In 1977, we only walked around a little bit as we visited Aachen Cathedral that was erected on the orders of Charlemagne from 796-798, once the largest cathedral north of the Alps. It was modelled after the Basilica of San Vitale, in Ravenna, Italy. Charlemagne also wanted the chapel to compete with the Lateran Palace, both in quality and authority. It was originally built in the Carolingian style, including marble covered walls, and mosaic inlay on the dome. On his death, Charlemagne’s remains were interred in the cathedral and can be seen there to this day. He was buried in the church that he had built. The cathedral was extended several times in later ages, turning it into a curious and unique mixture of building styles. The throne and gallery portion date from the Ottonian times. The 13th century saw gables being added to the roof. After the fire of 1656, the dome was rebuilt. Finally, a choir was added around the start of the 15th century. After Frederick Barbarossa canonized Charlemagne in 1165 the chapel became a destination for pilgrims. For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens. This church built by Charlemagne is still the main attraction of the city. In addition to holding the remains of its founder, it became the burial place of his successor Otto III. In the upper chamber of the gallery, Aachen Cathedral has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of the marble and columns used in the construction of the cathedral were brought from Rome and Ravenna, including the sarcophagus in which Charlemagne was eventually laid to rest. A bronze bear from Gaul was placed inside, along with an equestrian statue from Ravenna, believed to be Theodric, in contrast to a wolf and a statue of Marcus Aurelius. Bronze pieces such as the doors and railings, some of which have survived to present day, were cast in a local foundry. Finally, there is a bronze pine cone in the chapel, which is a parallel to a piece in Rome’s Old St. Peter’s Basilica. Aachen Cathedral Treasury has housed, throughout its history, a collection of liturgical objects. Only six of the original Carolingian objects have remained, and of those only three are left in Aachen, the Aachen Gospels, a diptych of Christ, and an early Byzantine silk. The Lothar Cross, the Gospels of Otto III and multiple additional Byzantine silks were donated by Otto III. Frederick Barbarossa donated the candelabrum that adorns the dome. Continuing this tradition, many objects continued to be donated until the present, each indicative of the period of its gifting. Thus, there was a lot to see there, like crosses, chairs or thrones, and the altar itself. I had a good time there, but we did not stay long. What is the best cathedral that you have ever seen?
Aachen, Aix-la-Chappelle – home of Charlemagne
It was about 74 miles from Eindhoven to Aachen, as we crossed the border into Germany. Aachen became famous in the 8th and 9th century under the reign of Charles the Great, Charlemagne (748-814). I had a personal interest in Charlemagne because of my work on the history of Confirmation. I had visited Aachen on one of our Louvain architectural tours in the 1960s. Aachen has about 250,000 people in the north Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, about 38 miles west of Cologne and Bonn, directly bordering Belgium in the southwest, and the Netherlands in the northwest. After the withdrawal of the Roman troops, it was Germanized by the Franks around the 5th century. This was followed by the Merovingian and then Carolingian rule. With the completion of the Carolingian Palace of Aachen at the transition to the 9th century, Aachen was finally constituted as the main royal residence of the Frankish Empire ruled by Charlemagne. Thus, Aachen is sometimes called the cradle of Europe, since it was the coronation site where 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned Kings of the Germans from 936 to 1531, until Frankfurt am Main became the preferred place of coronation. After Roman times, Pepin the Short had a castle residence built in the town, due to the proximity of the hot springs and for strategic reasons, as it is located between the Rhineland and northern France. In the year of his coronation as king of the Franks in 768, Charlemagne came to spend Christmas at Aachen for the first time. Charlemagne spent most winters in Aachen between 792 and his death in 814. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as the Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas day in 800 in Rome. Otto I was crowned king of East Francia in the collegiate church built by Charlemagne. The last king to be crowned here was Ferdinand I in 1531. During the Middle Ages, Aachen remained a city of regional importance, due to its proximity to Flanders. Aachen was a direct vassal of the Holy Roman Empire throughout most of the Middle Ages, as an important site for producing historical manuscripts. From the early 16th century, Aachen started to lose its power and influence. After the great fire of 1656, the city was rebuilt in a Baroque style. After World War I, Aachen was occupied by the Allies until 1930, along with the rest of German territory west of the Rhine. Aachen was the first German city to be captured by the Western Allies, and its residents welcomed the soldiers as liberators, so that Aachen Cathedral was largely unscathed. The city of Aachen has developed into a technology hub as a by-product of hosting one of the leading universities of technology in Germany with the RWTH Aachen (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule), known especially for mechanical engineering, automotive and manufacturing technology, as well as for its research and the academic hospital Klinikum Aachen, one of the largest medical facilities in Europe. At the end of 2009, the foreign-born residents of Aachen made up 13% of the total population, mostly the foreign resident students at the RWTH Aachen University that was established as Polytechnicum in 1870. Robert Browning wrote a poem about this city in 1845, “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.” What do you know about Aachen?
