Caen / Normandy BeachAug 17, 2012
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beginning of museum tour
German gun turret - thing was huge
statue at Omaha beach grounds
| Hey Folks, Anything yaw think I should report on or ideas jus let me know. I'll do my best. Yeah, only 2 hours of sleep. Woke up thinking, I gotta pay my Hotel bill in cash! It's 415am and I have to go get more cash. Hmm, ATM, now where did I see one. After 20mins I finally found one. Took me 3 attempts; Had this one guy weirding me out. Yeah, lil risky at 445am to get a great deal of Euros. Got my cash and headed back. It's around 515am now and my train lives at 7am. Well, gotta take the Metro to St-Lazare train.They don't start running till 6am. So, took a shower, packed Mister Potluck and off we went. All went well with no hick-ups. Grabbed a veinte coffee and a Double Chocolat muffin, quite tasty. Boarded the train at 7am and arrived in Caen, France around 9am. It's northwest of Paris. No sleep on the train. Heading towards the Caen Memorial where the Normandy Beach museum is located. Of course, I'm horrible with direction so it took me a bit to get there(got there around 11am). Not a good trait to have when traveling in a foreign country and you can't speak the language! Well, super educational exhibit they have there. It covered right before, during and after the Historical event. Hitler, not a very nice man. I'll leave it at that. Took some great pictures naturally, but I didn't even get to finish the tour. I probably got thru half of it. Wasn't happy, but my Normandy Beach Guided tour started at 145pm. So, me a few older folks climbed upon the bus and off we went. We visited the Gold Beach(British), a German installation, Omaha Beach(Americans) and Pont Du Hoc. All were very interesting and had lots of WOW factor. At Omaha, I ran down to the actual beach, touch the water/sand and headed back. About a mile total and it was around 90degrees that day. Yeah, a lil sweaty but worth it! Well, after dropping off two couples at their hotels(that was a surprise and an extra 45mins) I got back around 7pm and not 6pm, the museum was closed. Oh yeah, I didn't meet up with my host that morning so I had my backpack with me. Well, it was in the museum! Luckily there was a guard there that retrieved it for me. Yeah, I was a lil scared that he wouldn't let me in. Anyway, I had talked with Clement( my host) finally and I met him down in the city. 35minute bus ride. Very cool young chap, likes to cook and speaks English decently. Not too many awkward , uh, what did you say type moments. Well, back to his flat which was only 10mins by foot thankfully. We grabbed some food and some beer. He and some friends were having a night time picnic. He cooked some, I drank my Heineken. Oh yeah, there were like 4-5 people living there. Not at once, but they sublet their rooms to others. Interesting, but it pays the rent. After the food was done, we packed it all up, met his friends along the way and went to their communal garden. People in the city have their lil plot of grass to do whatever with, like grow veggies or plant flowers. Well, we sat around a table with about 7 of us. Lots of French speaking going on and only a few near English well enough. Good, interesting time. We heard back around midnight. Clement and his girlfriend Nora left shortly after. So, it was me and 4 other strangers in the house. But, I had met them earlier so it was fine. When I was about to go to sleep, another flat mate showed up with her boyfriend. Well, we chatted, drank a bottle of wine and they left about 45mins later. So, it's bout 3am and I had been going since 4am the day before. Lovely, but I was up at 7am and off to the train. Going to stop here and start a new entry since its a new day and new place :-) Caen Website: http://www.memorial-caen.fr/portailgb/ |
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