Dieppe

Early in the morning of August 19, 1942 almost 5000 Canadian soldiers stormed the beach at Dieppe, France, hoping to temporarily seize and hold the port town, while destroying coastal defenses and gathering intelligence. As almost everyone in Canada knows, it did not work out this way. By early afternoon, over 900 of those Canadians had been killed, and almost 2500 captured by the Germans. Less than half of the Canadian troops that headed out from England that morning made it back safely that night.


As we walked along that same beach 67 years and 4 days later, it was hard to fathom what had occurred here. Despite the fact that there are reminders of the Dieppe Raid all around the town of Dieppe, its hard to believe that so many people died not that long ago on the beach where people sunbathe and swim today.

We ended up in Dieppe on Sunday evening, as Erin had to go there for work for Monday and Tuesday. I tagged along to see the sites and pay our respects at the Canadian memorials in town.

Today, Dieppe is a relatively sleepy beach town in Normandy. It has a nice enclosed harbour with a number of waterfront restaurants, the aforementioned beach on the English Channel, an old castle/chateau on the cliffs overlooking the town, and pretty nice, if somewhat run-down old town right off the beach. But as Canadians, there were some other things in town that held a lot of interest as well: The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery and the Mémorial du 19 Août 1942, a museum in town dedicated to the raid.

The Canadian War Cemetery is actually a few kilometres out of town, in some farmland in a small village outside of Dieppe. It is very peaceful, and is quite attractive as well. There are soldiers from France, England, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland buried here as well, but the vast majority of the graves belong to Canadian soldiers. Most have names, but there are a number hat just say something like "a soldier of the war of 1939-1945", which is quite sad. In addition, you see some tombstones where the soldiers died as young as 18, which, as trite as it may sound, gives you pause to think, and thank that we didn't have to go through anything like that in our generation.

After visiting the cemetery, I walked back into town and visited the Mémorial du 19 Août 1942. This is a small, but moving museum. They have a 40 minute video with film and pictures of the raid, as well as first person account from Canadian and British soldiers, as well as a doctor and nun from Dieppe that helped wounded Canadians on the day of the raid. In addition, they had newspaper clippings from Canada, Britain and Germany from the time of the raid, as well as memorabilia from the raid, such as Canadian uniforms and things like that.

One other tribute to Canada that they have in Dieppe is the "Square du Canada", a small park-like square right below the Château de Dieppe. Its quite nice, and right in the heart of town. It's nice to see that Dieppe has remembered the sacrifices Canadians made to make them free.

After Erin got off work the two full days we had in town, we just explored the town a bit and tried to find nice places for dinner. The walk along the harbour is quite nice, but unfortunately the restaurants were quite touristy, and the food wasn't that great (which was a shame, as we were looking forward to some good seafood, being on the sea and all). We also got a taste of the legendary French customer service, which we had thus far avoided for the most part in our earlier visits to Paris and Strasbourg. Let's just say that most waitresses in Dieppe won't be winning any awards for congeniality.

On Wednesday morning, we left Dieppe and spent some time on planes, trains and automobiles (train to Paris, flight to Zürich, car to Konstanz) getting back home. Dieppe was another valuable historical trip for us, and one we're glad we made.

Coming up this weekend is our final vacation in Europe, a week long trip to Croatia, where we will hopefully soak up some sun on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea. After that, it's back to Konstanz for not quite three weeks before we move to Ohio.

Prague

With our time in Europe running out quickly, we have been trying to travel as much as possible lately. Our latest mini-vacation was a weekend trip to Prague.

After finishing work early on Friday, we took the train to Zürich and flew out to Prague in the evening. After checking into our hotel around 9:30, we rushed out to get a quick dinner before exploring the town. Our new friends from the USA, Chastity and Mark, also went to Prague this weekend, and after dinner we met up with them.

The four of us explored the old town of Prague, including the Old Town Square, which includes the Týn Church, Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock before walking down to the world famous Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge crosses the Vltava river and offers great views of Prague Castle, the biggest castle in Europe. The bridge also has about 30 statues all along it, dedicated mostly to religious figures. The bridge was built in the mid 1300s, and the statues date back to about 1700.

Saturday and Sunday we spent just touring the town during the day, and then meeting up with Chastity and Mark for dinner and drinks at night. Prague has a lot of tourist attractions, like the bridge, the castle and the town square, but really, the town itself is a tourist attraction. It is absolutely beautiful, and it has done a great job of becoming a modern city while still having a look of an old European town. Walking through the streets, you can imagine that the way the street looks today is almost the same as it would have looked one or two hundred years ago.

So we spent a lot of the weekend just sort of strolling around town. We saw sites like the Prague Castle, some old churches, and a relatively new attraction, the John Lennon Peace Wall. The wall is a section of wall in the "Lesser Town" across the bridge from the Old Town, where when John Lennon was murdered, people in Prague, which was still under communist rule at the time, went to spray paint messages of peace and freedom in spite of government orders to not do so.

While in Prague, we of course also sampled some of the local beers. The Czech Republic is where the Pilsener style of beer was invented, so it is of course prevalent here, and often dirt cheap. It was also very good.

