I’m writing this from our hotel room after a long day of walks and talks. Sorry for the hiatus after the Dover post, but we arrived late (around 10:30 local time I think) and I couldn’t get connected to the hotel WiFi. On top of that my phone battery was flat (which I could have used as an alternative connection).

The ferry and journey down here were relatively uneventful. We had a meal on the ferry, a curry, and the sea was virtually flat calm so no problems keeping it down….

Leaving the white cliffs behind

Barrie missing home already…..

Phil on the Ferry

We have a 42 seater coach with only a couple of seats spare and a mix of ages from 20’s to ?70’s – with around half-a-dozen women. There are several Americans, but I think everyone else is British. We had a stop at a rather nice services (Baie de Somme) on the way and watched a DVD (about D-Day of course) to while away the time until we got here. Anyway after some sorting out we got to bed around midnight local time, though we did manage to see some of the Germany – Algeria World Cup football match, but not the end. After a reasonable nights sleep I was up at 6:35 and Barrie at 6:45 as we had been warned to be ready to go at 8:30 sharp.

Day 1

So off we set firstly for ‘Sword’ Beach one of the British invasion beaches located at  Colleville-

Montgomery,

Being lectured by statue of Field Marshall Montgomery

and walked along the beach (the promenade actually). We then went on to the nearby War Cemetery, before taking the coach to a strongpoint away from the coast called ‘Hillman’ with underground bunkers that Barrie enjoyed.

We’d called in at a supermarket on the way to pick up food for lunch – Barrie bought a baguette, tomato, ham and cheese and made a large sandwich! I was more restrained and bought some ‘pain au lait’ and some sliced sausage of some sort, plus a banana and some chocolate biscuits.

So we enjoyed a picnic at the Hillman bunkers, outside, then back on the coach to ‘Juno’ beach, where the Canadians came ashore – at Berniere-sur-Mer, to east of the ‘Sword’ beach. Again, we had talks and strolled along the promenade looking at various bits before catching the coach to visit a Chateau a bit inland which had been the site of some fighting.
We finished off the day at the Canadian cemetery – much bigger than the first one, and like the other, very well kept and moving.

Then back to the hotel, arriving around 6:30. After sorting out and a quick wash, to the nearby Chinese restaurant (just across the road)which runs a ‘buffet’ for one price so no studying the menu for ages, just decide what drinks (I had a ‘Tsingtao’ Chinese beer) very nice it was too.

Anyway, this blog has no pictures as originally posted, although I’ve transferred all 146 I’ve taken onto my tablet, I haven’t had time to sort them out to put in the blog – but I’ll post this (with all the typos as the spellchecker isn’t working)

just to give you something to read.

Photos added later and typos mostly corrected