Leaving Holland
It was time to head back to Bitburg. We drove south from Amsterdam, as we saw plenty of windmills. We stopped in Eindhoven, about 80 miles from Amsterdam. Eindhoven is a city of the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest city with 250,0000 people. Eindhoven witnessed rapid growth starting in the 1900s with the textile and tobacco industries. Two well-known companies, DAF Trucks and Philips, were founded in the city. In 1891, two brothers Gerard and Anton Philips with their father Frederik founded the small light bulb factory that would grow into one of the largest electronics firms in the world. I remember Philips’ radios when I was a little kid. Philips’ presence is probably the largest single contributing factor to the major growth of Eindhoven in the 20th century, as it attracted and spun off many hi-tech companies, being a major multinational conglomerate. Apart from Philips, Eindhoven also contains the globally famous Design Academy of Eindhoven. About 62% of the city is Dutch, with the other 38% being born outside the Netherlands. Eindhoven is in the southeast North Brabant area, a historically Catholic area. Today, 45% say they have no religious affiliation, while 37% are Catholic. Being a university city, Eindhoven has a large student population. We said good-bye to Holland as we headed back to Germany. Have you ever heard of Philips Electronics?
Sightseeing in Amsterdam
At least, the sightseeing in Amsterdam in 1977 was not all bad. We took an hour-long canal cruise, since Amsterdam has about 160 canals and over 60 miles of canals, most navigable by boat. There are over 1,000 bridges also. We got a nice view of the various buildings in the city from the water. However, the most impressive thing that we saw on our canal ride was a barge full of cats. I have no idea what they were doing. However, it so impressed our three-and-half-year-old Joy, that one of her first paintings or art works that she did in Raygor pre-school was a painting of a ship with a lot of cats. This masterpiece had a long exhibition on our refrigerator door in Matteson for many years that led to a lot of discussions. Those cats on a barge in an Amsterdam canal made the biggest impression on Joy during our whole trip to Europe. Today, you can still take Bergmann canal tours, but they are probably ten times more expensive than they were in 1977. Then we went to the Rijksmuseum, not the Van Gogh Museum, that is dedicated to Dutch arts and history. The current building opened in 1885, and is now the most visited museum in the Netherlands with over 2 million visitors each year. They have over 8,000 objects of art and history on display from their total collection of over one million objects from the years 1200–2000. Thus, there are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer in this royal collection that has evolved over 200 years. We only visited a few parts of the museum, since Joy in her orange stroller was not that interested. We visited the Dutch history section and the painters from 15th to the 17th century. I had a pretty good idea about Flemish painting. Have you ever been on a canal cruise?
