September 11, 2001

This is the story of my experience on September 11:

This is a newspaper we bought at a bus station in Sweden.  It was very interesting not having the news in English. 
We believed that this said "10,000 dead."

some photos, you don't need a translation

Jeff and I were married in August of 2000.  We took our first big vacation, our "honeymoon," a year later.  We booked a trip to Europe- to visit friends in Belgium and Norway- for Sept 3rd through the 13th, 2001.  Of course, the trip did not go as expected.

DeAnn, Jean Rimez, Jeff, and Lisette DeMeuter

We first went to Dworp, Belgium (near Brussels) and stayed with Jean and Lisette Rimez.  We had a wonderful time touring around Belgium, visiting the North Sea, and spending time with their family.

Then we traveled by bus to Ringebu, Norway.  We had only 2 days to spend in that beautiful country.  We stayed with the Smestad family.  They took us up to a lake above Ringebu and we caught trout- it was an absolutely amazing day- the weather was wonderful, and the scenery was so pretty. 

Jeff, Kari Smestad and DeAnn

Of course, Norway was about 6 hours ahead of US time.  So as far as we knew- the whole world was as peaceful as we were.  At the little boathouse where we had a picnic, there was a guestbook which we signed.  I made a note in the book, thanking them for letting us use their boat and boathouse, and I said something about how it was such a perfect day.  I dated it at the top:  September 11, 2001.

Later that day, about 3 in the afternoon we came back to the Smestad's house.  When we walked in the door, Roald was listening to the radio in the kitchen.  He told us that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, and a few seconds later he said, "Two planes." 

Since we had to leave very early the next morning, we still had some things we wanted to see.  We went for a hike up in the mountains.

Roald Smestad and Jeff being funny

The whole time we were up in the wilderness of the mountains, Roald and Kari were getting text messages from their sons, giving them updates about what was going on in the US.  It was surreal: we were having a good time with these special people, touring one of the most pristine places on the earth; and yet we were thinking about something truly awful.

The next morning we left Norway at 5 AM, on a bus headed back to Belgium.  New York time, it was still the evening of Sept. 11.  The bus driver had the radio on (in Norweigen, then Swedish, then German.....) and there were a lot of interviews in English.

DeAnn on the ferry from Sweden to northern Germany

It just so happened that the shirt I brought to wear had an American flag on it, so people kept coming up to us and telling us how sorry they were.  They would ask us if we had family in New York, and some of them cried. 

Our flight back to the US did not happen, because on September 13, the US air space was still closed.  So we got to spend a few more days in Belgium. 



NATO headquarters in Belgium

Since we had extra time, one of the things I really wanted to do was to visit the NATO diplomatic headquarters which are in Brussels.  I had worked in 1997 at the NATO military headquarters, which are in Mons, Belgium.  The security was very strict that day- as it was all over the world, I'm sure.  We could not go onto the base, in fact, we couldn't even stop the car in front of the gates!  But we were able to see the flags- all the 17 countries of NATO had their flags at half-mast.  It was very moving.

I don't even remember which day we flew home.  It was the first day that the air space was open, and we were now flying stand-by.  We went to the airport thinking there was no way we would acutally get a seat on the plane, but we did!  We hadn't even said a real good-bye to our friends Jean and Lisette, because we didn't think we would actually leave.  It was an extremely sobering experience to be on that plane.  Everybody was quiet.  Every bump caused your heart to thump.  We flew over New York and could clearly see the smoke from the wreckage of the towers.  There was so much extra security, and our flight had to stop in Washington DC in order to be cleared before we could go to Chicago.

Every year, when the anniversay of September 11 comes, people think about where they were.  For Jeff and I, we can be thankful that we have memories of such a beautiful day. It was an unbelievable experience.

Lisette's cat, sleeping on our bed at their house.  Nothing makes you feel more at home!