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*** July 2026 Image & Video Thread ***

From a letter by my father, December 28, 1944. “Boy! I wish this was over, I’m getting tired of living in a hole in the ground like a coyote and hearing the almost constant sound of heavy guns firing. I get to feel like the animals do at home during hunting season.”
Must have been hell. That is also how it was depicted in Band of Brothers, and on fhe AR. The AR put it in cold snow conditions. And that is why this part of the visit was that I realized how it must have been.

I can put up more pictures of the forest.
 
Yesterday I went to Bastonge war museum. I was a little disappointed more then half of the museum was dedicated to the circumstances leading to ww2 and ww2 in general, up to the liberation of Bastonge (first time). Then in the cellar it continues with the Battle of the Bulge, emphasising the siege from the Germans, which is then told by a few pictures in day-to-day form with very few artifcats or the battle it self. 2 movies, one taking place in forest decorated chilled room (10-15 celsius) in and telling the story from the airborne crew fighting in the foxholes in the cold. And one setting inside a cafe and its cellar (moving floor) telling the story of the Bastonge people. Both around 10 minutes, and not using actual film. Not my cup of tea. For the price I think it is not worth it. The memorial it self outside was barricaded. I'm glad I went, saw a few new things, and more of a Belgium perspective I was not aware of. It was ok. Having been in the old museum (from before this 2014 overhaul) I remembered a much more BOTB emphasised museum, without the movie setting stuf, but much better diorama's. I think this modernisation might work for younger people better. The museum in Caen, and Gdanks, are much much better.

Love the travelog. Makes me wish you could see some of the local museums and say what you think.

The World War I museum I've posted on before; I appreciate it because it doesn't try to candy-coat the horrors of the war (the bit on trench warfare is particularly evocative). It's got two 10-minute movies - one at the start covering the leadup to the war, the other at the halfway point talking about the US entry to the war - but neither one es excessive, and both have some good information.

Then there's the two Presidential museum/libraries, Truman and Lincoln. Truman was renovated a couple of years back, and they added several multimedia displays; but they're paired with some pretty informational scripting. And there are lots of displays focused on telling history. The Lincoln museum, OTOH, seemed more focused on spectacle than education; a beautiful diorama of Lincoln's cabin, but very little in the way of knowledge to go with it.
 
We visited the Givet Citadel. Last week I posted some pictures of the outside of the citadel visible above the city. Now we can see the city from the citadel.
You can also so the complex layered construction. It was a very strong citadel and overcame a lot of sieges.
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the top of the citadel is large, and very dry...
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Below this it is all consctruction. The outside walls are actually very thick 10m walls, with canon shooting holes within, overseeing the below "trench" (so the guns are not pointed toward the city from these large walls. The citadel is on a rock, and on the city side it is not accessible. Too high.
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Some random pictures from the last view days:
Fondry des Chiens:
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Semois river in "Hautes Rivieres" region.

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The mighty Bouillon castle, from Godrfried of Bouillon who answered the call from the pope in 1096 for a crusade to Jerusalem. Sold / mortgaged all his stuff including this castle to fund it.
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Went out early to grab the sunrise and try out some lens combinations. A lot of these were shot with an adapter and a pre AI 50mm f/1.4 lens.
I like the bokeh it produces.
I was looking at the photos I posted and thought "man those are dark!" I don't know how they got this far, I thought I edited them. So I went through and fixed them. Not sure if my monitor was inordinately bright that day or what, but they were exposed for the highlights obviously.
 

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I was looking at the photos I posted and thought "man those are dark!" I don't know how they got this far, I thought I edited them. So I went through and fixed them. Not sure if my monitor was inordinately bright that day or what, but they were exposed for the highlights obviously.
 

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The race ...
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More trains ...
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Critters ...
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we're already a few days in the Pyrenees. We went on a walk to Cirque du Gavarnie:
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1,5 hour and a lot of sweat later:
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Views from the other side in Spain
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For @Pete_W :
(Sadly, it came into town while I working advance voting as an election worker, so I was only able to get down to see it at the very end of the day.)

Thanks @Travis Butler !! The Big Boy sure is impressive.

I was watching some footage of it on YouTube recently and there were people all over the adjacent tracks but quite close to get photos and videos. It looked quite dangerous and the driver was releasing the valves to push steam out at ground level to encourage them to stand back!
 
Thanks @Travis Butler !! The Big Boy sure is impressive.

I was watching some footage of it on YouTube recently and there were people all over the adjacent tracks but quite close to get photos and videos. It looked quite dangerous and the driver was releasing the valves to push steam out at ground level to encourage them to stand back!
Right before I left, I saw someone sneak in past the fence so he could get some shots from the other side of the locomotive… it was obviously not fired up, but it was still kind of irritating.
 
Thanks @Travis Butler !! The Big Boy sure is impressive.

I was watching some footage of it on YouTube recently and there were people all over the adjacent tracks but quite close to get photos and videos. It looked quite dangerous and the driver was releasing the valves to push steam out at ground level to encourage them to stand back!
Oh, and if you want more detail shots of the machinery, https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_prof67/albums/72157719811294570/ has some closer-ups of the driving wheels (as well as some pics from its 2021 visit).
 
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