The city of Amsterdam
Amsterdam literally means “The Dam on the Amstel River.” Amsterdam is the capital and most populated city of the Netherlands, with just under a million people in the city, but two and a half million in the metropolitan area. Although it is not the capital of Western Netherlands, it is known as the “Venice of the North,” because of the large number of canals, over 160 spread out over 60 miles. Thus, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Amsterdam became a major world port during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, when the Netherlands was an economic powerhouse with Amsterdam the leading center for finance and trade, as well as a hub of secular art. The Low Countries were part of the Hapsburg inheritance and came under the Spanish monarchy in the early sixteenth century, but the Dutch rebelled. The Dutch Republic (1579-1795) became known for its relative religious tolerance. Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, Protestant Huguenots from France, Puritans from England, prosperous merchants and printers from Flanders, and economic and religious refugees from the Spanish-controlled parts of the Low Countries found safety in Amsterdam. The influx of Flemish printers and the city’s intellectual tolerance made Amsterdam a center for the European free press. During this golden age, Amsterdam became the wealthiest city in the Western world, with the monopolistic Dutch West and East India Companies. Thus, Amsterdam has a long tradition of openness, liberalism, and tolerance. Today, only one in three inhabitants under 15 has two parents of Dutch origin. Segregation along ethnic lines is clearly visible, with people of non-Western origin, considered a separate group. Historically, Amsterdam has been predominantly Christian. In recent times, religious demographics in Amsterdam have been changed by immigration from former colonies. Islam is now the largest non-Christian religion in Amsterdam. Just more than 50% of the inhabitants of Amsterdam are native Dutch. The rest of the population is about 20% from western European countries, and the other 30% from non-western countries such as Indonesia, Morocco, and Turkey, among others. The Dutch capital is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with almost 200 nationalities represented. Thus, immigration and ethnic segregation in Amsterdam is a current issue. Cycling is key to the city’s modern character, and there are numerous biking paths and lanes spread throughout. I never saw so many bicycles as there were on the streets of Amsterdam. Amsterdam’s main attractions include its historic canals, and its various museums. This city is known for its nightlife and festival activity, with several nightclubs among the world’s most famous. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, founded in 1602, is considered the oldest “modern” securities stock market exchange in the world. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters in Amsterdam, which was ranked 4th place globally as a top tech hub in 2019. The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe and the KLM hub Amsterdam’s main airport, Schiphol, is the third busiest airport in Europe, and 11th in the world. Amsterdam’s notable residents throughout its history include painters Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh, 17th-century philosophers Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, René Descartes, and the Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank. The end of the 19th century is sometimes called Amsterdam’s second Golden Age, as the Industrial Revolution reached this city. Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and took control of the country. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps, of whom some 60,000 lived in Amsterdam, about 10% of the city population. In the 21st century, the Amsterdam city center has attracted large numbers of tourists. Between 2012 and 2015, the annual number of visitors rose from 10 to 17 million. What do you know about Amsterdam?
The student hostel in Amsterdam
After a 37-mile trip from the Hague to Amsterdam, we spent that Thursday night of August 4, 1977 at the Hans Brinker Stufel. Perhaps this was the low point of our trip. Margaret got really mad. The Hans Brinker Stufel was a student hostel. She said that this was no place to bring a three-year-old baby girl. Besides the room and the bed were dirty. When I went to look it up, to my surprise, this student hostel still exists today, charging 20 Euro a night. In fact, its 2025 website explained its purpose. “Amsterdam’s story stretches back almost one thousand years to the early 13th century. A millennium of infamy, as the city was built and made famous by the sailors, creatives, prostitutes, and buccaneers who called it home. While it wasn’t until 1970 that the Hans Brinker Hostel sprung into existence in this melting pot of madness, we feel like we’ve already left our mark. Enclosed by picturesque canals and with the Leidesquare (entertainment area) a mere 5 minutes away, the Hans Brinker Hostel isn’t just at the heart of the action – we helped make it. So, take a walk to the red light district and crawl your way back. Start the day with some culture at the Rijksmuseum, and finish it in a canal. Immerse yourself into Dutch heritage, or sink into a Dutch beverage at the Hans Brinker bar. But whatever you choose to do, make it memorable. This is your chance to add some infamy to the world’s favorite city. THE ULTIMATE AMSTERDAM EXPERIENCE. Discover Amsterdam on a self-guided walking tour. Find out the stories behind the buildings and people who made Amsterdam the famous city you see today!” You can only image what it was like in 1977. For Margaret, this was the last straw. There even was a smell of marijuana in the air. No more rustic places! In fact, we had dinner at a self-service cafeteria on Leiden Street, one of the busiest centers for nightlife in the city. Historically, the square was the end of the road from the Dutch town of Leiden, about 28 miles away. Today, modern traffic travels through the square, and the side streets are packed with restaurants and nightclubs. Well, this was not a happy night in Amsterdam. Have you ever been to Amsterdam?
