Normandy & D-Day

During our vacation in France, we visited Normandy and the D-Day beaches.  It is a place that we have always wanted to see to help us appreciate the sacrifice that took place here during WWII.  Seeing it in person helped to visualize the struggles and challenges that our servicemen overcame during this invasion.

We stayed in a small town of Bayeux, France.  It is about 10-15 miles from the Normandy D-Day beach sites.

 Cathedral in the center of Bayeux.  It was the original home of the Bayeux Tapestry and is a national monument of France. The site is an ancient one and was once occupied by Roman sanctuaries. The present cathedral was consecrated on 14 July 1077 in the presence of William, Duke of Normandy and King of England. It was here that William forced Harold Godwinson to take the oath, the breaking of which led to the Norman conquest of England.

 Bayeux Cathedral

Top of the cathedral in Bayeux.

 An old water mill in Bayeux.

 Bayeux mill.

 German artillery bunker between Arromanches and Omaha Beach.  The site had 4 bunkers situated in a semi-circle to allow for coverage of a wide range of the beaches.  The guns had a range of 12 miles.

Checking out the guns.  They could rotate almost 180 degrees.
Notice the interior of the barrel.

The artillery bunkers were made with reinforced concrete.
All of them showed spots where they took direct hits but were not destroyed.
Look at the marks on the exterior of the concrete--
holes where shells struck the bunker.

This is a pill box/observation bunker.  It was heavily reinforced and
gave a wide view of the surrounding beach and ocean.

The interior of the observation bunker.

Checking the horizon for signs of invasion forces.

The next several pictures are of Omaha Beach.  It is sobering to walk on this sand
and remember the sacrifices that were offered here.

We were here at low tide--which was also when the invasion started.
Low tide was necessary for Allied success because it exposed
the mines and barriers that the Germans had put into place.

The sandy hills just off of the beach.
This area was filled with pill boxes and machine gun nests.

Looking up the hill from the beach.

Omaha Beach

At low tide, the US soldiers had to cross this area before they could find cover.

The hills above Omaha Beach.

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

After the US soldiers cleared the beach,
they then had to take the hills above the beach.
The Germans had brought in a regiment of seasoned veterans to guard this area
a few weeks before the invasion--a fact unknown to the Allied forces.
These crack forces exacted a huge price from the invading Americans. 

Steps up to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.

The Stars and Stripes flying proudly over the American Cemetery in France.

The crosses at the cemetery.

There are approx. 9,600 American soldiers buried here.
Although all of the sources give different numbers,
about 5,000-6,000 of these Americans died on Omaha Beach during the invasion. 

Most of the graves list the name of the soldier, his home state,
and which Armed Service regiment he served in.

Here Rests in Honor and Glory A COMRADE IN ARMS Known But to God.

A note to a fallen loved one.

This soldier died 66 years to the day of our visit.
It was the anniversary of his death.

The graves of the Jewish soldiers are marked with the Star of David.

This spot of ground is hallowed.  We should never forget the sacrifices that others have made in our behalf.  These young men willingly gave their lives so that others could experience freedom--both at home in America and for others in Europe, the French, British, Dutch, Belgium, Norwegians, and even the Germans and the Italians.  They gave up their lives, the ultimate sacrifice for others.

 A quote from General Mark Clark.

Point du Hoc--this sharp point that juts out into the ocean is located between Omaha and Utah beaches.  It was heavily fortified with large German guns capable of controlling the beaches as well as destroying the Allied ships at sea.  Taking Point du Hoc was considered vital to the success of the D-Day invasion.  300 Army Rangers were assigned to take out this artillery battery after it was bombed by Allied planes.  The Rangers had to climb a cliff from the sea with ropes and ladders.  Only about 90 of the Rangers survived but they were successful in their mission.

Point du Hoc--base for one of the large cannons.

Point du Hoc was one of the most heavily bombed sites during D-Day
by the Allied forces. Some of the bomb craters were very deep.

