Rhine Cruise - Day 3, Strasbourg

Strasbourg Cathedral

Today we arrived in Strasbourg, France while eating breakfast, and started our bus tour after breakfast. Strasbourg has transferred from German to French rule many times, and now houses the European Union Parliament and Place de la Republique. We visited the Cathedrale de Notre Dame, or Strasbourg Cathedral, with the famous astronomical clock. Dan climbed the 335 steps to the spire of the cathedral while Kendra went shopping. We saw a couple of other cathedrals where some famous reformers preached, ate a pretzel for lunch instead of going back to the ship, then boarded the boat for our canal cruise. This was Dan's favorite day of the trip.

On the way up the cathedral spire

City Gate Towers

Tanner's business & house on left

Gutenburg Statue

View from Church Spire

Blogging the Reformers: John Leclerc

The Cathedral in Metz. Source.

In the 16^th century, one of the cities which the French Reformation began in was Meaux. John Lecelrc, a wool-carder, became the pastor there. He had learned theology through the lectures of the doctors, reading the Bible and some other books. Eventually he made some placards denouncing the pope as an Antichrist, and posted them on the cathedral. The townspeople were very angry and he was thrown into prison. He was condemned and was led through the streets to be beaten by the people. After this punishment he was released, and then he moved to Metz.

While he was in Metz he again did a brave, perhaps rash, act against the Catholics. On the night before one of the large festivals where the citizens would worship their idols, John Lecelrc when to the chapel and smashed all of the images. The next day when the worshipers arrived at the church, they found their idols broken in pieces. They ran out and found Lecelrc in the town. He admitted to breaking the idols, and told them they must worship God alone. They decided to burn him to death. They brought him to the scaffold and took heated pincers and lacerated him and pulled his nose off. As they were doing it he recited the passage that says, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not...”¹ After torturing him he was burnt with a slow fire. He was one of the first martyrs of France.

1. Psalm 115

The Mistakes of World War 2 - 1939-1940

Mistakes of World War 2

1. Causes of the War
2. The Mistakes of 1939-1940
3. The Mistakes of 1941
4. The Mistakes of 1942
5. The Mistakes of 1943-1945

by Joshua Horn

Last time, we examined the mistakes on the part of France and Britain which caused the Second World War. Now we will look at several mistakes which the Allies and Axis made from 1939-1940.

The Battle of France
At the beginning of the war there was what Churchill called the “Twilight War”. It was the eight months when war had been declared, but had only partially begun. During this time Germany crushed Poland and other nations while the French and British army was waiting on the border of France, building their armies and fortifying themselves. During 1939 through the spring of 1940 the German army improved in quality. They were able to hone their techniques upon the smaller nations before they attacked the stronger France. On the other hand the French army declined in quality. They waited on the border in their forts for the German attack, and their morale and discipline declined.

Day 13 - Normandy

The next port was La Harve, and we went to the battlefield of Normandy. Normandy was a battle during WWII when the Americans and British landed on the coast of Normandy, and began liberating Europe. It was the largest fleet in history, and it was a very important battle. Daddy and I got up early and got off the ship as soon as we were allowed and began walking to the car rental place. It was a several mile walk, but finally we got there. Then we drove back and picked up everyone but Grandma, because she went on a tour to Paris.

After a couple hour drive we arrived at our first stop, which was the village of Sainte-Mère-Église. I was the tour guide because I read about the battle before we came. There we saw the town in which some of the American paratroopers landed. The Germans shot many of the paratroopers as they landed in this town before they even got to the ground. One man, Private John Steele, was caught on the church steeple. They a dummy on the steeple to remember him.

The dummy of the paratrooper

Next we came to Utah Beach, one of the two American landing beaches. On this landing beach the Americans did very well. They actually landed in the wrong spot, but by God's providence where they actually landed was much less defended. They did not suffer very many casualties here. We walked around and there were several German fortifications still there, and Daddy bumped his head several times in one because the entrance was so low. There were also several monuments to the troops. Both of the landing beaches and the cemetery were given to the United States by France.

This is a replica landing boat, which carried the troops ashore

Utah Beach

A German machine gun post

A German gun buried in the sand

Next we went to Point Du Hoc. It was a very large battery built on a rocky cliff with six large cannons. Two hundred U.S. Rangers climbed the cliff and took the battery, and held on for several days until help arrived. When they got up the cliff, they discovered that the guns had either been moved or never put there, but they still had to hold onto the position until they were relieved. At the end, only 90 of the 200 could still fight. The area was covered by huge shell craters from the bombing before the attack. It was one of the only places where the bombs actually hit. This was probably my favorite stop of this entire day. It was misty, so we could not see the cliffs very well but it was still neat. The overcast weather gave a sense of why they had such poor visibility and could not find their way to their meeting location.

One of the German gun positions

Here you can see the land was covered in shell craters

This is the edge of the cliff

Me standing in a shell crater

A German position that was destroyed by a bomb

Our last stop was Omaha beach. That was the most difficult of all the landing sights. The troops there suffered very heavy casualties. Some platoons were destroyed before they even got off the boat. Finally, after many hours of fighting, they gained the bluffs overlooking the beach where the Germans had put their fortifications. Many soldiers died on this beach. The troops suffered 4,500 casualties here.

This was a picture taken during the fighting of the troops coming ashore

Wounded soldiers being brought up the beach

We walked on the beach for a little, then drove along it. It is about a mile long! We stopped part way down the beach and climbed the bluff where the Germans had their fortifications. It is much higher than the surrounding ground. When we were climbing up the bluff, we saw a German position that was covered in grass and vines. All you could see was a little hole leading into the ground. We wanted to explore it, but we did not have time. After leaving Omaha Beach we went by the American cemetery, but did not have time to go in. When we got back to the cruise ship, we still had to drop off the car. We walked very fast because we did not want to miss the ship! Fortunately, we got back in plenty of time.

Omaha Beach

A cannon in a bunker

Day 2 - Cannes, France

Our second stop was Cannes, France. After breakfast we got off the ship and onto a small boat called a tender to take us on the short trip to shore. After we arrived Daddy and I left the others at the port and began walking to the rental car place to pick up the car. After about a mile walk we found it. We then drove back and picked the others up. We wanted to drive up to the French Alps. Unfortunately, we were having problems with our GPS, so we had to figure out how to get there on our own. After wandering around for some time, we finally got on the right road. The Alps were very nice. We kept driving on a windy road through the Alps until we saw a castle on top of a hill, so we decided to stop there. It was a midieval town and castle named Entrevaux, which means "beginning of the valley". We climbed up the hill to the castle while Grandma and Grandpa stayed at the bottom. After a very steep walk we finally we arrived at the top. It was a fairly nice castle, and there were good views of the surrounding countryside. We did not have time to walk through the town, but we did get a good view of it from the castle. Finally we went back to the car and drove back to Cannes. We dropped off everyone but Daddy and I at the port, and then we looked for a gas station. Finally we found one, and then went to drop the car off. The gate was a foot from the ground when we arrived because they were closing when we got there, but they let us in. Then we walked back to the cruise ship.

The Alps

The Castle

Rachel and Stephen walking up to the castle



Walking

The back entrance of the castle


The town from the castle. The cathedral can be seen on the left side of the picture.