A visit to Holland
After our morning visit to Ghent, we were off to the northern part of the Benelux, Holland, on Thursday, August 4, 1977. To get to Holland, we had to pass through Antwerp, Belgium, another important Flemish industrial city, about 46 miles away. Antwerp is the second largest city in Belgium with over 536,000 people, about 25 miles north of Brussels and about 15 miles south of the Dutch border. The Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe after Rotterdam, and top 20 globally. Antwerp is known as the hub of the world’s diamond trade. In 1920, this city hosted the Summer Olympics. With a very diverse population today, including a notable Jewish community, more than 50% of its population has a parent that was not a Belgian citizen at birth. The first city that we hit in the Netherlands was Breda, a city in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant with about 185,000 population, half way between Antwerp and Rotterdam, 30-36 miles. Rotterdam, Holland, is the second-largest city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam, in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta that gives waterway access into the heart of Western Europe, including the highly industrialized Ruhr. The extensive distribution system including rail, roads, and waterways have earned Rotterdam the nicknames of “Gateway to Europe” and “Gateway to the World.” Rotterdam got its name from 1270, when a dam was constructed in the Rotte. The Rotterdam–”The Hague” metropolitan area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 10th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Rotterdam is Europe’s largest seaport. In 2022, Rotterdam had a population of 655,468 and is home to over 180 different nationalities. Finally, we stopped in “The Hague,” about 15 miles from Rotterdam. “The Hague” is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands, with a population of over half a million, the third-largest city in the Netherlands, on the west coast facing the North Sea. Thus, “The Hague” is the country’s administrative center and its seat of government, even though the official capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam. “The Hague” has been described as the country’s de facto capital since the time of the Dutch Republic (1759) with the seat of the Cabinet, the States General, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State of the Netherlands. “The Hague” is also home to the headquarters of many Dutch companies, with Shell having major offices in the city as well. The Royal Library of the Netherlands is also located there. “The Hague” is the global hub of international law and arbitration. The International Court of Justice, the main judicial arm of the United Nations, is based in the city, as are the International Criminal Court, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Europol, and approximately 200 other international governmental organizations. The name “The Hague” is commonly used to refer to the international courts that reside in the city. The official name of the city is Den Haag, that is why it is called “The Hague.” We visited the Parliament Buildings and the Mauritshuis Museum of Royal Paintings, where we saw paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Steen, Ruysdael, Potter, Rubens, Van Dijk, and Jordaens. Have you ever been in Holland?
