Normandy

Although it took a few trains and two taxis (including a pretty intersting ride through Paris) to make the trip from Amsterdam to Bayuex we made it. Normandy turned out to be very interesting and quite beautiful, although Rupert our English barmate was right about the French people. We were able to visit an extremely old church complete with a crypt right across from our room.

The crypt was a little creepy but there will be more of that (creepiness) later.

As far as very old things go Lauren wanted to see a tepestry made just after William conquered England to tell the story. By tell the story I do mean all of it, the tapestry was nearly 100 yards long but it actually was very interesting and certainly a unique experience.

Of course our main reason for being here and the highlight of any trip to Normandy was the visit to the WWII sights, specifically Omaha Beach.

It was certainly special to be able to see the actual site and surprisingly moving to read the stories on that ground. Getting there proved to be quite exciting though as we rented a car instead of taking a bus tour; and the French are horrible drivers.
From there we moved toward Utah Beach and stopped at a few museums before heading to Pointe du Hoc. The museums were amazing because they had both Allied and Nazi memorbillia on display which is hard to find in the States. The collection was quite large and seeing the actual SS uniforms is pretty disturbing to be honest.

Next we visited Pointe du Hoc which is where 225 American Rangers scaled the cliff to take a German gun posistion that could fire on both American beach-heads and had to be removed. After two days these men were finally reinforced but only 90 were left. However, in the spirit of the day they did complete their mission and destroyed the guns. Reading the story is hard enough but seeing the cliff they had to climb makes it pretty awe-inspiring to say the least. However Pointe du Hoc wasn't all sad stories because you here got the chance to walk freely among the damage caused by pre invasion bombing that was left as part of the monument. It is amazing how much damage those bombs did.

You also got to explore the remaining gun emplacements and bunkers which is where the creepiness comes back in. On the far back side of the site there is an old command bunker that survived almost completely intact. It is not the one that is lit up for show and we would not have found it unless we just happened to be looking down that hill. You can go inside but I wouldn't recommend it, in the darkness and dampness you can almost feel the Nazi officers waiting around the corner and it is pretty unsettling. I couldn't get a picture because we ran out.

After our tour of the beaches and cemetaries we went back to Bayeux for some French bread and pastry treats. Also we found a carousel across from our hotel which was pretty neat.

So with Bayeux done we are on the train to Versailles via downtown Paris which should be intersting.


-- Jordan