On Saturday we went to the Fort of Mont St. Quentin. To get there we took the car up into the hills around Metz. We went through a really beautiful village called Scy-Chazelles. When we arrived at the meeting point, we had to wait around for awhile. There were some people who were quite late... but, i got to know some of the other Couchsurfers. Aside from the ones from Holland, there were some from Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and of course France.
When we finally arrived at the forts, I was really amazed. They're still quite intact, and offer a maze of corridors, rooms and tunnels. Large moats travel alongside walls several stories high, with many gun ports. We discovered steel cupolas, that stuck out from the ground a foot or so, and offered an excellent view of the surrounding countryside. The forts could be dangerous too. Once you ventured inside, away from the windows, it was completely dark, and you needed your flashlight, or you would be stuck. We also had to watch for holes in the floor, which could lead down to another floor, or who knows where... Also, there were low roofs(my nemesis) and random pieces of metal hanging from them. But, we all survived and made it out safely.
The last fort of Saturday was at the top of the hill overlooking Metz. It had a very interesting warning sign outside it's barred gate. It warned you of the dangers of the fort, that an adult and child had already died in it and than proceeded to tell you that the fort had absolutely no interest for the public... Well, it was certainly wrong. After we went down into the valley alongside the fort, and climbed up the side, we went into the fort. It has this amazing room, that is painted, almost like greek or roman paintings, such as you find in Pompeii. As far as our guide knew, it was done by the original inhabitants of the fort. It was quite impressive.
Saturday evening we went to the Metz Christmas Market. They had all kinds of interesting things to see, eat, and drink. We had some Gluhwein, and ate some Poele de Noel(some kind of meat stuffed in a bun) and then some tasty chocolate bread. We also visited the Quebecois stall, that was run by a fellow Couchsurfer. It had the usual maple syrup for sale... After we went to a local bar, and I tried a couple of beers made in Lorraine, the region where Metz is located. Noiraude and Loroyse they were called. After the long day, I was really tired, and had a really good sleep. The next morning we headed out to the Fort du Bois la Dame. This one was much more difficult to get too. We had to drive up a muddy, pitted road to get to it. On the way we noticed some people dressed up in camouflage, and we though, oh, some people out doing paintball... Until we got closer and noticed their FAMAS(semi-automatic rifle) and hand grenades they were carrying around. So, we smiled, and drove past them quickly. The group this morning was about half as large. Apparently we were down to the hardcore, while the rest stayed and visited Metz. This fort had some impressive tunnels, some right down into the bedrock. After lunch, we split up into groups. Some went 30km away to Verdun to visit the Maginot Line. Others, went to another fort in the area, and my group went to visit the old Roman aqueduct at Jouy-aux-Arches. This aqueduct brought water from the hills near Metz to the city. After visiting it, we went back to the city.
By this time, it had begun to snow. By the time we departed Metz around 5:00PM it was snowing even harder. By the time we had made it to Belgium, traffic was almost at a standstill. There were cars in the ditches, parked in the middle of the road, and snow completely covering the road. Our top speed was 30km an hour. We finally got going again, about half way to Liege, and made it to Rotterdam by just after midnight. There was some snow in Rotterdam too... but it promptly melted under the onslaught of a rain storm, that also soaked me on my bike ride back home. Ahh, it was great to be back home.
Some other comments I have. The Belgians are really weird. What other country has two names for every city? One in both Flemish and French. They have Anvers/Antwerp, Brussel/Bruxelles, Gent/Gand, Luik/Liege, Namen/Namur, etc, etc. And you have to know both, if you're in Flanders heading towards Wallonia, it will only give you the Wallonian city names in Flemish, and vice-versa.
The French were really friendly, although I noticed they're a lot less willing to speak english than the Dutch are.
I still think Couchsurfers are often the coolest people I meet.
Here's a typic grave stone for a Canadian soldier. His service number, name, regiment, date of death and age plus a short quote. Not all stones have crosses, some have a star of david, a crescent or nothing at all.
It was a very nice cemetery. I recommend to all people, that they should visit one.
