Team Crusty Screentest

Oh the hijinks that ensue while Team Crusty plans their trip! Well... not really. But this is from our planning weekend in Chicago and a brief test of Team Crusty's new video abilities on the InterWeb!™

Aachen Art Hotel

These will be our digs while we're stationed in Aachen, Germany: Aachen Art Hotel. From here we will explore Germany, like Köln (Cologne), Neuenkirchen, Spa... and also wash our stinky clothes and relax in the hot springs! Not necessarily in that order.

Coming Soon! (if Europe doesn't kill us)

Team Crusty enters into urban competition again in the Urban Tadpole this summer. Stay tuned as we bike, run, paddle and whatever else they throw at us to victory somewhere-maybe-in-the middle-of-the-pack but-not-last. This also means Team Crusty has to get out and start training. Which I'm sure will start tomorrow...

Gnome and Ed research breweries for the trip

The past weekend was jam-packed with research and planning for the trip. We went to the Savvy Traveller and picked up a few necessities, and the Chicago library for a huge stack of guide books. Bill also brought the vast stack of tourism materials he'd received from several of the cities we're going to.

We spent a few hours in the Four Moon going through as much as we could, picking out information we should take along and identifying where we wanted to go. I don't know that I've ever seen anyone in there before with a map of Europe spread across the table! We actually managed to look at it all and get the stack down to a manageable size.

On Sunday, we got a thrill when we finally located information about Neuenkirchen, which is too small to appear in any guide books. It may be small but it looks like there are a lot of restaurants there! And a distillery, which Mr. Ioanes mentioned in his e-mail! This is so exciting.

So 8 weeks to go... I think we'll be ready...!

Luxembourg Hostel

Here is the hostel we will be staying at in Luxembourg:

Hollenfels Castle Hostel

Tracking the 137th Signal Radio Intelligence Company

Way back when this trip was a might-happen-someday dream, Bill and I got a copy of the history of our grandfather's WWII unit, the 137th Signal Radio Intelligence Company, from him. One of the members of the unit, Mr. Ed Ioanes, had written the two-volume history. Being a history buff, I found it interesting even before we decided to go on the trip; you can find a summary version of it here.

Once we started planning our actual trip, the unit history was invaluable. We were able to roughly map the path the unit had taken through continental Europe then sit down to figure out what we could cover in 9 days (not much!).

We talked to our grandfather during our visits and looked at his scrapbook from that time to work out what places and sights really stuck out to him, so we could focus on those. We also decided we would try to cover some important historical sites and museums on the way. But there was this feeling that we were probably going to miss some interesting buildings, or wander around aimlessly with the camcorder recording everything in sight (especially after a tasty beer).

And then, ta-da! I was able to get in touch with Mr. Ioanes by e-mail. He sent me a long, incredibly helpful and detailed message with suggestions including some specific buildings that may be of interest in various towns. Very cool.

So our itinerary is filling in... we have a car reserved (not a SmartCar, boo!), one more hotel booked (the Art Hotel in Aachen), and Bill's French is coming along nicely. Okay maybe not so much the last part.