The French can resist you, but you can't resist the French

So I'm not updating this as frequently as I should... Oh well..

Anyways, so I've been in Normandy for a day and some change now and I can safely say that it is perhaps one of the most idyllic, beautiful places I've been to thus far. Because I 1) loathe tourists and 2) have no money, I have decided not to shell out the 50+ Euros for a guided tour. Instead I have been using the sporadic-at-best public buses from Bayeux to the beaches.

The major, major drawback to this is that 1) No easily accessible bus line passes through the Utah Beach areas and 2) the 70-ligne bus that I've been using will take you as far as Colleville-sur-Mer at 07:40, then as far as Granville-Sur-Mer around noontime, but then after that it only goes as far as Colleville-sur-Mer. Not realizing this I got off just before C-s-M and walked the mile or so to the American cemetery at Omaha Beach.

At this point I should mention that the weather is absolutely unequivocally fucked. Nearly immediately after getting off of the bus the rain picks up and wind begins to gust somewhere upwards of 30-40 mph, against the direction that I was heading in. Then about 20 minutes later it cleared up and was absolutely gorgeous and sunny before descending into absolute madness later.

Anyways... where was I yesterday... Ah yes.

So I began my Normandy excursion at the American Cemetary at Omaha Beach. It truly is a sight to behold, I think around 10,000 men are buried there. From the cemetary you can follow a quick, albeit steep trail down to the beach proper. My first impression upon reaching the beach is how unbeleivably peaceful it actually is. If one were dropped onto the beach without knowing the exact location, you would never guess that the brunt of the largest seaborne invasion in history was focused against these bluffs. I soon found a few bunkers and headed back to the road for the long trek to Pointe du Hoc.

Much of this walk was not too bad, the weather decided to cooperate nicely and once I got to Pointe du Hoc the sun came out. Pointe du Hoc was never farmed or inhabited after the invasion, and it is very clear why. The landscape essentially resembles the moon with grass. Shell craters are every where and getting from point A to point B becomes incredibly difficult and requires deft navigation. Every German structure on the point had been bombed to hell. Huge fragments of concrete and rebar were strewn across the landscape. I cannot imagine what the German troops went through during the naval bombardment, from the damage done it would appear that no one survived unscathed.

Initially the plan was to get picked up by the last bus at Pointe du Hoc. However, upon checking the schedule, it became clear that the only remaining bus back to Bayeux went as far as Colleville-sur-mer, and in two hours. I thus had to walk the entire distance that I had covered throughout the entire day in two hours, basically completely impossible. I began walking back and attempted to thumb a ride. After about a half hour, a nice man in a beat up green sedan stopped and drove me the distance to the bus stop.

As we were driving, the man, who spoke fairly good English, told me about his father's experience in the war. Evidently his father attended school in Caen and was there on the day of the invasion. Part of the Allied master plan was to obliterate Caen, which was seen as a major German strong point. As the naval bombardment began, bombers began swarming overhead disposing of their ordinance over the town. This man's father had dug himself a hole in the basement of the house, and was one of the few survivors from that area. He was so traumatized by the bombing that he did not speak for 10 years.

London

My apologies for not writing quite as regularly as I had intended, my days generally have consisted of getting up, taking the Tube to locations unknown and wandering for hours until meeting up with Daniel and getting Dinner.

I've been doing a bit of the usual tourist-thing, but I've also been enjoying getting willfully lost. Yesterday instead of taking the Tube, I walked, took buses to places unknown, and it ended up being as much, if not more interesting than following the mobs of tourists around town.

I've been doing an immense amount walking needless to say. My left knee has been bothering me today, but hopefully it'll be at least a bit more comfortable tomorrow.

Daniel and Lori had a few friends over last night and we had a spirited poker game, I thankfully won and took a 20 pound prize.

Day 1: London/Imperial War Museum, Buckingham Palace, Thames River...

Today marks the beginning of the European oddessey...

Landed at Heathrow in the morning and met Daniel, drove back to his apartment.

I Took the Tube to Green Park, walked to Buckingham Palace and caught the end of the changing of the guards.

















On to Westminster Abbey and the Parliament building...


Then I meandered across the Thames to the Imperial War Museum and spent a good portion of the afternoon there.

















Afterwards I followed the Thames down past the Globe Theatre (Shakespeare) to the Tower Bridge and across to the Tower of London. I didn't go in, I'll save that for another day.

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