Notice all of the craters though out this site.

The sea cliffs at Point du Hoc which were scaled by
the Army Rangers with ropes and ladders.

Arromanches--a small town between Omaha and Gold Beaches became the beach headquarters.  Because there was no natural harbor that would allow ships to unload in this area, the Allied forces built an artificial harbor here to unload their equipment.  Huge blocks of concrete, the size of football fields were towed from England and set into place to allow docks to be built.  Older vessels were scuttled to allow the harbor to be usable.

British tank on the hill over-looking Arromanches.

European Vacation--Netherlands; Brugge, Belgium; Bayeux, France

Our son and daughter-in-law came over to visit us here in the Netherlands.  While they were here, we visited a few places in Europe.  The trip was a lot of fun, spending time together and sight-seeing some vacation spots.

Temple in the Hague, Netherlands

Cathedral in Bayeux, France

Cathedral in Bayeux, France

Mill in Bayeux

Brugge, Belgium

Traveling bar in Brugge.  Drinks on wheels.

European Vacation

Our son and his wife have been visiting us for the past week and a half! 

Just a few highlights until we get some time to blog!

 Brugge, Belgium

 Normandy Beaches, France

 Mont St. Michel, France

 Versailles, France

 Swiss Alps--Eiger & Monch

 Gimmelwald, Switzerland

 Murren, Switzerland

Cochem, Germany

In Spirit of the World Cup

The Vuvuzela

I hate the hum it produces.

It makes watching the watching the World Cup challenging for me!

Evidently I just had not learned to appreciate it as a musical instrument.

(Not sure why it is posting to such an enormous size. Just click it to make it fit the screen and then you can watch it without the other stuff in the way.)

We will be cheering for Holland!

Happy 4th of July!

Okay, here's the apartment.

Here are a few quick snapshots of where we live.

Our apartment building is an old monastery.

The view looking from our front door.

Pretty chandelier.

The front door.

 The entry way, and yes - that is a private elevator.

Makes moving in nice. We use the stairs though -

don't want to get lazy and fat!

 Our balcony.

 That is an elementary school and no I don't mind the children playing.

In fact, I kinda enjoy watching them play sometimes.

Boys pushing girls, girls chasing boys.

Not much has changed since the 40 years I was chasing boys.

The view out the bedroom window.  

I love that there is a windmill in our view.

Very Holland-ish!

 Our dining room.

 This is my bathtub.  It is so huge it takes forever to fill up!

Our living room.

 You step down from the dining room/kitchen.

This is the right side of the room.

This is the left side.

  By the way I love the whale boning ceiling!

 You can see the kitchen from the living room.

This was the original outside wall of the monastery.

 A view towards the hallway.

 I love the brick in the house.

  These glass steps are kinda cool!

 Our home is slowly getting all put together.  We have most of the pictures up.  I am still working on getting our bedrooms organized.  We have a lot less space here so I have had to go to IKEA for some storage solutions.  Hopefully soon I can get pictures of everything properly put together.

Finally - we have the internet in Holland! An Update

I cannot believe how long it takes to get services in the U.K. and Europe, but after almost a month we have internet, TV and a phone!  It has been one month and two days since we last blogged.  I have to say that I love our last post of Scotland.  I love watching the slide shows and reminiscing about all the places we have been to and the people we have met.  Now it is time to make new memories in Holland!

I wasn't sure I would like living in the Netherlands.  Scotland is so beautiful with its rolling hills, Highland mountains, stone fences and the green!  Everything is so green.  Holland is flat.  We joke that the speed bumps are the highest elevation in Holland.  However, the sun shines - pretty much all the time!  We have had a few overcast days as it has been a colder spring and a slower summer, but we have sun!  It is fantastic! I have found that for the month that we have been here I love it.  

