I am sitting in a bar....trying to sort me thoughts. Was a cool day.....saw a lot of stuff....and its like how do you describe it. Well...here goes.....as usual...started off with popping out of me bed and hosing off....I didn't have to pack up as I was staying in the same hotel for another night I decided. So the standard breakfast cold cuts.....croissants. Coffee....lots of coffee.....it is good stuff over here. I was pretty pumped to get on to some of the D-Day sites and whatever else I could find. 
 
Only had to pack a few things up but I had to change rooms so still had to pack everything....kinda sucked....but I managed to drag everything to the new room and headed to the steed. It is looking pretty dirty....a few rainstorms and the bugs are gathering on it. but I've seen worse so not too worried. The nice thing is that it seems to be running fine only weird thing is on quick shifts once in a while it seem to miss a cog and does some kinda wild roll through all the gears..lots of grinding sounds that end with solid CLUNK..and it is at speed....so I look behind me to see if there are bolts or an oil slick or smoke and so far nope I'm glad to report, but its weird to feel it and see the gear numbers roll through on the display. 
 
Also....lot of rubber on the tires still ..yay....definitely wearing though. My bike accelerates about the same...but this one has more torque and you can feel it. If I need to pass at highway speed and punch it....the traction control kicks in and you have to hang on. Aside from that....it still howls.....curse the dude that decided to paint big cross walk patches on the exits of round abouts....those things are slippery..... a few times now the wheels slid on me. Bit of a tank slapper when the back grabs again....but not too much drama....must look interesting from behind I'm sure. Sooooo many traffic circles...for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 intersections.....the GPS freaks out and panics on some of them and shuts down...so I do laps while it reboots....kinda fun....freaks out the ones I lap on the circle lol. I did get the sound working right on the GPS now so I can hear the radar alerts....and there are a few here. They actually hide them pretty good at times. 
 
Decided to start in Caen....there is a museum there .... seems to make sense. Was a bit rushed ....self imposed.....so punched in the first museum I saw in Caen into the gps...off I went....bada boom bada bing...I was at the Castle of Caen....k not a D-Day museum.....but was really cool....wandering around castles is fun. Hard to believe that this city was pulverized while being liberated.... and it wasn't really very far from the beaches but it took the Allies 6 weeks to get here...
 
So off I went a wandering...inside the castle grounds there was an ancient Abby. I walked up to it...and there was a plaque....dedicated to the men and women of Ontario...who served in the military and fought in D-day...seems we left a foot print....we somehow saved the Abby...cool. Another thing I am noticing...flags....lots of flags.....French....British....american...and Canadian...lots of them. Getting a sense of some serious appreciation of our efforts to help out can't help but be a bit proud of our forefathers, the term "Greatest Generation" is out there for those that signed up....and I totally buy into that concept....mostly because it was a fight against evil...and most were volunteers....WWI was different for some reason...interesting subject to ponder why the difference.
 
The castle was cool but I needed to find the D-Day museum so off I went....and it was only a few blocks away....quite big...and a few more Euros....in I went. Interesting concept.... I had to remind myself I was in France and they have some issues to deal with as a country about the war.... it was very evident in the museum. 
 
First....they were beaten and surrendered...capitulated actually. Sorry history lesson time again...probably a few of em today...by the way I am no expert...but no idiot either so feel I can speak a bit..feel free to correct me if you think I got something wrong. 
So I could sense that there is a massive humiliation over being beaten.....second....collaboration.....when France surrendered, Hitler split it up into 3 regions.
 
One basically became Germany, the second, an area administered by Germany, the third...a Free France....Governed by the French...out of Vichy (ergo called Vichy France). It was evident they were puppets of Hitler and from a French perspective....there is shame in what happened....and to the collaborators and collaboration that occurred...even to the point they have different classes of collaboration some more severe than others. 
 
Was very enlightening....again...you could tell it was something displayed in a manner to show they are not proud of it and it is perhaps not resolved internally...perhaps in a few generations as time does heal all.....well most things. One thing for sure..you did not want to get labeled a collaborator. As the resistance (big displays on them) would eventually deal with all that were labeled.... on trick they did was send a perfectly sculptured miniature coffin to your mailbox....bad sign if you got one. 
 
The museum has some nice collections of artifacts from the beaches and personal stories...so I took it in and ended up wandering around outside...there is a park dedicated to Canada....and the soldiers that fought....again...makes ya proud to be a canuck ....but was time to go...I needed to try to not spend too much time as the sun is only up for so long.
 
Again I had decided to head to Juno Beach and follow the coast as best I can,,,I should bump into stuff I figure and just play it by ear. History lesson time again....Juno beach is where the Canadians under their own command and control....landed on D-Day again in case you didn't know. They took some serious losses...slow start but in the end they advanced farther than any of the other allied landings and did capture all their objectives..lil late but got em all. The weather gods smiled on me today as it was still sunny and might be a great weather day after all for this. Off I went, put Juno beach museum in the GPS and I was off.....
 