We spent the night at a Holiday Inn in Ghent
After our Wednesday tour of Bruges, in 1977, we traveled to Ghent, about 34 miles away, where we stayed overnight at a Holiday Inn. Margaret was very happy to be in a modern hotel rather than a rustic one. We also had supper there at the Holiday Inn that overlooked the Leie River. Ghent is the largest city of the East Flanders province with over 250,000 people, not the West Flanders province, and the third largest city in the country, after Brussels and Antwerp, with both a port and a university. Ghent was one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, with some 50,000 people in 1300 with the famous scholastic philosopher Henry of Ghent (1217–1293). After the late 16th century, Ghent became a less important city, resulting in an extremely well-preserved historic center, that now makes Ghent an important destination of tourism. The annual ten-day-long Ghent Festival attracts over a million visitors. Most historians believe that the older name for Ghent, “Ganda,” was derived from the Celtic word “ganda,” which means confluence or river mouth, referring to the Leie River and the Scheldt River meeting there. Ghent flourished from the 11th century, growing to become a small city-state. By the 13th century, Ghent was the biggest city in Europe north of the Alps after Paris, even bigger than Cologne or Moscow, with over 65,000 people. Thus, Ghent was the leading city for cloth during the Middle Ages. The wool industry, originally established at Bruges, created the first European industrialized zone in Ghent in the High Middle Ages. However, in 1453, the center of political and social importance in the Low Countries started to shift from Flanders (Bruges–Ghent) to Brabant (Antwerp–Brussels). The late 16th and 17th centuries brought devastation because of the Eighty Years’ War that ended the role of Ghent as a center of international importance. This part of Flanders became known as the Austrian Netherlands. After the peace treaties at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, that also ended the American War of 1812, Ghent’s textile industry flourished again. Ghent and Flanders, became a part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. After the Belgian Revolution of 1830, the local Ghent economy collapsed, while the first Belgian trade union originated in Ghent. Ghent was occupied by the Germans in both World Wars but escaped severe destruction. Today Ghent is home to many people of foreign origin and immigrants. The 2020 census revealed that 35% of the inhabitants had roots outside of Belgium and 15% had a non-Belgian nationality. Much of the city’s medieval architecture remains intact and is remarkably well preserved and restored with its city center a car-free area. Highlights include St. Bavo’s Cathedral with the Ghent Altarpiece, the Belfry, the Gravensteen castle, and the splendid architecture along the old Graslei harbor. Ghent has established a blend between comfortable living and history since it is not a city-museum. The most famous art piece is the well-known Ghent Altarpiece, “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,” a 15th-century painting by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck (1385–1441) in St. Bavo’s Cathedral that took 12 years to complete. There are also paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Peter Paul Rubens, and many other Flemish masters in their museums. Ghent has the largest designated cyclist area in Europe, with nearly 250 miles of cycle paths. We walked around Ghent and went to St. Bavo to see the elaborate 15th-century polyptych Ghent altarpiece, considered a masterpiece as “the first major oil painting.” Have you ever been to Ghent?
On to Bruges
On that August afternoon in 1977, we traveled to Bruges, not too far from Bruges on the Sea, Zeebrugge, about 12 miles away. I had visited Bruges on one of my Church architectural tours when I was at the University of Louvain in the 1960s. Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, with a population of about 250,000, and it’s historic city center is a prominent UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bruges has significant economic importance, thanks to its port, and was once one of the world’s chief commercial cities, as the seat of the College of Europe, a university institute for European studies today. The name Bruges probably derives from the Old Dutch for “bridge,” “brugga.” The Franks called this whole region Pagus Flandrensis, so that in 1089, Bruges became the capital of the country of Flanders. Bruges had a strategic location as the crossroads of the northern Hanseatic League trade, since it already was included in the circuit of the Flemish and French cloth fairs at the beginning of the 13th century. In the 12th century, a wool market developed under the counts of Flanders so that Bruges became the main link for trade to the Mediterranean area. The first bourse stock exchange in the world opened in Bruges in 1309. In the 15th century, Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy, set up a court in Bruges, as well as Brussels and Lille, attracting several artists, bankers, and other prominent personalities from all over Europe. The population of Bruges grew to at least 46,000 inhabitants around 1350. The new oil-painting techniques of the Flemish school gained world renown. The first book in English ever printed was published in Bruges by William Caxton, since Edward IV and Richard III of England were then living in exile in Bruges. Around 1500, Bruges soon fell behind Antwerp as the economic flagship of the Low Countries. During the 17th century, the lace industry took off, and various efforts to bring back the glorious past were made. During the 1650s, the city was the base for Charles II of England and his court in exile. Antwerp grew while Bruges declined, so that it became known as the “Dead City.” However, in the second half of the 19th century, Bruges became one of the world’s first tourist destinations, attracting wealthy British and French tourists. In World War I, German forces occupied Bruges, but with no damage. The same thing happened in WW II. After 1965, the original medieval city experienced a “renaissance.” International tourism has boomed, and new efforts resulted in Bruges being designated the European Capital of Culture in 2002, since it attracts some eight million tourists annually with the port of Zeebrugge built in 1907. The Germans used it for their U-boats in World War I and was greatly expanded in the 1970s and early 1980s to become one of Europe’s most important and modern ports. The medieval architecture in Bruges is mostly intact, making it one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe. Its medieval buildings include the Church of Our Lady, and the 13th century Belfry of Bruges. Several beers are named after this city. It has many museums, including the Groeninge Art Museum that we visited. Members of the 15th century early Netherlandish school of painters are represented there, including works by Jan van Eyck, and Hans Memling, who lived and worked in Bruges. There is also a sculpture of Madonna and Child, believed to be the only one of Michelangelo’s sculptures to have left Italy within his lifetime. I was surprised years later to see a movie called In Bruges made in 2008, about two Irish-English mobsters waiting in Bruges for orders. They went sightseeing and I remembered a lot of things, but the movie was kind of stupid. Have you ever been to Bruges?
