Hotel L'Eden Cherbourg

... what the soldiers must have gone through and felt as they landed on these beaches. Reared on stories from his Grandfather who fought in this war he always wonders about it. Wonders how these men - boys - could have gone and witnessed such horror and then been expected to return home to life as though everything were OK now. The countless nightmares that must have haunted their sleep.

So many stories of close ...

Mon. 13th Jul. Viville.
Not our usual sort of morning this morning. Michel, the Mayor of Viville and a journalist popped around after breakfast to interview us and take our photo's for the local newspaper. What a surprise that was!
Just as well it was another of those glorious sunny French days so we could pose around the truck with Dave, Maureen and Jane.
At last, we're famous! ha ...

... whole thing done (we had to stop for tea of course), and another couple of days to get the smell off. It was an excellent workout to say the least. One of our favorite projects involved trying to fix up all the bikes on the property. I technically wasn’t asked to do this (I think because I’m neither boy, nor engineer), but decided I would be involved anyways and traded my weeds for some grease.

For our off time, we had a real bounty ...

... best advice and information on our trip and she also always had small tidbits of advice, The best piece of advice being "we can only use the toilet on the bus while in movement." Something that I will always keep in mind when I take any bus tour. And our other guide, Alison (with one L). She consistently had us participating in spelling bees while we traveled to keep us entertained......."No, it is one L, one, just one!"

Tomorrow, travel day to London.

... early enough to catch a train home, assuming we berth on schedule. It stayed fine but grey, with visibility about three or four miles most of the day but improving later. As it went dark we entered the Dover Strait and could see Dover off to the left and various lights on the French coast to the right. At about 19:45 we anchored off the northeast corner of Kent.

... a few days later).... At th e church I lit a candle (you can see it next to the statue if you look real hard and know which one it is) and made my "wish" or more so, said a prayer. I have no preferences. Whether we say a prayer, make a wish, dream it, or just think REAL hard about IT, they are all various forms of doing the same thing. Form and underlying form. Whether we say a prayer to God or a Saint, make a wish upon a star, throw a penny ...

... and it was a key point on June 25th, 1944 where the Germans had a stronghold, it was NOT a D-Day site. We hiked up to a medieval fort with amazing panoramic views of the area and walked around town and public gardens. We asked the attendant at the train ticket booth and were advised to take the next train heading back to Paris and get off at Bayeux to see all the D-Day sites. (i.e ...

... then sail inland and through the canals of France and pop out in the south somewhere through to the Med. We stayed 3 nights in all but never got to sail as the sea beyond the harbour was too choppy. It was good that we had a car and so were able to take them out and about.

... Guernsey. Berucht zijn hier de stromingen, zoals de Race of Alderney met een stroomsnelheid van 9 knopen. Gelukkig heeft de Ovni 34.5 ervaring en daarmee kiezen we voor het eerste eiland Alderney. Hoog aanvaren is het parool en dan the Swinge in en zorgen dat je de haven Braye niet voorbij vaart, want terug kun je niet meer van wege de stroom! Dinsdag gaan we om 13.30 weg 2 uur na hoogwater, want dan zet de stroom in. Dinsdag 26 juli: Cherbourg -Cherbourg ...

... a kind of sports store, where we pick up new rain coats. After the usual souvenirs and postcards, not much else we can do here with such a short day and a long day tomorrow. It would be nice to see more of the city, especially to learn some of the history from the WWII sites. Perhaps next visit...