The Northern Isles Day 17
The Northern Isles
Day 17 - Saturday, July 26, 2003 - ms Rotterdam - At Sea & Le Havre,
France
As we entered Le Havre, we lost another hour. It was another short night as the alarm went off at 6 AM so we could be off the ship by 7:15. We showered, had our usual breakfast and then met Susan and Bob at 7:15 as we walked to the gangway and got off the ship.
There was an information booth right on the pier so we walked there and spoke to the woman in charge. We had planned to rent a vehicle and then travel to Normandy and the W. W. II memorials, but it was early, Saturday and far from the city center.
Instead, we decided to rent a taxi for the day. The sheet at the desk told us that it would be 360 Euros for 8 hours. We met Michel who agreed to drive us wherever we wanted to go. Gennie had created a list and from that he agreed to follow our suggestions.
We drove out of the port area, past the Le Havre Peace Memorial and on to the highway south of the city. Everything is very green and with the slight overcast and intermittent sun, it is quite beautiful.
Temperature in the mid 60's. He paid toll several times with his credit card- wish we could do that in the US. He would just put the card in the machine, it would spit it out, and we were on our way - very quick and easy.
The drive was a relaxing as we motored through the rolling French landscape. Within a few miles of the landing beaches of D-Day was our initial destination, the historic town of Caen situated near the Normandy coast. It is a thriving community, with about 200,000 people.
The Caen Memorial is located on the site of one of the bloodiest battles in history, and it is there that we experienced a journey into history like no other Gennie and I had ever seen. This immense museum has many sections, but we decided to see only the events of W. W. II.
To see the whole museum would probably take us two full days. It is immense and expertly laid out and organized. We follow the sights and encountered the sounds of Europe’s downward spiral into depression and war, Hitler’s unbelievable rise to power, and the inevitable fall of the Third Reich.
To finish up we saw the museum’s stunning visual presentation of Victory in Europe, where one felt to be a part of the D-Day action as the Allied troops liberate France and restored the world to peace and order.
At 10:30 we had to move on so we went outside and met Michel for the next portion of our trip to the Normandy coastline. Of the 3.1 million Allied troops ultimately sent into action during the Battle of Normandy, more than half were Americans.
D-Day was the beginning of the end of German occupation and dominance in Europe, and the United States played a huge role in securing Allied victory.
We moved down the road to the town of Arromanches, a quaint community but it has a little more of emphasis on tourism. The “English” beaches at Arromanches were a major logistic factor in the Normandy Landing and came about because of a plan created by Winston Churchill in 1942 and executed in 1944.
Here, the Landing Museum told us the story of the D-Day assault and the incredible courage of this remarkable mission when in June of 1944, the Allies landed and then had to be resupplied during a terrible storm.
At 12:30 we drove back about 5 miles to a restaurant recommended by Michel. It was an old farm house, serving typical French “comfort” food. We had French baguettes served to us as we went to the salad bar. We had ordered a bottle of Bordeaux and a bottle of cidre brut (alcoholic apple cider).
We all shared in these as we talked and Michel shared an email from his wife that he received (in the middle of the country side) on his Pocket PC. She knows English so she said hello and welcome to France.
Our meal arrived, I had an enormous and excellent cheese omelet and everyone else had the ham (very large piece) and potatoes with cider sauce. We then had an apple dessert that was also very good. Three of us had it with Calvados, the liquor made from apples. By the time we were finished with lunch it was drizzling and overcast.
We continued our W. W. II adventure by visiting Longues-Sur-Mar to see the German artillery battery which gave the Allied ships a pounding on the morning of June 6, 1944. This is the only coastal battery to have kept its guns, giving an impressive picture of what the Atlantic Wall gun emplacement was really like. It was raining so we saw three, one that had been hit by a direct shot.
We moved over to Colleville Sur Mer, the location of the American cemetery. It overlooks Omaha Beach (Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword were the other 4 landing beaches). The cemetery contains 9,387 perfectly aligned white crosses (Christian and Jew) on the 170-acre plot. There is a chapel, reflecting pool and a huge memorial.
We had heard that there were traffic jams on the highway so we decided to ask Michel to drive back to Le Havre instead of visiting a quaint village on the coast. As we drove home he told us jokes in French that Susan translated masterfully. He also had a radio station tuned in to the Tour de France and he kept us abreast of the ride by Lance Armstrong.
He dropped us of at the ship, we paid him and returned to our room to get ready for the evening. At 7:15 we met Bob and Susan at the Crow’s Nest and then went to dinner at La Fontaine at 8:20. Another good meal.
Tonight we will set our clock back on hour. We will lose it again tomorrow night when we go to Rotterdam. We also need to start thinking about packing and getting our things ready. We need to have everything outside of our room by midnight if we want the porters to handle them.
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