The Flemish Belgian seaside coast towns on the North Sea
On August 3, 1977, we set out from Brussels to Ostend, Belgium, where I had spent the summers of 1964 and 1965. The beach coast of Flemish Belgium is like Ireland, very beautiful, but with few people on the beaches because the water is cold and the temperature is not that hot. Thus, I decided to simply travel along the beaches instead of going to them. The first town was Bredene, with a total population of 15,000. Most of their income comes from tourism in July through August, when the population doubles, since Bredene has Belgium’s only nude beach. Next up was De Haan with a population of 12,000, with many buildings in the belle epoque style, and an 18-hole golf course situated in its dunes, founded by King Leopold II in 1903. Its most famous resident was Albert Einstein, who lived there in 1933 after leaving Nazi Germany. Wenduine was another seaside resort with a population of 4,000. The first hotel was built there in 1888 and then in 1895. The character of this seaside resort changed in the late 1930s, from a fashionable seaside resort to become more of a holiday destination for wider sections of the population. In 1977, the year we were there, Wenduine was included in the merged municipality of De Haan. Blankenberge was another seaside city in West Flanders with a population around 20,000, a national and international seaside resort, attracting visitors from across northern Europe with its unique Belgium Pier, constructed in 1933. Historically, it had been a fishing town, but the French came to this seaside resort in the 18th century. By the end of the 19th century, the seawall was filled with luxury hotels and holiday villas as Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, regularly visited. With the increasing prosperity in the 1960s and 1970s, mass tourism also made its appearance in Blankenberge. The tenor Enrico Caruso gave a performance here in 1910. Many films have used Blankenberge as a background. Today, the World’s Largest Sand Sculpture Festival, takes place on the beach in June. The next town, Zeebrugge, with a 4,000 population, means “Bruges-on-the Sea,” as it serves as the modern port for Bruges, along with a seafront resort with hotels, cafes, a marina, and a beach. Due to its central location on the Belgian coast, a short distance to Great Britain, and close vicinity to densely populated industrialized cities, it became a crossroads for traffic from all directions. Aside from being a passenger terminal with ferries to the United Kingdom, the harbor serves as the central port for Europe’s automotive industry. In 1987, there was a ferry disaster that killed 193 people. We ate lunch in Knokke, another town in the province of West Flanders with about 15,000 people. Knokke is the most northeastern seaside resort on the Belgian coast, adjacent to the Dutch border. Knokke came into existence because of the construction of dikes that were to protect the area. Originally a vacation haven for the people of Brussels in the early 19th century, artists started to frequent the small hamlet to paint its beautiful vistas, as they formed a circle of artists in 1880. It gradually became a resort town with upscale clientele, restaurants, and shops. Nowadays Knokke is well known for its beaches and for the dike system to which it owes its origins, with a casino located on a seaside promenade. Knokke was immortalized in the Jacques Brel song, “Jacky (Le Chanson de Jacky).” What do you know about the Flemish eastern resort towns along the North Sea?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 