anniversary and spoke to several veterans, one of whom in particular was a perfect English gentleman. But the best part probably was the march several hundreds of old soldiers performed from the Grote Markt to the famous bridge. It was wonderful to see these old men walking proudly, being cheered on by us Dutchies. I stood and let the whole group walk past me -shaking a hand every now and then- then overtook them with my greater speed and did the whole ceremony again! There must have been around 500,000 people in the city...while the number of actual inhabitants is about 180,000! It was grand.

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

[Rose]

It makes me feel better that theres not much MG stuff in Eindhoven, 'cause we were gonna maybe fly into Eindhoven and sightsee for a day, but plans changed. Too bad on Sept. 17-20 ill be in school :cry:. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up living in Belgium or Holland on an exchange program and visiting those places again in the near future. I LOVE the Dutch language... It's just so different from any other language. And the accents are so different. In Amsterdam they talk with an almost Chinese-sounding cadence and much harsher pronounciation, while in Flanders it sounds much more Germanic. I think if I went over to Flanders/Holland on an exchange type thing it'd be a great opportunity to learn MANY different languages. French, Flemish/Dutch, and German. I am already taking French in school, and my dad has taught me many Dutch phrases, and I think it'd be great to live there. New York City gets old after a while... The best thing about Holland are the pannenkoeken.... Best damn crepes ive ever had. And those stroopwafels. My first Dutch phrase in Holland was, "Ik wil graag een stroopwafel, alstublieft!" in a restaurant :D.

[Herazio]

"Ik wil graag een stroopwafel, alstublieft!" in a restaurant :D.

Can't get enough of those things :P You should try a brusselse wafel aswell :P They totally rock

[Rose]

Vlaamse frietjes... best French Fries ever.

[HunterICX]

:shifty: HO HO HO!!! gaan we nederlands praten?

[Rose]

Ja, ik spreek een beetje nederlands (is that right?).

[Eichenlaub]

Very good Rose!:rock:

Ofwel...zeer goed!

De enige opmerking is dat "Nederlands" met een hoofdletter hoort...maar dat is geen echte kritiek natuurlijk.:know:

Groeten,

Eichenlaub

[Rose]

Dankjewel, Eichenlaub!

*Ja, ik spreek een beetje Nederlands = correct :D

[Wilko]

Wow, that sounds like one realy nice trip :up: wish I got to do that at your age but thems the breaks I hope to be able to do that for my kids when there your age as I firmly believe that it gives a great .. how do you say, grounding that there is a whole other world out there

[Curval]

Bermuda is the most beautiful place on this earth.

I've heard good things about Lake Como though.:up:

[stabiz]

No, the most beautiful place on earth is a town/castle called Ese, near Nice. Holy crap, and I live in a fjord!