Bastogne War Museum was David's ideas, I had never heard of it but apparently Bastogne, which is a small town in Belgium, and the surrounding area is where the Battle of the Bulge took place. I must admit when he first mentioned it, the mere words "war museum" didn't appeal but it was actually very good and I would recommend a visit there.
They have through the use of audio guides, visual effects and normal museum type artefacts brought the stories of people affected by the war to life and made it very interesting for all ages.
On entering the museum you are given an audio headset which are available in a variety of languages, as you walk into the different sections they start automatically once they are in the range of sensors.
In the first room, you see these 4 figures and it is their stories you hear as you go through the museum, they have been selected very carefully so you learn about aspects of the war from all sides. There is a young boy, who lives in the countryside, a young female teacher who becomes part of the resistance, an American soldier and a German soldier. At the end of the tour we were told what happened to them after the war, which made it more meaningful as I thought they were just fictional figures used to relay the events.
These straw boots were used by the Germans to keep their feet warm in the snow.
I took this photo of a model V2 rocket because I didn't realise how big they were compared to humans. That is a figure of a man at the side, it must have been terrifying having these dropping all around you.
A good old fashioned pram with the smallest wheels going.
This tank has actually got a hole blasted in the side of it, it made me wonder what happened to its occupants.
There were three very interesting areas, which I find hard to describe, they were sort of a cross between stage sets and films.
The first one was set up like a war operational room and it was basically a 3D film that was played on a big screen and to be honest, although it was quite interesting and informative the 3D part didn't really work and was not needed.
The second area was set out so it was like you were sat in the woods, with the seats being tree trunks. On the stage, which was set up like woodland there were sections of screens going from the roof down to the stage floor amongst trees, and on these were projected changing images. Sections of the floor also moved as the story went along and the roof was also used as a projection screen to show aeroplanes flying over. The lighting, sound and others visual effects in there were brilliant.
The third part was initially set in a cafe, as seen above with the windows and door being the screen. We were sat at cafe style tables , so once again we were part of the scene. Then the floor of the cafe raised up right to the roof, so we were now seeing into the basement where the people were hiding from the dropping bombs. It was really good, as you walked through the final part of the museum you saw white headstones of soldiers who had died, but projected onto them was photos of when they were alive, which again brought home the faces, and people behind the names.
Outside is this big memorial to the Americans who died there. It is very big and you can climb up it so you can see over the landscape or battlefield as it once was.
Close by was another little museum which was doing an exhibition on Texan soldiers who had gone across to fight, it was also very informative but on a much smaller scale.
That night David had booked us into a bed and breakfast which was built in the style of an American Way Station. It looked a bit like a big wooden barn and we had one of the rooms inside it. Downstairs was the bar and eating area, which at times has
Country Western singers performing and on some evenings they do line dancing classes. Sadly, we were there early season and were the only ones there, so we didn't get the chance to have a shindig. The place had a nice homely feel to it a with children and dogs milling around and in the back fields there were horses all around. The couple who ran it were lovely and we had a an amazing breakfast after a goods night sleep. Then we were off again to Luxembourg.
No comments:
Post a Comment