We just got back home after a 12-day trip exploring Europe for the first time together and it was incredible. We saw Germany, France and the Netherlands and took in a lot more than museums, monuments and restaurants.

One of the things that stuck with me most was something that I didn’t expect. It was the gaining of a deeper understanding.

I’ve learned about European history before, read about it, heard the stories and even seen museums in the states with exhibits dedicated to understanding. But there was something about traveling to hear and see the connection between the stories across borders and nationalities that was totally different.

I expected to see the impact of WWII when we were in Germany, and I did. It was ever-present from the landmarks, to the stories wrapped in some of the most prominent world brand company history; it’s a part of every single story and brick in the street.

What I didn’t expect was the connection that would follow, to France, to Normandy and to the Netherlands.

In France as we visited each monument, the dark years of Paris’s occupation was part of the story as well. It touched the latin quarter, the Champs-Elysees, the Arc d’Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower. As history goes, it’s still a fresh wound, in fact, I’d venture to bet some of the cafes still have the same chairs today they put away each night and set out each morning today they did 70 years ago.

Which makes sense when you think about the larger context; 70 years is not that long in the context of European history; Notre Dame cathedral is a prime example.

The construction of Notre Dame cathedral began in 1163 and wasn’t completed for nearly 200 years. Imagine the mindset and how much faith it must have taken for both the laborers and the visionaries, who envisioned the magnificent cathedral that wouldn’t be completed for nearly 6 generations. To labor day after day and know that your grandchildren’s grandchildren may not even see the completion of the construction, is to understand the faith present at the time, and to understand perspective on history in Europe.

With that perspective, understanding that 70 years ago is fresh and still very much recent history for these countries.

We spent a day venturing out from Paris to Caen and to see several of the D-Day beaches. As we got closer to Caen and began to hear the history of the city, we learned that nearly 90% of the city today is newly built, because it was destroyed during the liberation in WWII that killed 2000 civilians. And yet, the impact of the liberation, the larger purpose of that loss of the military and civilian life even today, resonates in the town, at the battlefields and in the memorials. The recency of that loss, the gain of the liberation and the hope that turning point brought to the war can still be felt today, while standing on that ground, seeing the landing boats still in the cow pastures and looking through the hedge rows.

We expected the understanding of the history and impact of DDay to end when we left France, but instead it permeated even through Amsterdam as we visited the Anne Frank House. In those tiny rooms, where 8 people lived for two years, there on the wall it still stood today. A hand drawn map of the Normandy beaches and the DDay invasions, marked with push pins of the troop movements. That hope came through the walls when there must have been mostly darkness for so many long days and nights, stress and tension reigning. Over 400 miles away, hope in the form of sacrifice, both military and civilian, for a better change for the future still stands in the air today.

That’s something that can’t be read in a book or even heard in a story retold.