It started off well, woke up early to catch the train to Maastricht. When we arrived, we misread the train schedule. We thought our next train was leaving at 10:30 so we walked around Maastricht to kill time. Everything was decorated for Carnaval, which is basically a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras, spanning the course of 4 days. Every city and town in Belgium and the southern Netherlands celebrates Carnaval, but each celebrates it on different days.
For example, Liege has Carnaval starting Monday this week. Anyways, when we got back to the train station we realized our mistake. Our train was arriving at its destination at 10:30, not leaving Maastricht... Luckily, trains in Europe are pretty flexible. As long as you have a ticket, it doesn't matter what time you get on the trains, as long as its on the same day. So we just took the next train.
We had to change trains in s'-hertogenbosch (yes that's actually its name) before we arrived in Nijmegen. We bought sandwiches there as it was just after noon, before catching bus number 5 to Groesbeek. Everyone in the Netherlands was very helpful. The bus driver told us which stop to get off at and he gave us directions from the bus stop to walk to the cemetery.
It was a beautiful walk, about 1 km along a country road with a gorgeous forest on one side of the road and a golf course on the other. The road was lined with stunning trees that curved in an arch over the road. The cemetery itself was sitting on top of a hill, with forest all around. Beautiful countryside. There were a few cars in the parking lot, but no visitors in the cemetery when we arrived.
I was a little stunned at first, walking into the cemetery. Thousands of white headstones sitting in rows in the green grass. It was a humbling experience. All those brave men who gave their lives for our freedom. I, of course, started crying. It was a heartbreaking experience, but I did feel a surge of pride for my countrymen.
With the ID and location number Auntie Jean gave me, I found Peter Schneider with no problem. He was tucked on the far left of the cemetery under the shade of a tree. It's still considered winter here so even though there's green grass, there aren't any flowers, and it slipped my mind to bring some. But in the spring his grave will be beautiful, under the shade of a tree, with a rose bush growing beside the stone.
After paying my respects to Peter, Camille and I walked around the rest of the cemetery. Looking at each of the headstones in turn, reading the quotes at the bottom, seeing the vary of the ages. The youngest we saw was 17. There were so many 18 and 19 year olds... Peter Schneider was only 19 when he fell.
More people started to arrive before we left. It started to rain and get cold at 3pm so we walked back to the bus, and took it back to the train station. Back in Nijmegen, everyone was wearing costumes! And I do mean everyone, from the stroller to the walker. It didn't matter what age you were, you dressed up for Carnaval. We didn't really feel like going back to Liege just yet so we walked around Nijmegen for a while. We even stumbled onto a street market and fair. Games, concerts, vendors, it was really cool to see.
At 5:30, our legs were starting to ache so we decided to take an earlier train back to Liege, and it's a good thing we did too! Our first train was from Nijmegen to s'-hertogenbosch, with one stop in Oss. When we arrived in Oss, the conductor made an announcement over the intercom, in Dutch, obviously. Suddenly, everyone got up and exited the train. A young woman seated across from us leaned over and told us that there had been an accident on the tracks ahead and this train would no be going any further. She had heard us talking in English and assumed we wouldn't understand the Dutch! We followed her off the train and across the street where she told us the Train company had arranged for a shuttle bus to take us the rest of the way to s'-hertogenbosch. Like I said before, it's a good thing we took the earlier train because we didn't miss the last trains back to Maastricht and Liege.
The rest of the night was uneventful, and we both arrived safely back in Liege by 10 pm!
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