Evendays

We just put the parents on the plane in Zurich this morning. The vacation turned into a blog (and email) holiday too, which wasn’t intended. Thanks for dropping by to the same old post.

We spent most of our time in Switzerland except for the 5 day trip to Normandy. The region of Basse Normandie (yes, there is an Haute Normandie too) was a well-known tourist destination long before June 6, 1944… Just think Mont Saint-Michel and the birthplace of Guillaume the Conqueror. Though the water is cold, the wide beaches off the Côte de Nacre served rich summer vacationers, (though less popular than those of the French Riviera).

Check out the link for a map of the area if you need a reminder of locations and distances. Zoom in and out to find the 5 landing beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword) along with the infamous cliffs at Pointe du Hoc (west of Omaha beach).

Most battlefield tours of the area begin at the Peace Museum (or Peace Memorial) in Caen. It’s a wonderful museum that covers not only WWII, but the build-up to war from 1918 on. It’s fascinating and “global”, keeping the interest of history buff and novice alike.

Thanks for the prayers. We arrived home safely after several airports and several more problems with baggage. It seems that America West did not want to transfer our bags to our TED flight. But after a 7 hour wait they showed up in time for us to place them in the hands of British Airways employees. That actually worked out to our benefit, as we used the baggageless time to visit the newer Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. We caught a 50¢ bus to the hanger and saw planes old and new scattered across the tarmac floor and hung model-like from the ceiling. 

I felt mixed emotions as we peered into the Enola Gay cockpit. 61 years ago this month her crew dropped "little boy" on Hiroshima. As Wife and I stood near the plane, we heard one mother explain to her child that the bomb was dropped on the Japanese as revenge for Pearl Harbor. As we were leaving, another mom was explaining to her child that it was done to bring the war to an end.

Go see the museum if you get the chance.