Vacation / Travel

[GroverCleveland]

Maybe you can help me. My biggest reason for wanting to go to Normandy was my grandfather. He was a Staff Sargent and infantry squad leader in the US Army (March 1941 to Sept 1945) While he didn't fight on D-day, he landed months later at Normandy. His division (28th division and 112th regiment, Company H) assisted with Paris liberation and then faced massive casualties at Hurtgen Forest and Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded a bronze star and a purple heart (injured in the Ardennes).

Are there tours for family members that fought in these battles that can take us there or is this something I would need to explore on my own? Would love to do with my sons.

Just a follow-up. Getting around in France isn’t that hard driving. I updated my Garmin Nuvi with the European map.

When I went to South Africa, I did the following in preparation for the drive to Rorke’s Drift. To familiarize myself with the turns I would make along the route, I used my VR and literally went over the route we took. The only part I could not cover were sections of the last 30-40 miles of dirt roads. Literally walked out of the Richard’s Bay airport terminal and said to my wife, “I’ve been here.” Did not do that for France.

PS - I loaded my Nuvi with South Africa as well. However did not plan on rental cars not having working amenities such as cigarette lighters. The SUV had one, it just didn’t work. Seems the fuse was blown and the rental car company was unable to fix it without someone driving in overnight from Durban.

 

[ATC_VOL]

A lot of posts about Normandy. I was very lucky to visit when I was in college while by Dad was stationed in Germany. We took a tour with the USO and our guide’s grandfather was a Colonel in the German Army at Normandy. So we got a really good perspective from both sides. If anyone has the chance to visit, it is completely worth it. We arrived at Utah Beach around 5 or 6 in the morning, and it was very eerie, with fog rolling in off the channel and all of the pillboxes that are still standing there. I remember Omaha Beach having been commercialized some. Pointe du Hoc was extremely interesting to see.

Also got to visit Bastogne. Lot of really nice memorials and museums there as well. One of the coolest things we got to do was drive through this tiny little village where my grandfather had been captured at in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.

There’s so many battlefields and American Cemeteries all over Europe, it’s really quite staggering.

 

[UT_Dutchman]

Going to North Ga mountains early autumn this year. Any lodging recommendations for Blue Ridge?

Grace Prime Steakhouse, Brasstown Bald (terminus of the AT). Tallulah(sp) gorge.

 

[joevol33]

Grace Prime Steakhouse, Brasstown Bald (terminus of the AT). Tallulah(sp) gorge.

I'll have to check that out

 

[@1RBFjr]

Ever go to the underground market? Grand Bazaar?
A different world.

I've been to the Basilica Cistern, which is underground in Istanbul. I think Istanbul and Turkey are great. I didn't realize that Istanbul has 2 to 3 times the population of New York City. It's certainly worth a visit.

About a dozen or so years ago I got invited to go as a guest of a Turkish group. It may still be so, but at least at the time, Turkey was America’s largest Muslim-led ally. We saw a number of Christian churches as well as a couple of synagogues or temples.

Turkey then, and even more so now, does not share some freedoms with America. We had a meeting with a group of Turkish journalists. I asked the simple question of “do you have freedom of the press?“ No one answered. I then asked if there were any topics they could not write about, and again, no one answered. And this was before the crack down by Erdogan after the failed coup in 2016.

The Grand Bazaar was a sensory overload. The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque was unbelievable. What’s interesting is that the Hagia Sophia was originally a Christian church, and then it was converted to a mosque in the 15th century. Despite it being a mosque, some of the Christian iconographic remains. A Catholic shrine, the House of the Virgin Mary, is near Ephesus.

We also visited Izmir, Ankara (the capital), and Cappadocia.

As part of our trip, we were asked to bring gifts to the families that hosted us for dinners (after dinner, the Turkish men and women were in separate rooms). Almost everyone brought with them books about Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains, or the south. Since I took our nine-year-old with me, rather than books, we took kid size orange and white Tennessee t-shirts, a couple of dozen UT ball caps, and silly bands (which were real popular with US kids at the time). The UT items were a huge hit, compared to the books. I joked that the power T also stood for Turkey. In Ankara, we visited with the Turkish minister of finance at their parliament. Somewhere I have a picture of me and the Turkish minister of finance wearing a Tennessee ball cap, which he absolutely loved. It ends up that the seats in the Turkish parliament are almost identical to the Tennessee orange.

We’ve also spread UT gear in Cuba when we visited. My family handed out some orange and white Tennessee T-shirts and a few dozen baseballs to kids.

 

[Go aeiou]

I've been to the Basilica Cistern, which is underground in Istanbul. I think Istanbul and Turkey are great. I didn't realize that Istanbul has 2 to 3 times the population of New York City. It's certainly worth a visit.

About a dozen or so years ago I got invited to go as a guest of a Turkish group. It may still be so, but at least at the time, Turkey was America’s largest Muslim-led ally. We saw a number of Christian churches as well as a couple of synagogues or temples.

Turkey then, and even more so now, does not share some freedoms with America. We had a meeting with a group of Turkish journalists. I asked the simple question of “do you have freedom of the press?“ No one answered. I then asked if there were any topics they could not write about, and again, no one answered. And this was before the crack down by Erdogan after the failed coup in 2016.

The Grand Bazaar was a sensory overload. The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque was unbelievable. What’s interesting is that the Hagia Sophia was originally a Christian church, and then it was converted to a mosque in the 15th century. Despite it being a mosque, some of the Christian iconographic remains. A Catholic shrine, the House of the Virgin Mary, is near Ephesus.

We also visited Izmir, Ankara (the capital), and Cappadocia.

As part of our trip, we were asked to bring gifts to the families that hosted us for dinners (after dinner, the Turkish men and women were in separate rooms). Almost everyone brought with them books about Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains, or the south. Since I took our nine-year-old with me, rather than books, we took kid size orange and white Tennessee t-shirts, a couple of dozen UT ball caps, and silly bands (which were real popular with US kids at the time). The UT items were a huge hit, compared to the books. I joked that the power T also stood for Turkey. In Ankara, we visited with the Turkish minister of finance at their parliament. Somewhere I have a picture of me and the Turkish minister of finance wearing a Tennessee ball cap, which he absolutely loved. It ends up that the seats in the Turkish parliament are almost identical to the Tennessee orange.

We’ve also spread UT gear in Cuba when we visited. My family handed out some orange and white Tennessee T-shirts and a few dozen baseballs to kids.

We went to the underground Cistern, The Gagia Grand Mosque and Ephesus. A different world where things have changed. No reason to think they won't again.
I think it was 2010 and we were with a Jewish lady. She was a little concerned. No problems at all. We also went to Cairo and the Great Pyramid(inside). Crawling around that was the most interesting thing we've done. I would not be able to phsically do that now.

 

[@1RBFjr]

We went to the underground Cistern, The Gagia Grand Mosque and Ephesus. A different world where things have changed. No reason to think they won't again.
I think it was 2010 and we were with a Jewish lady. She was a little concerned. No problems at all. We also went to Cairo and the Great Pyramid(inside). Crawling around that was the most interesting thing we've done. I would not be able to phsically do that now.

I thought for the most part that Istanbul had the vibe of an ancient western-ish city, but with some social constraints. Few women wore head coverings, except when you were at a religious site.

The further east we went it became more conservative.