Normandy (Monday):
This was by far the most emotional day of our trip, but it was wonderful! Mom tried to tell us it was by accident she planned our trip to Normandy on our own Memorial Day in the U.S., but accident or not, it was truly inspired.
I wish I could do this day justice in describing it, but our tour guide, Roal, KNEW his history and told his ‘stories’ so well that we could picture just how things were at the “Invasion of Normandy” there on the beaches. The entire time we were on the tour I kept thinking how much my dad would have loved being there as this was right up his alley.
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One of the beaches Roal was sure to take us to was ‘Omaha,’ which is basically where the bloodbath occurred on June 6, 1944. You could really feel a difference at the beach and as Roal told stories of what happened that day you just couldn’t help but be emotional. I’m sure he was so happy to be there with 4 sobbing women at that moment. You could just imagine and be grateful for all those soldiers who gave their lives that day to liberate France from the Germans. We saw many postcards and signs that said, “We are thankful for our ‘liberators’ – we won’t forget.” There were many American and French flags flying alongside each other, especially at the American Cemetery, which is right above Omaha Beach.
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We did go to the cemetery, which was actually given to America so it is considered ‘American soil.’ It was an amazing site to see all those white crosses in perfect alignment. We found the graves of two of Teddy Roosevelt’s sons, Quentin and Teddy Jr. Roal told us there were 33 sets of brothers buried there. So many families sacrificed a lot. Then, of course, there were the markers for those who are unidentified – I found that so touching.
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I called my dad from the cemetery to tell him where I was and to see if there was anyone I should be looking for (both his parents fought in WWII; my grandfather for the US and my grandmother for the British). He told me something I didn’t know and it made the day even more meaningful to me – my grandfather had actually arrived on Omaha Beach 5 days after the invasion as a replacement. I can only imagine the scene he saw when he came onshore that day. One of his buddies from home was killed and is buried in that cemetery (I wasn’t able to find his cross before we had to leave).
Our last stop on the tour was the Point of the Hook (Pon de Hoc). There were so many places there that were hit by sea or by air that there are huge divits in the ground still today. Even after all these years with time, erosion, and growth there are still a lot of huge craters all over.
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