WW2 Tours

[Hershy]

Dear all,

Despite being born in 1996, I have never met a real life World War 2 veteran except for my Communist grandmother of whom I don't have much affection for.
The National WW2 Museum has travel tours but I don't know which one to pick. I'm kicking myself for not being on the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day cruise.

Any recommendations?

Lap

 

[Tiki Tom]

Hi Hershey,

Welcome to the Fedora Lounge. Here is my unvarnished advice: I have no doubt that there are good WWII tours out there, but they can be unbelievably expensive, especially for a young person in their twenties. Additionally, package tours often have a typically older clientele, which might not be a good match.

For summer 2020, have you thought about treating yourself to a freedom summer by getting a Eurail Pass and seeing exactly what you are specifically interested in? What I mean is: cheap round trip airfares are available if you book in advance; A Eurail Pass will give you inexpensive and flexible ground transportation, and you can stay at Youth Hostels for little money. You could fly to London and visit the Churchill War Rooms and the RAF Museum; cross the channel and walk on Omaha Beach, and then train to Germany and see Hitlers “Eagles Nest”. The point is: you see what YOU want to see and what interests YOU. And you could do it at a fraction of the cost of one of those tours that you are thinking about.

Independent travel may seem daunting but it is entirely do-able. For example, this last June I hosted a friends son for a few days as he was backpacking across Europe. He was doing it for a month between his junior and senior years of university in Vermont.

Myth: I can’t do it because I don’t speak any foreign languages. Truth: English has become the common currency language in Europe for travel, business, and education. The so-called “language barrier” is little more than a speed bump these days.

Myth: it is too complicated to plan all that. Truth: with the internet you can put together a rough itinerary, including places to stay, in the course of a Saturday afternoon. Planning is half the fun, especially if you do it with a friend.

I hope you will seriously consider this option. I wish I could convey in words how amazing and rewarding it is to get out there and do it on your own. A tour is just a tour, but after you spend a few weeks backpacking around Europe you will OWN Europe and will come back a changed person. If not now, when? As a California boy, I spent a summer backpacking around Europe when I was about your age. It profoundly affected me. (Note where I am now!!)

Good luck and keep us posted.

P.S. - I looked at those National WWII Museum travel tours. They are phenomenally expensive. Note that those prices do not include round trip airfare.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/e...JkRtcir5aszdGDMB-5PjEHf4Y74tWBChoCbpwQAvD_BwE

 

[Tiki Tom]

And look! The Eurail website even has a suggested ten day World War II itinerary:

https://www.eurail.com/en/get-inspired/suggested-itineraries/10-days-europe-world-war-ii-sites

 

[GHT]

Tiki Tom is right, don't be held back by what if's. Like Tom, I went off in the year between leaving school and starting university. After travelling around much of Western Europe the money started to get low, but a chat with a French barman found me grape picking for a couple of months. I followed the harvest north, it didn't pay a lot but I got free meals, free lodging and by the time I came home I was speaking reasonable French.

You could argue that Europe is my continent, that's true, but I have always had a fascination for The American Civil War. In much the same way that Tom described his forays into Europe, my wife and I did it in the opposite direction. We booked cheap flights, haggled on price for a hired car at the arrival airport, stayed in various motels, learning which are the best to book, enjoyed some great hospitality. We have travelled all over the Southern States, but for no particular reason, we have never been north of The Mason-Dixon, but we will, unless age catches up with us.

So let the travel companies charge those who have the bucks and like an ordered structure, you go for it my friend, and welcome to The Lounge.

 

[p51]

Myth: I can’t do it because I don’t speak any foreign languages. Truth: English has become the common currency language in Europe for travel, business, and education. The so-called “language barrier” is little more than a speed bump these days.

"Speed bump" my eye!
My wife and I spent a month in the UK and Europe last year and I was lucky enough to spend a short stay in Normandy. I hadn't been to Europe as a tourist since the late 80s, and back then, I only encountered one person (at the German RR museum at Nuremberg) who couldn't/wouldn't speak English but my high school German got me through.
Last year, I was surprised to encounter many people who either couldn't or wouldn't speak English. On the 2-week cruise from Southampton to Rome and back, a fellow American, who'd never crossed the pond before said it best, "My whole life, people said everyone here speaks English to some degree. Where are these people, because more than half say they don't understand it at all?"
In France, several people didn't understand us at all but were used to tourists and I had a French language guide that helped out a lot. In Spain and Portugal, though, we ran into a lot of issues!

 

[Tiki Tom]

Thanks for taking the time to weigh-in, P51.
A foreign country is, after all, a foreign country. There is a certain degree of hit-and-miss to human encounters. That said, in Larger European cities you won’t go very far without finding someone who can speak English. Here in Vienna, my most common experience is that when I speak German (pretty good German, if I may say so myself!) people very often reply in English ...and sometimes we will get into the rather silly situation where the American (me) pig-headedly keeps speaking in German and the Viennese gentleman doggedly keeps speaking In English! And there is nothing competitive about it: some locals are eager to practice their English and also just trying to be helpful. Of course, it is not like home and not EVERYONE speaks English. How boring would that be? But one of the great advantages of being born British, American, Canadian, Australian, South African or Kiwi is that you can travel almost anywhere in the world and find signage in English and also people who have at least a basic understanding. Imagine if you only spoke —for example— Albanian, and tried to travel the world. That would be tough. For a Native English speaker, not so much. I’m not trying to paint an overly rosy picture, but I do think we have it relatively easy.
Am I correct, Trenchfriend?
And what I was trying to get across to Hershey is that fear of “the language barrier” is no reason to throw up your hands and say I can’t do independent travel.
I myself have about 1,000 funny stories about miscommunication all over Europe, including in the UK. Yeah, awkward and even bad experiences happen, but for me, they are the exception and not the rule.
Again, I see your point, and fully agree that, if you travel in Europe, you will meet people who don’t speak English... but not so many of them that it makes travel impossible, or even all that difficult.
I apologize if I’ve gotten a bit long-winded and if I sound like I’m on a high horse or something (I hope not). But this topic hits a bit close to home for me. After two decades in Europe, I am humbled by the amount of good will, helpfulness, and (yes) English that I’ve received from the locals.
Let me leave Hershey with this excellent article on the subject by travel guru, Rick Steves:

