Hotel Bernieres Caen

... 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 ...

... at each scene on the tapestry. Without it you would find it hard to depicher the story and miss the little details which bought the tapestry to life.
The town of Bayeux itself is gorgeous and miracouslouly escaped WWII bombing...even though it was only 10km inland from the D-Day beaches

... 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.

The trip to Normandy was a lot to absorb. It's hard to believe, that my grandfather Kelly was there on D-Day over 60 years ago.I certainly do not think I would have survived. I am thankful he did, I wouldn't be here. Nor my mother and her siblings, my sisters, or my nieces. His sacrifice has not only affected the existence of my own life, but the daily lives ...

... and we made it safe and sound! Caen is pretty quiet today I guess becasue it is Sunday and it seems that everything is closed! We got a cheap hotel which is surprisingly clean and cute! Tonight we relax and enjoy some dragonball z on the computer and tmr we go sightseeing!

So far so good and I've even gotten adventurous...thats right...I had an espresso this evening! I know right!!

Talk to you all later!

Goodnyt!

... beach memorial before the sun went down (the sun sets early here at 50degrees N), we headed back to Caen to scope out some dinner. There were a few places open in town, most of them Indian or Moraccan or similar. But we found a tavern/brasserie open that looked like a German-ish chain with a Norman twist (if that's possible), so we went for it. For entree, I had oysters, which are a speciality in these parts (so I figured I had to try), they ...

... We must have spent nearly an hour here. At the cemetery, there was also a visitors center with a video and many exhibits and actual gear used on June 6th, 1944, including; An M1 Grand, Paratroopers outfits, bayonets, knives, helmets, and German obstructive obstacles. I was amazed by all this stuff, I loved it. Next we drove around to Omaha beach, just at the base of Point to Hoc. This is where it all happened. I took numerous photos to try to show ...

Yesterday we went to the World War II museum in Caen. The coolest part were the 3 gardens (one for Canada, England, and the U.S.) dedicated to the soldiers who fought in the battle of Normandy. The rest of the day was spent walking around town and shopping at the Carrefour (the grocery store). When we were on the Twisto on the way back from the museum we saw a ...

... of reds and oranges being blown around like, well, leaves. A nice goodbye to France. It was Armistice Day and my mind drifted to the beaches not too far from where I was driving. The area has many many war cemeteries and memorials to the unimaginable numbers of men who died in these now peaceful, windswept fields. Caen is fogettable. Even more so on Sunday. A religious lot these French. The churches didn't seem that full though ...