Our goal was to be packed and checking out by
8:15 AM and we did well. It took us a few minutes to get organized because, for
instance, Andrew had left his laptop in his backpack and he was just going to
set the backpack on top of the suitcase and we suggested he put it in his
carry-on which would be locked and have a have an Air Tag on. Plus, I had to
still pay. I thought my credit card would be charged automatically but it
wasn’t. Anyway, I wasn't thrilled about where we were leaving our
suitcases because they were tucked away a little bit but basically anybody could
come get them if they wanted. I had luggage locks and Air Tags on all of them
so that made me feel a little better, and then Andrew left his backpack there
as well. We said a prayer about it and I decided to just trust it and not
worry about it and we walked out of the back of the hotel and around the corner
and that's where the meeting place was. We saw a few vans there and people
milling around and our driver immediately recognized us and asked if we were
the May family and I said we were. We sat all the way in the back. The driver
still had to go pick up some people at the train station before we started the
tour. Our tour guide's name was Pascal and he did a great job. He spoke to us
pretty much every time we were in the car. It was a nice big white van and
there were 19 people. He had a microphone and he would talk to us through the
speakers in the van as we drove from one place to another. Whenever we stopped,
he would usually have a lesson to tell us. He took us to our first spot at the
east part of Omaha beach.
From the beach, we could see the cemetery up on
the hill. Michael thought we were going to be able to walk up there but it was
closed. Pascal gave us a lesson about Omaha beach. We walked around for a
little bit and got a couple family pictures. We went back to the van and it was
so weird because a mom from one of the other families was sitting in our spot.
I don't know why she was just sitting there. We were clearly all sitting
together as a family so it was really rude. I almost said something but after
that we always made sure we got to our spots and it wasn't a problem again. The
ride to the cemetery was super short since it was just up the hill. The
cemetery had restrooms there and they had actual drinking fountains, which was
shocking. We hadn’t seen any drinking fountains in Europe. Pascal walked us
over to the cemetery and let us explore for a little bit. He gave us a little
bit of information about a few of the significant people who were buried there
and gave us some stats and things. Apparently, there was a set of twin
brothers. There was another set of brothers and a teenage boy did the research
to find a match between them. Daniel and I walked down to the little chapel
building and there was a group of people doing some kind of eulogy there. One
of the guys came over and shushed our guide so he talked to us more
quietly. I couldn't understand why they would be doing that kind of
ceremony now, but Michael said that maybe it could be a spouse who wants to be
buried with a loved one who's buried there. Pascal announced to us after that
that the only people who can be very there are ones who actually died at the
battle of Normandy. So, who knows what that group was doing.
On the way to the chapel
The chapel was cool and there was a cool mosaic
on the ceiling.
We walked back to the monument and I took a
few pictures.
It was almost time to go, but Daniel and I
wanted to walk over to the lookout point where you could see the beach. Then we
had to race back to the van. We thought we were going to be late and we were
racing over there only to find out we were the first ones on the bus.
Throughout the whole day, the other people seemed to treat our meeting times as
suggestions and give us less time for other things. It was pretty frustrating.
As we were driving, he was pretty good at explaining things to us that we were
passing by, and sometimes he pulled over for a minute and explained something
to us. For instance, we pulled over to the side of the road to see the monument
and said it was the first American cemetery in France. There was a man who had
died in battle and the government told the widow that he was missing even
though they knew where he was. They had only been married for six weeks. He
died because he was trying to prevent his plane from crashing into other people
and killing them. The government messed it up somehow and didn't tell her for
about 60 years. She never remarried.
Next, we went to Pointe du Hoc. I thought it was
really interesting to see the bunkers and we were able to walk into a few of
them.