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/confessions-of-a-monoglot

 

[p51]

I found it funny how my wife has always advocated that anyone living here needs to at least understand English (something I don't disagree with as such), but she made zero attempt to understand the locals anywhere we went on that trip. She knows I speak no French but I had to go talk with everyone, as she thinks I have a better grasp of other languages (which is nonsense, as I took German in college, but that was 20 years ago and I have never used it since then).

I myself have about 1,000 funny stories about miscommunication all over Europe, including in the UK.

When I was active duty, I once worked alongside the British Army. One night in the field, one of their NCOs came by and told a group of female US Army Quartermaster LTs that he'd "be by to knock them up" in the morning. One ran at him, intent on beating him senseless (she had martial arts skills). I grabbed her and her bottom half spun up and she was thrashing in my arms, and the Brit NCO turned around, baffled at the sight. I grabbed her by the shoulders and yelled at her, "he meant WAKE you up, it's a Brit figure of speech!" Only then did she calm down, but was red as a fire truck still.
The NCO came up to me in a chow line later and said, "Excuse me sir, but did I err, earlier? I have no idea why that Leftenant was so upset." I explained what the phrase mean to us colonials. He turned white as a sheet and went back to apologize, but she'd calmed down by then (having heard others who knew what it meant)...

 

[GHT]

Bollocks doesn't have the same ring in America as it does over here. It's a vulgar term for testicles, but we use it for a variety of meanings. Something that's no good or worthless would be, a load of bollocks, someone talking nonsense is described as, talking bollocks. Surprisingly we also use it in a positive manner to describe something that is the best, in which case it would be described as, "the dog's bollocks."

In a gift shop in Nashville, Tennessee, I came across an amazing clock, the face of which described The Sun Record company. Being a proud owner of all five of Elvis Presley's releases on The Sun record label, I was most impressed. It was one of those instant reactions, when I saw it, without thinking I said, "Is that the dog's bollocks, or what?" It wasn't loud but was probably audible within a few feet.

Seeing my missus doubled up with laughter, I was bemused. "What's the joke?" I asked. "You should have seen the reaction of those two, standing right behind you when you saw that clock," she replied. Then added, "they looked at each other, mouthed "dog's bollocks," shrugged and walked on. They probably think that you are a case for the funny farm."

Funny farm, it's another Britspeak, it means the mental health hospital.

 

[EngProf]

Bollocks doesn't have the same ring in America as it does over here. It's a vulgar term for testicles, but we use it for a variety of meanings. Something that's no good or worthless would be, a load of bollocks, someone talking nonsense is described as, talking bollocks. Surprisingly we also use it in a positive manner to describe something that is the best, in which case it would be described as, "the dog's bollocks."

In a gift shop in Nashville, Tennessee, I came across an amazing clock, the face of which described The Sun Record company. Being a proud owner of all five of Elvis Presley's releases on The Sun record label, I was most impressed. It was one of those instant reactions, when I saw it, without thinking I said, "Is that the dog's bollocks, or what?" It wasn't loud but was probably audible within a few feet.

Seeing my missus doubled up with laughter, I was bemused. "What's the joke?" I asked. "You should have seen the reaction of those two, standing right behind you when you saw that clock," she replied. Then added, "they looked at each other, mouthed "dog's bollocks," shrugged and walked on. They probably think that you are a case for the funny farm."

Funny farm, it's another Britspeak, it means the mental health hospital.

I'm reasonably sure the folks behind you didn't know what you really meant, and possibly thought you were from Memphis and were slightly upset that Nashville had stolen the glory of Sun Records.
A lot of people think that Sun was in Nashville - including whomever wrote the lyrics to the song "Nashville Cats" - but Sun (and Sam Phillips and Elvis) were Memphians. Memphians can be a bit testy about how we in Nashville stole their claim-to-fame.

("Funny farm" is also used here with the same meaning.)

 

[Tiki Tom]

Lately these have been the ads that pop up when I open FL: Beyond-Band-Of-Brothers-Tours. Admittedly better than some of the ads I used to get, although I still don't endorse this approach. But it is interesting. (For example, click on the 2020 tours for a boatload of WWII tours.)

https://www.beyondbandofbrothers.co...8pIXrLTT-qmmBtqrzkXAoDhfH2dWeNPxoCEskQAvD_BwE

 

[Warden]

On a related note, I was waiting for my son at a local town, so I thought I would walk the dog and see if I could find any WW2 history, this is what I found

 

[Bugguy]

I'll be visiting the Netherlands in November to meet up with Grateful Generation Tours (https://www.gratefulgenerationtours.nl/ to visit the site of operation Market Garden. My father landed there via glider and fought to liberate the town where this group is based. His uniform and various memorabilia are exhibited in their permanent museum. If you check out the Permanent Exhibit page, he's ID'd in the first column of the last row - picture over overseas window pennant.

As my wife and family will be in Paris, I'm doing this solo... sort of a pilgrimage to honor my father.

 

[Turnip]

If anyone makes it to Berlin it might be worth trying one of the Berliner Unterwelten tours.