The air-conditioning in the room meant that we got a very good nights sleep although Helen was up in the night reading at one point. We had an early start 8 clock UK time so we were at breakfast for 07:00. Breakfast was a continental affair the usual cheese ham other meats bread croissants fruit compote etc. Interestingly there was a boil your own egg device, basically a toaster size machine with water in it you put your egg in a basket which you then put into the bath of water returning to get your eggs after a time depending on your preference.
I had a chance to have a wander around the local block and take some photos before the coach left. I tried a new technique for taking Panorama photos which involves taking two slightly tilted up and two slightly tilted down photos so the whole 360 is covered by 4 photos. Whilst out taking photos I could see that there was storm clouds gathering in close and was delighted to see a few lightning strikes.
The coach took less than an hour to get to the German cemetery at La Cambe we had about 25 minutes to have a look around. It is quite an interesting site layout very different from the allied cemeteries that I’ve seen, there are plaques in rows on the grass but each group of plaques, maybe about 40 or 50, has five stone crosses in the middle of them. At the centre of the site there is a large mound which has a kind of sculpture or statue on top from there you can take in the whole of the site.
The first town liberated in France during the D-Day Landings was St Mere Eglise we parked up and wondered into the town to have a look at the church with a mannequin of a parachutist tied to the church tower, the story of which is a scene in the filmed The Longest Day. There is a museum associated with the American second airborne division but we went down to the High Street first to have a coffee and buy some baguettes for lunch from a great proper French bakery and patisserie.
The museum is very well done there are three main buildings the first contains one of the gliders used for the D day landings and there are plenty of display cabinets around too showing American and German things from the war. The second building contains an American air plane that was used to tow the gliders across the channel and again contains more artefacts from the war. The third is a multimedia experience which as you walk through the sound effects ate very realistic and it is dark. this films have to walk over a glass floor can be a bit of putting specially when it’s dark, however it’s all very well done. At the end of the multimedia experience there’s a big open space with memories and things from the war photographs of Ronald Reagan who has links to the museum. They are also building a new building called the Reagan meeting house or something like that in the grounds.
We left St Mere Eglise and headed to Utah beach on the way we stopped off at a German battery which was quite interesting. In the distance you could see the sea and a row of houses which I believe are familiar from war footage I’ve seen from films of the war. On the way to Utah beach we went down small country lanes and the tour guide Nick pointed out three storks nesting in a farmhouse I’ve never seen a stork before so that makes it a life list bird. As if we haven’t seen enough concrete there was still time to stop off and view some bunkers by the sea on the west end of Utah beach. There is quite a lot to see at Utah beach apparently a young lad injured by friendly american fire, was shipped to England for medical attention, to be returned later and settled near by eventually becoming mayor of a local town. He decided to spend time to promote the idea of a museum and memorial at Utah, eventually seeing it built in 1969.
Next up would be La Pointe Hoc which is a out crop between Omaha and Utah beach. Due to being quite strategic the American Rangers were sent to take the cliff and point. As it happened the guns they after there were in land and taken by the Canadians. However it was still a very heroic episode. The site is a field covered in bomb holes, some concrete bunkers and gun emplacements. We were told we had half an hour to do this but we stuck with the tour guide and it was at least 50 minutes.
Next stop was Omaha beach where the american national guard came under intense fire from the Germans. My fellow travellers were told off by the Life Guards for standing in the way of the tractors that pull the boats out of the water. By that time I had gone to another part of the beach and then went back to the road. Feeling a bit peckish I went over the road to a cafe stroke camera caravan selling ice creams are there when I got there I realised they were selling chips so I spent €4 on a plastic tray of chips.
There was some confusion when we got to get back in the coach because the driver had turned around while we were down on the beach but the tour guide had decided that he wanted to go the way we had come into the town, so the driver then had to reverse round a junction pull back out to pick us up then he realise that there was no room for cars to go round so he beeped and we will all had to get on the coach quickly while the French drivers around were beeping their horns.
We made our way through some country lanes to the American War cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. Agreement was that we could go with the tour guide or make your own way round there but we must be back of the Coach bye 10 to 6. I followed the tour guide for a bit and then broke off to take some photographs in a field because they were nice views of the shoreline with wildflowers in view.
I then took a wrong turning and ended up on a path which looked around went up a hill and then Morris put me back where I started which wasted a bit of time. I have had it all up to the cemetery itself where there are Monuments and lots of white crosses and star David headstones. I must say the Americans do cemeteries very well the grass was cut to a uniform length was very lush obviously watered often and all the edges perfectly trimmed. Later in the bus with debated how they might trim around all the headstones in the grass we couldn’t decide between them having to lift the headstones every time they cut the grass or have some sleeve they put round the headstones when they strim them.
The American Cemetery was our last stop after everyone got back to the couch at about 18:10 we eventually were en route back to Caen. As we got towards the city there was another unexpected stop as we needed to fill up with petrol. we eventually got back to the hotel at about 7:25 so we agreed to meet up reception at 8 o’clock gun get something to eat, in the old town. It had been a very long day.
We walked up town about 08:00 and found an area with kids of food establishments. We picked an Italian. They did a special disk where grappa was flambéed in a half of parmesan the mushroom and cream pasta added, all done in front of you by the chef. We were tired when we got back and hoped tomorrow was going to be a bit less relentless.