We live in Wassenaar.  The population is 30,000 people although it seems smaller than that.  This is where the royal family and a lot of the diplomats live.  It is also the most English speaking part in the Netherlands, hence why we live here.  The center of town is cobbled stone streets.  The main shopping area is closed off to traffic.  We live about two blocks from there.  The whole town shuts down about 6:00 pm and becomes soooo quiet.  In that respect it feels a little bit like country living.  However, the weekends are bustling with shoppers.

We have decided that we don't need a 2nd car because I can pretty much do everything I need to do in Wassenaar and never have to go anywhere else.  There is every type of store and restaurant in Wassenaar. (I walk to the grocery store every day or two.  A little different for me but I like it.  Winter might be another thing though.)  Of course, I will go to other places but with the public transportation I can get wherever else I need to go to - I just have to get it figured out.  Plus I can always use Bud's car.  I am a little nervous to drive here.  Haven't done it yet.  Bud keeps offering to let me and I always say "Not yet." The bicyclist and pedestrians have the right of way here (like most places) but they don't hesitate to plow through the intersection without any pause.  You always have to be looking for the cyclist and scooters to be coming out of nowhere. This sounds like it is something you should already be doing, and it is, but its different over here.  

Another factor about driving over here is that our Europe Garmin chip doesn't work.  It is faulty and trying to get customer service is like trying to tell the sun not to rise.  Imagine if you will that you live in a country with street names like Adriaan Pauwstraat, Van Oldenbarneveltweg, Van Hogendorpstraat and my personal favorite Van Zuylen van Nyeveltstraat.  These are just a few streets in Wassenaar. Since our Garmin is ineffective, Bud has been Googling directions and printing them out.  Then the adventure begins - you drive around trying to find the street signs (often not there) and then quickly (because you're driving) trying to decipher what you are reading.  It has been a challenge to say the least.  We do have the basics down though.  To and from work, church and some of the shopping areas.  I emailed Garmin's customer support three different times and never got a response.  So I decided to call them and after holding for 57 international minutes (since I don't speak Dutch and had to use the US support) the customer support hung up on me because she said she couldn't hear me ( I had her on speaker phone).  She didn't give me a second to see if the phone was accidentally muted, which I concluded it wasn't. JERK!  So then I called again and held for 56 minutes more and got through to someone who helped us.  Sort of.  He emailed us a new file of what we had on our chip.  We downloaded it and we get the message that it can't be downloaded because we are missing a previous map.  Urrrgh!  Of course we have this guy's email address and have emailed him but he is either on vacation or ignoring us.  We now have a $300 + Garmin with $150 chip and it is worthless to us!  We keep hoping that we will get an email from Gerald at Garmin.  That failing we will be buying a Tom Tom, paying out close to what we paid for our Garmin.  GARMIN YOU SUCK! (If you have a Garmin connection, please have them email me!)

The fact that we don't know Dutch is a little bit of a challenge. A lot of the Dutch do speak English but its not like there is a lot of English info out there.  Most websites don't have a conversion for English.  You can use Google translator, which helps but makes it tedious to figure out what you want.  Thank goodness its there though. When you go to the shops they of course speak their native tongue to us.  If you answer them with "I only speak English" most of them are nice about it.  Some, however, glare at you.  Some will only speak Dutch and you pretend you don't notice and just pay for your purchase and leave.  Bud was told that you need to say, "Do you speak English?" because if you just say, "I don't speak Dutch" they think you are being rude. I suppose that makes a wee bit of sense. We also wonder how long it will take us to start recognizing words of names and places, instead of hearing "blah, blah, blah."  It will come eventually.  On a side note - spell checking this blog in Blogger is kinda funny - it thinks all my English words are misspelled, even though everything on Blogger is in English - the tabs, icons, buttons, etc.  Its confused!

Our house is mostly put together but it needs some fine tuning.  I don't have a lot of storage space here and need to find some under the bed storage boxes so we can put our shoes up, etc.  I will try to get some pictures up in the next few days. 

Good to be back!