We had to head back on Monday afternoon, so Monday morning and early afternoon we took the opportunity for one last walk around town and one last drink on a sidewalk patio. Prague was definitely one of our favourite places we've visited, and it was nice to soak it up a little more.

Next up is a short, last-minute trip to Dieppe, France. Erin has to go there for work, and Tim will be tagging along. Dieppe is probably best known to Canadians as the site of a battle where Canadians were decimated by the Germans in WWII. There is a large Canadian War Cemetery there. We will definitely visit it and pay our respects.

Our First Anniversary, One Year Together in Germany

August 2, 2009 marked our first anniversary. Since we had just gotten back from our trip to Vienna and Budapest, we didn't do anything big to celebrate. Instead we just had a nice weekend around Lake Konstanz.

On the Friday night, we went to the Konstanz Weinfest (Wine Festival). Imagine a mini Oktoberfest, only outside and with wine instead of beer. It was just a few blocks from our house, and was a lot of fun. They filled up a square in town with tables, stands from probably dozens of local wineries, and a stage with for live music. It was a lot of fun.

On the Saturday, we took a ferry to the city of Meersburg, where we finally got around to using a wedding gift from Erin's colleagues, a wine tasting and gift certificate at the Meersburg winery Staatsweingut Meersburg. While it was very nice, we may not have picked the best day to go there. After indulging at the Weinfest the night before, sampling a bunch of wines early the next afternoon probably wasn't the most pleasant thing for our palates. After the tasting we strolled around Meersburg, which is a really beautiful little town.

For dinner that night, we went to one of our favourite restaurants in Konstanz: a little tapas restaurant called La Bodega. We filled up on delicious food, including our personal favourites: bacon-wrapped dates. This was our "big" anniversary dinner, as on Sunday, our actual anniversary, we took it pretty easy and stayed home most of the day, watching an ill-timed summer rainstorm most of the day.

So with one year of marriage in the books, our next milestone was one full year together in Germany. That day came the next weekend, August 9th. Last year when we arrived, it was during Seenachtsfest, a local festival that concludes with a big fireworks show over Lake Konstanz. Last year we were dead tired and didn't go to the festival, but saw the fireworks show from out balcony. This year, we again didn't go to the festival, but this time it was due to yet another ill-timed summer storm that kept us from wanting to go and stand outside all day. So we again watched the show from our balcony, and thought back on the great year we've had together in Germany. Hard to believe our time here is almost over...

I'm the Buda, She's the Pest

After Vienna, we hopped on the train for the 3-hour trip to Budapest. We arrived Sunday night at about 7:00 PM. After checking into our holiday apartment, which was in a great location one block from the Danube in between Parliament and the Chain Bridge, we headed out for dinner.

Budapest is a beautiful city. It is split into two parts, Buda and Pest, by the Danube River. Buda is on the west and contains the Royal Palace and some old parts of the city. Pest, where we were staying, is more modern, and despite that, possibly more beautiful.

For dinner, we headed to a Kosher restaurant we read about, and after searching around a little, were finally able to find it. When we walked in, however, we were the only customers there, and the waiter told us it was vegetarian food only. This surprised us, because the guide book mentioned a number of meat dishes, but we thought "what the heck" and ate there anyways. We found out later that our trip to Budapest coincided with The Nine Days, a Jewish period of mourning where meat (and apparently bathing) is forbidden. The food was okay, but nto what we had hoped for. After dinner we discovered a little more of Pest beforeheading back to the apartment after a long day.

On Monday, we went out for a nice breakfast at a café in Pest before crossing the Chain Bridge to Buda, where we checked out the Royal Palace and the castle district for much of the afternoon. After that, we checked out a Communist-themed pizza restaurant in an area of Buda where it kind of looked like they were still stuck in the Cold War. It wasn't the most beautiful part of town, and we definitely preferred the more upscale Pest side, but it was interesting to get a glimpse at what life may have looked like in Budapest under the communist regimes of the 70's and 80's.

On Tuesday, we checked out a couple of tourist attractions, the Terror House, the Great Market Hall, and St. Stephen's Basilica. The Terror House is a building in Pest that served as the headquarters for both the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party (basically the Nazis of Hungary) and the communist State Protection Authority. Both of these groups used the building to interrogate, torture and imprison people that got in their way or disagreed with their way of life. It was interesting to learn more about this, since internationally, you don't often hear much about what happened in Hungary during those times.

The Great Market Hall is Budapest's largest public market. Picture Granville Island, only bigger and with every second stall selling Hungarian Paprika. It was pretty cool. Later in the afternoon we checked out St. Stephen's Basilica, and we were wowed. It's one of the more beautiful cathedrals we've seen in our travels, with a huge interior, a beautiful dome, and mostly marble walls and columns inside. It was something.

Our night concluded with a nice dinner on a patio in Pest, where we finally got our first taste of authentic Hungarian Goulash, as well as the Hungarian digestif "Unicum". Let's just say the Goulash went down easier.

We headed back to Vienna on Wednesday for our flight back to Zürich. Budapest was a beautiful city that we really loved, and wished we could have spent more time in. Our next planned trip is a weekend in Prague. If its anywhere as nice as Budapest, it should be a great time.