Category Archives: europe

Liege Lost 2011

Luxembourg bound From Oxford The Ambassador behind the wheel A Porsche Boxer 140 kph Arrive Folkestone Late Well past Midnight___ Wait In the car park Board the car-train Chunnel To Pas De Calais Night Northern France On the Autoroute___ The Ambassador behind the wheel The Porsche fast 180kph Alice loves speed___ Moi Un passenger Le […]

Dunkel Dunkel

The word for darkness in German is ‘dunkel’. Darkness is ‘dunkelheit’ and today dawned very ‘dunkel’ in the Rhine city of Cologne. The farther north in Europe the shorter the days, as the northern hemisphere approaches the winter solstice. After dunkel comes the grey sky of morning and I will visit the great cathedral of […]

Another Tale From Luxembourg 11-11-2011

. Later on that gray autumn morning in November 11, 2011 after the ceremony for the American War dead, the dignitaries drove to attend the Ruhe Tag or ‘Quiet Day’ ceremony for the fallen German soldiers at the close-by Sandweiler German War Cemetery, a separate and smaller cemetery. Shaded by the trees and dark as […]

11/11/1918 – The Last To Go

Published on Nov 11, 2008 My grandfather and grandmother met in France. The year was 1917. They served together in a frontline hospital for the Royal Canadian Medical Expedition. Neither had much use for God after witnessing the carnage of trench warfare. 90 years ago they were sitting along the Marne for the Armstice. It […]

FALLEN BUT NOT FORGOTTEN by Peter Nolan Smith

On November 11, 2011 I accompanied the British and the American ambassadors to the US military cemetery outside Luxembourg City. Luxembourg was a small duchy. I looked out the window of the Jaguar, as we exited from the city. The morning sun struggled to break through the low fog. It would have little success on […]