Well, we’ve been back for almost two weeks, but it’s taken that long to get over the jetlag and to catch up on all the fall yard work that needs to be done. I still have more work on my deck that I hope to show next week. So here are a few pictures of our trip.
We went on a 12 day WWII themed cruise/tour starting in London, then over to Paris and down the Seine River to Rouren with a side trip out to Normandy to visit the D-Day beaches and cemeteries. It was a great trip and we got to see a lot of stuff. We had great guides and learned a lot. We also over ate and drank more wine in a week than I normally drink in a year. There is no way to tell everything but here are a few highlights.
The first tour was out to Portsmouth to visit the D-Day museum there and to stop at a Pub near Southwick House where General Eisenhower had is headquarters for D-Day. Turns out the Southwick House is still an active military post so you can’t visit it, but we visit the Golden Lion Pub where Eisenhower and his officers would go to have a drink or two between planning meetings. A group of WWII reenactors were there in uniforms and with a couple of jeeps:
This one is outfitted as a communications jeep that would have been used on D-Day.
Then it was over to Portsmouth (pronounced, Portsmith) to visit the D-day museum. There I got my fist up close look at a LCT (landcraft tank):
This was used to land up to ten tanks on the beach. It’s much larger than I imagined. My picture doesn’t really capture how big this thing really is. This is one of the last remaining examples of an LCT. Durning D-Day hundreds of these were used.
Our next stop was Bletchley Park to see where they decoded all the enemy messages. I didn’t take many pictures there as I spent most of my time looking at the code breaking machines and learning about the origins of modern digital computers.
On our way back we drove past Abey Road Studios and I managed a picture of the same crosswalk where the Beatles did their famous picture:
Not bad for a picture taken from a moving bus or coach as the Brits call it (turns out the French call a bus, a car).
After this we got the Eurostar over to Paris where we did a short bus tour of the city and made a stop at Nortre Dame:
I first saw Nortre Dame in 2014, before the fire that destroyed the roof. They’ve done an amazing job of restoring the building and the only thing I really noticed different is that the stone work is cleaner that it was in 2014. They are still done some work on the outside but it fully restored the interior.
That night we got to see a special light show on the Eiffel Tower:
The whole thing has been lit by thousands of LED lights and at 9:00 pm the tower did a sparkle show. My still image doesn’t do the spectacle justice.
Then we were on a river ship for a few days. Then we got on a bus (car) for a trip down the D-Day beaches:
This is one of the remaining German bunkers. This would have housed an artillery piece. This is just above Gold beach in the British sector of the invasion. Later we got down to Utah and Omaha beaches as well as a trip to Sainte-Mere-Eglise to see where the US airborne troops landed. We bought a box of cookies there.
Sorry we ate them all before I could share with you.
Finally we stopped at the American cemetery:
We also had stops at a British and Germany cemeteries.
Then it was back to Paris for a very long flight day home.
That’s a very short version of our trip. It was interesting and moving. Heather and I are very happy we made the effort to see these places.
Andrew's View of the Week 
You had a remarkable adventure, Andrew. My husband, younger son and I did a WW1 tour of Flanders in July this year. A very worthy experience.
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We loved it!
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The Jeep and the landcrafts take me right back to “Saving Private Ryan”, the movie that provided the only images I have of Normandy and the surrounding war. Some of the scenes still haunt me, which is why – as powerful a movie as it was – I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. You say “hundreds of landcrafts”. Wow. The scale of just this chapter of the fighting is unimaginable.
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The scale if the invasion is so hard to comprehend. The beaches they landed on are huge and it was hundreds of that type of landing craft – there were a dozen different kinds of landing craft, each with hundreds of craft landing on the beach. There were close to 5,000 naval vessels of all types participating in D-Day. Then when you see the defenses that where there, I’m amazed that any troops survived the landings.
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A very interesting holiday and must have been satisfying. Thank you for the photos.
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It was a great trip.
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Wow, this was a great trip idea. Many people would love it, but it’s not well known. I had never heard of it. Thanks for sharing, glad you had fun.
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It’s not the most popular cruise, but those who discovered it, loved it!
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I can see that. My Dad had so many WWII books, he would have enjoyed it.
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If you like history, you would like this trip.
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Great pictures and story! We saw some of those sites during the two years we lived in south England – history is everywhere you turn!
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We love our visits to England and getting to see all the sights.
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What a great trip!
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It was!
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Husby and I have been considering that trip. Glad to hear it’s a good one.
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You’d love it, it was a great trip.
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Now there’s an itinerary I would love. History, but recent enough to be relevant.
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Both my wife and I have family members who were in WWII so it is still relevant to us.
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What a wonderful trip!
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It was!
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It sounds like a lovely trip. I bet it felt good to get away for a bit after all the work you have done at home this summer. But I bet it felt equally good to get home again. Thank you for sharing your pictures. I love seeing them. 🙂
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I like traveling, but being home is best.
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What a wonderful trip, Andrew. I haven’t been to Portsmouth for a long time. I think the last time I went there was to see HMS Victory. I should go up there and take a look around it, and the landing craft as you say is humongous.
I’m glad you had a great time and the wine was flowing. Do share some more pictures if you get a chance.
Take care,
Julian
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