Tammy Trip Reports | Day 14 – Sobering Day in Normandy

21 Apr

Posted at 08:39h in Uncategorized by Tammy 1 Comment

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Day 14 – Sobering Day in Normandy

Today we had a crazy long excursion, it was like 9 hours long! But worth it, as we were going to Normandy! We docked in La Havre and options included Normandy, Paris and Mont Saint Michel. If we had not been doing Paris afterwards, I would have been very tempted by that, and Mont Saint Michel looks gorgeous, but Normandy was probably something we should all see. Normandy is far enough away that we booked a Disney excursion. My general rule of thumb is if we are going more than an hour away, we need to either be booked with a reliable excursion company, or Disney directly. Too many things can go wrong in that hour.

We had to wake up sooo early. Wahhh.

We had room service breakfast today:

Good morning, La Havre!

We met in the Walt Disney Theater.

Erin realized right before they called us that she had left something in the room. She looked at me with panic in her eyes. I told her to run and I would wait for her outside the theater. I promised her we would not leave without her!

She took off! They called us and I stopped right outside the door. One of the cast members asked if I needed help and I said I was waiting for my niece. She said, “Oh is she the one with the beautiful curly hair? I saw her go running by!”

That’s her! Haha!

She was back pretty quickly and we rushed down the stairs. Mom was waiting for us at the bottom. Then Ally was waiting at the next turn. Then Stephen and so on. They were like a trail of bread crumb to the bus! Worked like a charm, and we all made it!

On the bus! With Jeb of course.

And we’re here. Our first stop was the British landing zone – Gold Beach in Arromanches.

We started in the visitor’s center.

Gold Beach was famous for one of the two artificial harbors that were built there.

We walked out to the beach.

We had a little more time before our meeting time, so we walked into town and into some souvenir shops.

Lunch was in a little restaurant in town. I was a little sad when they started bringing out the kids meals of fish and chips, and I realized I was not going to get fish and chips! That’s okay though. When in France right?

Actually it was – When in France eat the delicious bread, mashed potatoes, and go get ice cream after. It works!

Each table had a bottle of wine as well. We left it, but I took a picture on my phone so you could see

what kind it was!

Oh and here was dessert!

We came out and walked around some more. The town was very cute!

We stopped for Gelato.

And Coke Zero.

Then it was time to meet up again and we headed to the American cemetery.

That’s Omaha Beach down the hill, where we would go later!

The American cemetery was sobering to say the least. I couldn’t believe how huge it was. There were over 9000 Americans buried there.

After about an hour there, we rode down to Omaha Beach. It was here that I realized we should have re-watched Saving Private Ryan before we came. The girls had never seen it (their parents never let them) and it had been so long since we had. Of course the first scene when they landed here will forever be burned in my memory.

Then we got back on the bus for one last stop. This time we were going to Point du Hoc where the U.S. Army Rangers stormed the cliffs.

The paddle of power!

We found critters!

Then we were back in the bus for the long drive home. Thank goodness for survival cookies!

We’re back!

Dinner had already started and we debated going to cabanas, but our servers told us to come late, and the crew members we passed on the way in said the same. So we did!