The thing about this area is that it is really quite large....its hard to grasp it until your here I think...the logistics must have been insane.....sure enough didn't get very far... and a Radar site was on the side of the road...had to check it out...cool...it was a site the bad guys used to try to track aircraft....not as effective as british radar...but the place was bombed pretty well and had bunkers and a big lesson on the invention of radar....paid a few euro's to wander around it....and...off I went...noticing a trend...d-day is a huge tourist draw...caravans everywhere and tourist buses...sigh...road clots.... The locals are definitely making some eros off of it.
It did not take long and I saw signs and nothing but Canadian flags everywhere.....Juno beach....there it was....and the Canadian Juno Beach museum. So I parked and wandered about the outside of the museum...its a bit bizarre looking. Went in and have to say was not impressed. Its a Canadian government museum, and you have to watch a cheesy video before you can get into the museum...then in the museum it was a case of a mixed bag of stuff.....not really much about the invasion. Lots of politically correct stuff and they missed the mark big time.... So exited there fairly quick and hit the beach. Its something to stand there.....
 
I looked to my left and there was a small hand built memorial in the sand....was quite simple lil mound of sand....with a memorial put together by someone. I had brought a lil baggy....found a sheltered spot....dug down and got some sand to take home..... So I walked around the dunes and checked out the bunkers...what you could...you had to have a tour guide to go in them which you had to pay for so was not impressed. So I walked the length....found some blown up bunkers....took some pics...and headed back. 
 
Headed to the bike and headed west along the coastal road...Gold beach....I found a road that went to the beach and found a massive bunker....blowed up real good. Continuing on....more bunkers....then found Winstons port. There is a memorial on a bluff overlooking the western edge of Omaha beach.....this is where the Mulberys were set up....big concrete casements floated over then sunk to make a temporary harbour....all the goods came through this port until they captured a functioning port. It was really big.....and quite far out to sea. The big casement stand there like sentinels....Lot of tourists here. Helped a couple bikers take some pics. I continued on...Omaha beach....
 
Its a park....I headed down and its hard to tell what happened here....lots of familys sunning on the beach....but if you look back..then you see the bunkers and memorials...up the hills. so up I climbed. found several bunkers....some blown up....and marked with memorials....and climbed to the top....there is a big memorial up top amongst the concrete german trenches....pretty impressive....long hike up. Hard to imagine doing it with bullets flying around everywhere. This is where the biggest losses of the day were. they got stalled and were being mowed down on the beach till they got moving. I headed down again....and continued on...to the American Cemetery...the one in "Saving Private Ryan". 
 
Had a hard time accepting that you had to go through security to get in....but its the American way no matter what it is....they had me empty all me pockets and go through a detector in bike gear....of course it went off....I think they sensed my are you kidding me attitude as what was I going to do.....I just sighed and gave them the "really" look. Anyhoo...made it through....and they definitely put a lot of effort into the memorial.....its a museum that is really nice and about the battle...not like the Canadian hodge podge museum. A very poignant memorial was in there it is a simple area of gravel and in a middle a rifle stuck into the ground with its bayonet....and a helmet on top...to represent the temporary grave. It really stood out.... also you walk through a hall way and you hear the names of the fallen ...every few seconds a new name. 
 
So got outside and walked along the walkway above the beach...wow...they had a tough job.....then you get to the cemetery...I just happened to arrive at the time of the last post...they have two flags and everyone milling about stopped and stood to watch some with hand to heart......this cemetery really is something....headstones forever......blew me away...just walked around reading names and dates....all kids. So many headstones and so perfectly lined up....unreal. Very touching memorial and everything was spotless....
 
It was a somber walk back to the bike.....but hopped on and continued west Utah beach...found a museum.....so wandered in and looked around....lots of stuff.....the beach ... again hard to tell what happened here but memorials were also there and flags...always flags...and off I went west...on a bir of a rise there was a guy para sailing...holy crap was he good....he kept floating aroind the memorial....beside flag posts trying to stand on top of the rail....he drew quit crowd ..... but the sun was getting low....kept going and found then I found Pointe Du Hoc. Had to check it out.....this was where the American rangers climb the cliffs to blow up big guns.......that were not there. It is left as it was. Full of craters lots of them from bombing...the bunkers were huge....but crap the cliff those guys had to climb was crazy......less than 1/2 were standing when the battle was over When they got to the gun placements......they were not there. So they moved on....  
The invasion beach front is pretty long.....and I was running out of sun Pointe Du Hoc was pretty much the western most point of the invasion. So I managed to go from end to end.....very cool though. Time to move on to find some grub....
 
Carentan.....those who have seen Band of Brothers will know it. Big battle fought here as it was a crossroads. The show dedicated a whole episode to it....I found it...again...hard to believe this place was pulverized...I drove around a bit...and found a restaurant....time to eat and a cool place to do it. Had a great French version of a steak and again the fries....really good...everything is with fries. Turns out I was about 2 hrs from me hotel...and the sun was now down time to see how the lights are on this bike wasn't planning on riding here in the dark but it is what it is.
It was a crazy ride....pitch black windy narrow French country roads...but the lights lit it up awesomely. Made it to the Hotel with out incident....and went straight to the bar to have a few drinks to ponder the day....saw so much stuff that I have read about or seen in movies. I can not say enough that its really is something to see this stuff for real to appreciate it all and what they did. I remember a memorial but can not remember where it was (saw so many), I think it was at utah beach. It was the words of one of the guys that was in the battle and it was his remembering the day in his words...in the end of his story ...."all I could think about today is what if we had not succeeded?" it might be a very different world we live in today.