May 20/21 Caen

After a 12 hour overnight train and another two hour one into Caen I finally made it. Caen is pretty modern, I found out later this is a byproduct of being 80% destroyed when Canadians and Brits liberated it. I arrived Sunday afternoon without pre booking a place to stay, there isn't a hostel here but many hotels. I ended up paying a little extra to stay at a Best Western. The budget hotels were half the price, but the good ones were full and some of the others seemed a little sketchy. It ended up being probably one of the nicest hotels I ever stayed in, the room was pretty small but had brand new and very modern furniture. The bathroom was the best yet. The people working there were incredibly helpful, I received a discount to the D Day Museum in Caen and they booked my full day tour for me.

Everything in the city seemed closed but I was assured the museum would be open. It was a pretty cool exhibit but most of it was about WWII in general and only at the very end did it focus on the invasion of Normandy. I bought the book that Band of Brothers was based on (I've already finished three books since we left Edmonton). I headed back to the hotel incredibly hungry, but it was Sunday everything was closed except Quick Burger (which made Bryce sick in Nice) so I avoided it, I ended up having just a can of Pringles for dinner.

Next morning I had to catch a train to Bayeux, about ten minutes away in order for me to be picked up for the tour. I nearly missed the train and got on just as the doors closed. If I had missed it the next one wasn't for another half hour. I didn't even have time to buy a ticket, not knowing the punishment for being a stow away I hid in the bathroom.

Bayeux is much nicer than Caen, I guess it was untouched during the war and it still has its narrow one way streets. The tour was 20 minutes late picking me up, I was getting incredibly nervous. Just as a woman offered to call the company for me a grey van pulled up and I hopped in. I was with an older couple from Colorado, a family of three from Detroit and two younger Aussie girls. Everyone was really friendly and got along great. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgable and knew more than even I did. She teased me for being the only Canadian in the van, and that she could tell I was a Canuck because of my beard and plaid shirt. Apparently she has regular customers, mostly Vets and their families, who come to Normandy every year on the anniversary. She says they drink more than the college students in town do.

Our first stop was a German cemetery, it is one of the largest in France with over 20,000 men buried there. It doesn't look that big because the graves are so close together and each marker is for two soldiers. I spotted many 18 year olds, the guide informed me there were some younger than that. In the center was a hill with a statute on top. Under the hill is a mass grave. The bodies there were unable to be identified. Next stop was St. Mere Eglise, an objective of American paratroopers. The church in the main square has a paratrooper dummy dangling from the steeple, tangled in his chute. This actually happened to a soldier and was made famous in the film "The Longest Day". Across the street was the Airborne Museum, they had a full C-47 plane and glider inside, along with equipment used by the paratroopers. Pointe du Hoc was third. It's a cliff face in between the two American landing zones, and I thought was the coolest spot we visited. Unlike the other beaches which have been reconstructed or turned into museums restricting access to certain sections, Pointe du Hoc is almost entirely like it was during the war. The top of the cliff is still dotted with bomb craters, some do big I could fit my house in them, the bunkers that are still intact can be explored and climbed upon.

Between each of these sights there are thousands of smaller memorials and tributes. Markers where planes had crashed, plaques dedicated to those who died taking a certain town, and many others. We even drove along the coast in a section where no fighting took place and they still have bunkers lining the beach and many farms had block houses in the middle of their land.

Utah Beach was interesting, but with most of the defenses gone it wasn't as cool as Pointe du Hoc. Last was Omaha, where 2,000 men died on the first day of the invasion. More than any of the other beaches. It's easy to see why, after 200 yards of beach, the soldiers then had to climb up incredibly steep hills. Omaha is dotted with more modern beach houses, but many of the bunkers are still there. After we visited the American cemetery, it's the largest one in France in terms of size, but there's about 9000 men buried there. I found a Horne on the wall of soldiers whose bodies were never recovered and the lone Canadian buried there. The near endless rows of crosses was pretty stunning and the beauty of the cemetery was incredible. Our very last stop were some massive guns in bunkers in the British sector, the bunkers were taken without any casualties as the Germans immediately surrendered to the Brits. So they're in great condition. The tour lasted about 9 hours and was awesome, I wish I could've seen Juno, where the Canadians landed but it was still awesome.

I should be in Milan to link up with Bryce and the PG guys by the time I finish writing this. The scenery as we went through the alps is amazing, reminds me of Jasper and Banff. In trying to figure out how to make collect calls so I can phone home, email just isn't the same.