After that, he took us to lunch at a little
sandwich and bakery shop. I think it was in Carentan. They didn't speak any
English so it was hard to order but we got it figured out. We ate as fast as we
could. He said it was about time to go and I asked if we could have five more
minutes and he said that was fine. So, we ate a few more bites and then got
cleaned up and headed to the van. However, we noticed that all of the other
people in our tour group were just sitting around like they had all the time in
the world, finishing their food slowly and chatting. I was so frustrated
because Michael and the kids wanted me to hurry and I had a hot dish. Michael
and the boys ordered sandwiches and Emily got a panini-looking thing and Jonny
just wanted crepes but I got crepes that had ham and cheese in it so it was hot
and I had to wait for it to cool and it was taking me a while to eat it. The
guy said we could eat in the van so I cut it up and then gathered my
things and we got in our seats. We were the only ones in the van. Everybody
else finally got in the van and we left for the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mere
Eglise. That was a really cool museum. They had three different buildings. The
third building was especially cool. When you walked in, they had a glass floor
and then a diorama below of the battle. They had so many different cool
displays. By the time I got to the gift shop, Michael and the kids had already
chosen my magnet for me and we went out to meet our guide. He wasn't there yet
but he showed up and told us about the little church and pointed out the
paratrooper monument hanging down from the side. Actually, Michael had told us
about that the minute we got off the van to go to the museum, but Pascal gave
us an explanation about it.
Then we got back in the van and headed toward
Utah Beach. We took a different path than everybody else to go down to the
beach and it was a little difficult but we figured it out. We walked around a
little bit and took some pictures. Then we met up with our guide and he gave us
another lesson about Utah beach.
On the drive to Utah Beach
We drove past a monument to Richard Winters and
I was able to get a quick picture for Michael as we drove by.
Finally, we went to a church in Sainte Marie du
Mont that served as a hospital during the war. He told us a story about some
Germans that broke in with their guns and nobody could defend themselves
because they didn't allow guns in the church. Apparently, the two Germans were
scared and they just left and didn't hurt anybody. Another time two soldiers
came in with machine guns, but there were two Germans who were patients there
who spoke up for the people and the Germans with the guns left and didn't hurt
anybody either.
Then we got in the van and headed back to
Bayeux. Our tour guide dropped off everybody but us and one other guy at the
train station and then drove us back to the meeting point, which is about 100
feet from our hotel. Earlier, I had asked him if he would mind driving us to
the train station because we could quickly get our bags and he said that would
be fine because it was on his way anyway so that was nice. We ran and got our
bags from the hotel. The boys went in first but from what I could see, the lady
at the reception desk couldn't care less who took those suitcases so I'm very
relieved that nothing happened to them.
We were confused because people were in our
seats but we told them they were in our seats and they just kind of chuckled
and laughed. I thought it was kind of weird, like they thought it was funny
they got caught or something. I don't know. Anyway, we had the same
configuration as before except all the kids were together and Michael and I
were across from two strangers. The train ride went by quickly. I wish that the
Wi-Fi had worked or I had some better service or something because I could've
gotten a lot done but I at least got my scriptures read and researched some
restaurants near the hotel. We got off the train and walked right to the
hotel. We checked in and I paid the bill. She got our suitcases out for us
and we all went up to our rooms. I had Emily go check the rooms really quickly
before I made the payment just to make sure there wasn't anything crazy wrong
before I paid. The only the only problem was that one of the rooms has the two
beds made up together. I wish that had been a different room because now
Michael and I are in room 201 with the king-size bed, supposedly king-size
anyway, and the kids are in rooms 205 and 206 across the hall and around the
corner. But that's OK, the only other option was to get another room on
another floor so we just made do. The rooms are so tiny, but at least you can
do more than just turn around in the shower, the elevators work great, and
we're only on the second floor. Well, technically the third floor I guess
because the floor that you walk in on is floor zero.
Anyway, we dropped off our suitcases in the
rooms and went to go find a place to eat. We ended up choosing a pizza
restaurant called La Petite Comedie. I got lasagna and it was amazing. Everyone
seemed to really like their food. Daniel got the calzone and Andrew got pasta,
Emily and Jonny got margherita pizzas, and Michael got another pizza with an
egg on it.
We came back to our room and hugged the kids and organized
our room and got ready for bed.
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