Crocus Hotel Caen Memorial

... there. It was beautiful, haunting, and eerie to see the sight of where the troupes landed on D-Day. When I was in the museum, I was listening to an interactive audio recording of soldier’s experiences from D-Day, and the first button I happened to push was of a soldier from Mt. Vernon, IL! What a small world. To climb down to the actual beach part of Omaha Beach took awhile. It’s ...

Next stop were we stepping back in time even further...to 1066 to be exact and the battle of Hastings which is deplicated on a 70 m piece of embroidded cloth known as the Bayeux taperstry. On entry to the tapestry you are given an audio guide which provides a running commentry on what is ...

... Britain along with steel floating docks. These docks provided the gateway for suppliers from Britain to France. The idea was masterminded by Churchill and it was an engineering first and still mind blowing all these years later. Not knowing much about D-Day the excellent 6 June 1944 museum situated right was shore proved to be extremely informative and a history lesson that we will not forget.

Arrived at Ouistreham just before dark and found an Aire de Service right on the beach and this time it was free! The downside was it was right next to the ferry terminal and the 6am ferry to Portmouth the next day was kill the tranquilo the next morning. Kim's Maison du Scooby cooked up a storm. Pork fajitas on rice - delicious. I gave it 5 stars.

... many. My French guide made the comment as we explored Normandy... "I may have been speaking German now to you if it were not for those that fought here." Their sacrifice affects many, and touches many... as my guide gave us the details of the American Cemetery, the Australian man next to me had to excuse himself. There is not much else to say, but, Thank you.

... over $10 in tolls because we went the wrong way. Justin threatened to make me peel potatoes for the rest of the evening if I didn’t cheer up. We were really thankful that all the toll booths took credit cards because we didn’t have any pounds left. It was also a bit of an adventure finding out how to get into our hotel. We drove past it and around it 5-6 times before we finally found the entrance to the hotel. We were so relieved to be ...

... choucroute, a plate of mixed sausages, potatoes, and sauerkraut, which fulfills his family (and German) tradition of sauerkraut on New Year. Guess he's going to make a lot of money this year! :o) For dessert, we both had Ile Flottante - a "floating dessert." This was another case of "order something you've never heard of." Apparently this is a traditional French dessert item with sweetened meringue blocks floating in a pool of custard ...

... changes have taken place here, it looks just as it was abandoned in 1946 or the end of the war. I had a unique flash back to where I had seen similar structures and remembered identical missions to what had occurred here from my WWII video games that I used to play as a kid. But this was the real deal. Very, very intriguing. We then made the 2 hour car drive home, it rained nearly the whole way. Weather one would never experience in the ...

... me a little anxious. Even though we are technically staying in Caen, we have to walk about 1/2 a mile to the tram (called the Twisto) which then takes about 15 minutes to get to the center of Caen. There's a bakery about 5 minutes from the Germes (where we're staying) and there is a small mall/grocery store/shopping center very close to the Twisto station. This means that for any meal but breakfast (which is provided for us), we have to ...

... complimentary continental breakfast served in the cabin and a great bathroom. The onboard facilities were brilliant with incredible shops a choice of about 5 or 6 restaurants and bars, cinemas, gaming halls, mini casino etc etc and all of it absolutely luxurious. There were quite a few students on school trips as well as hoards of old veterans making their way to Normandy for the celebrations. Some of them looked about 150 years old. Frank decided to ask ...