Hi all. Woke up after a peaceful nights rest in a double bed to myself. In fact we’ve all got double beds and three singles to spare. This house is a peach. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested. Sat out in the sunshine this morning until we all achieved a desire to leave and go exploring!! We traveled the 6 kms to St mare Eglise and visited the Airbourne museum for a couple of hours. A superb interactive experience that makes you realise what the American troops went through when they landed here by aircraft glider parachute or by sea. The Germans were dug in well here and well established so it was an amazing effort to dislodge them, but they did it and the rest is history as they say. Many lives were lost on both sides and it’s a somber reflection on the misery of war. A short lunch break in the town and walk around the various shops selling military parafinalia, interesting but slightly tacky I think.
In the van and off to the coast. Utah beach is a vast area of open sand and would be a wonderful place to sit and reflect if it wasn’t for the howling wind and sand blasting that was occurring when we got there! A quick stroll along the beach and back to the van to warm up! Slightly inland we called into another museum that was a German gun emplacement and was the first action on D day. They fired the first shells when they realised that the sea was awash with boats ready to invade on 6 th June 44.
Some amazing stories of heroism and valor have been listened to today and we have only just started our tour. More tomorrow.