Apologies again are due  – we were relatively late back and after our meal, transferring my photos to the tablet and having trouble with the wi-fi connection and connecting my keyboard I find it is 10:20pm our time – so not much chance of photos again but I’ll try. Yes, away from the hotel at 8:15 this morning (getting up at 6:35 after being kept awake by some snoring….) we went off to the American cemetary first as it opens at 9 and apparently gets very busy so we were aiming to get there just after it opened – and we got there at 9:10. A big cemetary with rows and rows of white marble crosses, personally I found it a bit soulless after the British cemeteries. The site is above ‘Omaha’ beach, right on the cliff edge and this beach is where most of th American casualties were on D-Day, a real ‘killing field’. While we were there we visited the grave of Theodore Roosevelt (yes a relative of the President) who was a commander on ‘Utah’ beach (he actually died of a heart  attack in July 1944) who had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour (=VC).

The American Cemetery

From the cemetery we went down to the beach to appreciate what the American soldiers were faced with, on the way examining a memorial placed on a German bunker complex.

From there we walked about 1km along the beach to another bunker complex and one of the exits (St Laurant) from the beach the Americans used to finally managed to get off the beach after intense fighting during most of the morning of D-Day. From there we  rejoined the bus and travelled a short distance East to Vierville where there was another exit from the beach and more bunkers and one with a large anti-tank gun still in place (too big for Barrie to bring back unfortunately).

Barrie on Omaha Beach

Phil on Omaha Beach

Then we were driven to St. Mere Eglise – the site of a horrific killing of American parachutists who landed in the town by mistake right where there were German soldiers so were shot more or less as they came down. It was a lunch time break, but while everyone else went into the town to get munch, Barrie and I went round the museum there and I bought a ‘T-Shirt’ (well I had to really…) plus some cards

. From there we were bussed to the area where the American airborne troops had been fighting on D-Day, and in particular to La Fiere Bridge where a battle was fought, thence to Couguigly close by where more fighting had occurred. At La Fiere bridge was a B&B run by an American woman who has a sort of museum/shop in the main room of the house. She is a big wheel in the local commemorative organisation (and is married to a French Man),was very friendly, so much so that Barrie was quickly persuaded to buy a T-Shirt and a book.

From Couguigly we walked to ‘Timmes Orchard’, site of another battle, and them to Amfreville, where there was a German field hospital, and then on to an airborne memorial another mile or so further on – about an hours walking all told.

Then we mounted the bus and came back to the hotel, arriving around 6:50pm. After a wash and brush up, we (Barrie and I) set off to find another eating place, which I’d identified from a  web search around 10mins walk from the hotel. We found it and it turned out to be another ‘Oriental’ Buffet restaurant, slightly more pricey but very good. We were able to select meat (in my case seafood items)    and veg and have them stir fried on the spot with a ‘sauce of your choice’ – in this case ‘Sauce Thailand). We had a small carafe of rose between us, and a sweet after we had both had two platefuls of various dishes – only 39Euros between us – and very good it was too! I’ll try and add at least one picture now…..