Limburg tourism board offers new ‘Bush-route’

Following President’s May 8 visit

VALKENBURG, the Netherlands - The regional tourism board VVV now offers a three-day holiday package, promoted as the ‘Bush Arrangement.’ U.S. President George W. Bush visited the area in early May 2005, in large part to take part in Liberation anniversary ceremonies at the U.S. War Cemetery in Margraten.

Following in Mr. Bush’ footsteps, tourists can stay at the picturesque Hotel Chateau St. Gerlach in the southern Limburg village of Houthem. The presidential suite would add $200 to the cost of the package. As part of the itinerary, participants also will visit the St. Gerlach Church, which hosted U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, during the May 8 presidential visit to the region.

Main focus of the tourist route is the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial at Margraten. The memorial field was first used in November 1944 and currently holds the graves of over 8,300 U.S. servicemen killed in action in the region. None were buried in German soil.

The inscription on the memorial at Margraten reads: ”Each for his own memorial earned praise that will never die and with it the grandest of all sepulchers not that in which his mortal bones are laid but a home in the minds of men.”

According to the regional tourist board, Americans in particular already have shown a keen interest in travelling the ‘Bush Route.’