France - Caen 5-15-2010

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This morning we had our usual breakfast of breads, cereal, what we have fondly called egg soup, yogurt, cheeses and meats. I will say the breads with the dark chocolate sticks baked in them have become my favorite. Larry and mom took their stash for lunch. Thank goodness I still have some snacks from home to tide me over. The prices are ridiculous here. A tiny cup of coffee costs 3,00 euros (about 3.99). Lunch for one couple was 28.00 and they just had hamburgers. Today another couple ordered 2 ham & cheese sandwiches, 2 tiny bags of chips, and two coke lights and it was over 18,00 euros. You add 1/3 on to the euro and you get about the amount. We have found if you go to a bakery you can get pastries and sandwiches for much, much cheaper….so that’s what we do.

Once we boarded the bus we knew we were in for a long ride as we had to travel clear to the coast of France. Of course they have strict rules for bus driver breaks here and Jan tries to find us some interesting stop to break up the ride, and I do find the countryside interesting. All over Europe are these beautiful yellow fields of canola. I must have 100 pictures of it…trying to get the perfect picture. You just can’t describe how beautiful it is and how is goes on and on forever. Of course Larry, mom and I are interested in the lay of the land, farming, the trees, flowers….just about everything. Everyone gets a kick out of the things we spy while driving across the countryside.

We eventually made it to our first stop which was to view the bridges Ranville-Benouville taken by the British 6th airborne forces. The most interesting thing to us was that they used large gliders that could hold 28 men and their equipment or a jeep, artillery, and ammunition. The gliders were made out of plywood and designed to be used only once so the troops used them for firewood because it was a very cold winter. Some of them were actually recovered. It was amazing that Major John Howard managed to take the bridges - one in ten minutes and one in five minutes. All three of the gliders managed to land safely with little or no injuries. It was a very nice museum and used English and was a tribute to the English who had completed the mission. We were to eat lunch there but we ate our snacks because of the expense of the meals and there wasn’t much choice.

Once we left there we went to Caen to visit the peace Memorial and Museum. This museum had so much stuff it was a little overwhelming. It was another museum that has the French title on panels three feet long and two feet wide. The English translation was written so small and out of the light that you almost had to get on your knees to read it. All of the movies were in French with no translation so we were all a bit perturbed.

When we left there we were very near our hotel and we were all very tired. We had extra time to get checked in and rest a little before we went to dinner. Dinner tonight was a lot better that last night (same hotel chain so we were wondering). We had a buffet complete with various salads, salmon, pork, cooked vegetables, and of course that great bread! There was a dessert buffet also so we could try different things. We are now in our rooms. We could have taken the tram to the downtown area but nothing is open in the evenings except the bars and restaurants, so there really isn’t anything for us to do. This is the earliest evening we have had so we will probably try to catch up on our sleep. It has been hard to change hotels every day or two and never get a chance to adapt to the same hotel. We have had a wonderful time but thought our time in Italy was probably the best. Tomorrow we spent the day touring the Normandy Beaches. Hopefully it will be wonderful because the weather is finally improving…we actually had sun today and I got warmed-up for the first time since we arrived in Amsterdam. Monday we have a day in Paris to see the sights and Tuesday we start home. Hopefully that volcano in Iceland won’t keep us from flying home…..we have heard some airports are shut down again.

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Photos

Sun Finally!
View from our hotel window

French home
View from Bus window

Ranville-Benouville
View from the museum

British glider
model....actual size

Plane
Caen Museum

Uniform
Concentration camp - shown at Caen Museum