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Published: October 7th 2007
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Arromanches
Tom in a bunker We had an early 07:00 AM start today. We met in the ship’s theater, for our assigned bus number for the Beaches of Normandy excursion. We usually do not use the ship’s shore excursions, but I had difficulty in finding an available private guide who could meet us in LeHavre and supply us transportation to the D-Day Beaches area. Most companies wanted us to make our own way to Bayreuth, located about 2 hours from LeHavre by car, or 3 ½ hours by train.
Things were quite organized, and the groups on each bus were kept to a maximum of 40 passengers. This actually allowed us to spread out and have 2 seats per person in the back of the bus. Tom even had the entire last row to himself, which afforded him the opportunity to stretch his legs. European tour buses provide little to no leg room between seat rows in general.
We began our tour by driving through the UNESCO site of planned apartment housing on the outskirts of LeHavre. These were square, bland concrete buildings that looked like army barracks. The structures were erected after the war, in order to provide quick housing for rebuilding of
Gold Beach
View from cliff top at Arromanches the area. This area is of particular interest to architecture buffs and students.
We passed over the “Pont de Normandie”, the new bridge that crosses the mouth of the River Seine, and continued for the two hour drive to our first stop. It was a beautiful drive through the fertile dairy countryside responsible for nourishing the Normandy cows who provide the rich cream for butter and cheeses.
We arrived at the southern end of Gold Beach for a visit to Arromanches. The remains of the artificial harbor and bunkers built by the Nazi forces were incredible to see, mixed in with the huge craters made by allied forces shells on D-Day during WWII. Standing at the top of the embankment gave me a newfound appreciation for the difficulty the American Troops experienced in trying to raid this fortress. I had no idea of the heights they needed to scale in order to be successful.
We continued along the coast and made a quick photo stop at Omaha Beach, where at dawn on June 6, 1944, one of the first two bridgeheads of landing American troops was established. It is a serene, peaceful place these days. It is
hard to imagine the horror of war that occurred here on that fateful day. A modern “peace” sculpture now stands here. One of the women traveling in the group shared the story of her father, who landed on this beach in 1944 and was one of the lucky ones to survive. This was her first trip here, and it was moving to watch her and her family gather up some sand from the beach in a very emotional moment.
Our next stop was the American Cemetery of Colleville, in the village of Saint Laurent. The cemetery is on a hill that overlooks Omaha Beach. We viewed the American Memorial and strolled through the cemetery grounds. It is a very moving experience as the cemetery stands as an eternal witness to the sacrifices of the soldiers who fought and died along these shores. The thousands of white stone crosses in perfect rows seem to stretch on into infinity. Any government leader who wants to consider war, should be forced to make a visit here. It really puts the “cost” of war into perspective. The cemetery also has a nice visitor center.
We stopped further along the coast at Pointe
American Memorial
American Cemetery Colleville du Hoc where three companies of 2nd Ranger Battalion climbed the 100-foot cliffs on D-Day to capture this strategic position. It is amazing that they accomplished this feat. The movie “The Longest Day” depicts some of what happened here.
Our next stop was the town of Caen, where we visited the Caen Memorial Museum. We were served a buffet lunch consisting of fish or chicken in creamed sauce, a small salad bar with some delicious Normandy cheese, and a dessert bar that had some cakes and custard. The food was good, but a disappointment compared to what we could have eaten at a nearby bistro. However, they did serve a local aperitif, a good burgundy and gave each of us a sample size bottle of Calvados—the local apple brandy.
After lunch we had a short time to visit the audio/visual exhibits that traces the course of history from the causes of the two World Wars, to the Normandy landing and the collapse of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan. It was a well organized museum that could easily occupy a day or two.
We finished up our visit with an extraordinary film in the museum’s theater that
American Cemetery
Colleville, St. Laurent, Normandy - France showed the German and allied forces preparing for and battling during the D-Day conflicts. The film editing was superb resulting in a fascinating film.
We had about a 60 minute drive from here, back to LeHavre. We put our stuff in our rooms, and hopped on the cruise shuttle into LeHavre town center, to use one of the internet cafes. The only problem was that everything closed up at 6:00 PM, so we walked around for a few minutes and took the next shuttle back.
Dinner tonight was served open-seating style in the dining room, due to most people returning to the ship late after excursions to Paris, etc. We headed up to the Vortex for the 11:00 PM sail away, and a late night out since tomorrow is a sea day.
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