Day Six: France

We woke up on day 6 at Ninas house a little bit later than usual, around 9:00. After eating a tasty breakfast consisting of breads, juice, sausage, turkey, salami, cheeses, coffee, watermelon, honeydew and a few other things. We played Uno with Daniel (Ninas 5 year old son) until Uta arrived.

Today we went to France, more specifically Strausburg and the Maginot Line in Lembach. It took 15 minutes of walking to get to the main attraction at Strausburg, the Cathedral. 

The cathedral dominated the Strausburg skyline and was very impressive closeup! Better yet, it was free to go in. 

After walking around the inside, we decided to climb to the top of the Cathedral. What seemed like 500 steps later we got to the top and had a great view of the city because there are hardly any buildings more than 5 stories tall in Strausburg.

Following our decension we had Crepes in a nearby cafe and then headed back to the car for our trip to the Maginot Line.

For any readers who don't know, the Maginot Line was a "line" of fortifications built by the French during the run-up to World War Two along their border with Germany.

It was a network of interconnected bunkers, underground rail systems, and weapons such as artillery and anti-aircraft. What's ironic about the Maginot Line is it didn't stop the Germans at all. They went through Belgium, completely avoiding the line, forcing France to surrender in just 6 weeks. The line was probably one of my favorite things I have seen so far. This was the entrance we went into:

You can't tell from this angle, but in front of the bunker and behind the fence is a "dry moat" 20 feet deep, the bridge going into the bunker retracts, the inside of the bunker is lined with steel and several feet of concrete. In addition to the machine gun ports in the front of the bunker, we were met at every turn inside the bunker with a machine gun mounted at the end the hall. What impressed me the most about the Maginot Line were the details and thought put into its construction. The emergency exit was a good example of this.

This is a diagram of what the exit looks like. (It looks like Phase 1 today) This was a one time emergency exit, not just an alarmed door. The yellow on the graph is gravel. To activate the exit, one man must climb to the top of the first ladder and pull a switch. This switch releases a trap door causing the gravel to fall in the empty space beneath revealing a new ladder which leads above ground. 

This section of the Maginot Line held around 600 soldiers when fully staffed. There were bunk rooms, a kitchen, infirmary, two operating rooms, officers quarters, gun installations and a few various others they didn't show us; I'm assuming one of them was the white flag storage room. 

The picture above is a missile battery which raises and lowers hydraulically, reloads, spins, fires, and is controlled entirely underground (Our tour guide lowered and raised it for us). At the end of the tour was a museum with old shells, guns, bombs, missiles, and propaganda.

Stopped in Lembach on the way back and had some Flammkuchen. Taking it easy tonight, tomorrow will be a big day! Stay tuned. -Elliott