Paris to Swiss Alps: Luxembourg American Cemetery (3/27/2017)

Monday, March 27, 2017 (continued)
A very short drive from Luxembourg City, we arrived at the American Cemetery and Memorial (established 12/29/1944, designed by Keally and Patterson with the landscape designed by Alfred Geiffert, Jr.), the final resting place of 5,076 American military, most lost during the Battle of the Bulge.

View of the chapel (KSS) with a sculpture of
the Angel of Peace designed by Leo Friedlander

There are two maps, this one shows the Battle of the Bulge and
the other shows the European Theater of Operations

On the opposite side to the maps are the lists of the 371 missing
soldiers; if found, their names are marked with a brass rosette

General George Patton (who died on 12/24/1945 in Heidelberg),
wished to be buried among his men, which at first he was;
however, because so many people wanted to see his grave,
the surrounding graves were a bit trampled, thus Patton's
grave was moved in 1947 to a spot between the flagpoles (KSS)

Chapel door, designed by Leo Friedlander

Chapel ceiling with a mosaic depicting the Holy Spirit (dove)
in a cloud held by four angels, designed by Allyn Cox,
and fabicated by Fabrizio Cassio in Rome

Chapel interior

The grave markers (KSS)

Grave marker of an unknown soldier

The markers are lined up precisely 

Grave marker of a Jewish soldier,
with stones left by visitors

Grave marker of William McGee,
a Medal of Honor recipient

The cemetery includes 118 Stars of David, 22 sets of brothers, one pair close friends, and one woman.
Back to the motor coaches to finish our trip to Trier and embark on the Viking Longship Hild.

The Viking Hild on the Moselle River

Red sandstone cliffs on the opposite bank

Viking Hild sun deck with shuffleboard and a putting green

Herb garden for the culinary department on board

Viking gangway

Oh! The passengers are already lining up for dinner!

Kent peruses the books in the library;
no jigsaw puzzles this time

Painting representing the ship's namesake, Hild, a horse-riding Valkyrie
who used her power to revive fallen soldiers on the battlefield

I am assuming that because this is a fairly new itinerary, they still have not fully organized the shore excursions, both included and optional, so that there was little information on the website before the trip. Today we received a list of all the optional excursions available on the rest of this cruise (although we usually do not avail ourselves of those). Each day we would receive information about the next day's included shore excursions.
There was A Toast to Our Guests, with Captain Ruurd and Hotel Manager David welcoming us onto the Viking Hild ship.
Dinner: First Course: We chose the Potato Crusted Marscapone Cheese with truffle sabayon sauce. (There are usually four options.)
Main Course: We chose the Châteaubriand au jus with buttered vegetables, pommes Pont Neuf, and Béarnaise sauce. (There are usually three options)
Dessert: We chose the Marscapone & Sour Cherry Cake with brownie streusel and marinated berries. (There are usually at least two special options, and an ice cream and sorbet flavor of the day.)
The Evening Entertainment tonight was the Michael Fischer Showband presenting folk songs of the Moselle and Rhine Rivers. It was surprising how many were familiar tunes!  Beer-drinking songs, wandering/hiking songs, and the Beer Barrel Polka!

A conga line

The barrel organ

The Michael Fischer Showband

Next: Trier, Germany.