Normandy

We had a very inspiring excursion today to Normandy with a special focus on Omaha Beach and La Pointe Du Hoc. It was special to actually be in France.
Unfortunately, we had a rather wet day today. We had a beautiful ride through the French countryside, followed by a very wet visit to La Point Du Hoc.
This is a point between the Utah and Omaha beaches that could rain shells down on both. It was attacked by a company of Rangers who had to scale 50' cliffs using rocket assisted grappling hooks and rope ladders. The attack, while delayed, was successful. This picture shows how heavily this point was shelled based on the many bomb and shell craters. Unfortunately, we got back to the bus quite soaked.
Next was a visit to Omaha beach with this new memorial to the American invaders. This was the beach that took the heaviest casualties.
I found it inspiring to walk that beach and look at the hills they had to attack. We heard the story of the attack numerous times during the day from different perspectives.
Our next stop was the American Cemetery overlooking the beach.
The monument there had many famous quotes and battle depictions, but most impressive was the care taken to landscape this cemetery as well as the crosses - fields of crosses. They had a very nice visitors center with exhibits of WWII memorabilia such as this soldier's kit which is one like Mary's dad carried and used.
Our visit was followed by a very nice lunch at a local French restaurant and a visit to another museum in Arromanches. We watched one video here about the invasion, then while mary went souvenir shopping I watched another, only to find it was narrated in French.
We then had a long bus ride back to the ship and a nice buffet dinner with Gail, Kathy and Judy.