N and N's New Adventure: Day 44 Saturday July 7

Day 44 Saturday, July 7

Rouen to Normandy

We had breakfast at the hotel....at 7.95 Euros for as much as we want to eat it is a very reasonable meal. This is especially true since there really is nothing reasongable around the hotel that could provide a breakfast.....one cannot eat French pastries all the time.

Pete and Jess and Joey had to move their stuff out of the room they had which was a family room that had a king size bed and a set of bunk beds. They had to move up a floor to the attic level before we leave this morning. There was a scheduling error and the room was double booked, and Pete and Jess were gracious enough to move. They did get a reduced rate on the room.

It seems like there are chocolate and pastry shops on every block. We discussed how they could eat that stuff all the time and stay as slim as they do. We decided that their diets must consist of chocolate, wine, and cigarettes. The number of smokers in Rouen is amazing, especially since there is a medical university in the city.

I asked about the skate boarders from last night. Apparently this is a city sponsored function that happens every Friday evening. The group which included all ages did appear to be having a grand time.....at least they did it at a reasonable hour.

We walked to the car which was parked in a long term parking lot four or five blocks from our hotel. Pete drove and again Neil with paper and Jess with iPhone navigated us out of the city to the A13 motorway. It was a very easy drive except for the wait to pay tolls...two of them. There were a few slow spots here and there but overall an easy drive.

We left the A13 and stopped at Merville on the western edge of Omaha Beach and went for a short walk along the beach. It was high tide so we saw the monument with the water lapping at its base. At low tide, like when the landings took place, the sea would be 50 to 60 yards out from the base of the monument. We saw the cliffs/ridges overshadowing the beaches.

We decided to walk back to the Normandie Musee which was about 2 long blocks from the beach. We paid our 6 Euros to view the museum and to use their restrooms. The museum was really pretty well done. They had displays of what a camp might look like with explanations and examples of the equipment. They also had a large number of pictures from the time period which they really need to do some preservation work with since they are rapidly fading.

We finished the museum to discover that it was raining. Pete did a jog back to the parking lot for the car and came to pick us up. We drove along the coast which was a dead end road. We came back and went up the entrance of the American cemetery. Unfortunately, by this time it was pouring, so no one was really interested in spending the rest of the day in wet clothes.

We continued our drive along the coast line and stopped to see the remains of German concrete emplacements. We grabbed some lunch at a food stand that near the emplacements. The grilled pork and french fries were amazingly good. Unfortunately, as I was walking back to see emplacements it started to rain hard again.

We saw the remains of the Mulberry Artificial Harbor at Arromanches. We saw the monument to DeGaulle's return to France and the Canadian Memorial on Juno Beach. We walked up to the Canadian War Memorial Museum. It started raining as we reached the museum. It was a long wet walk back to the car. We continued our drive along the coast to Ouisterham, which is where our ferry back to England sails from. We then turned inland to Caen.

Pete made no errors on the way home and despite some wet roads we made it back to Rouen by 7:30. Pete and Neil went to the grocery store for bread, cheese, sandwiches, and a bottle of wine...even less expensive than yesterday's bottle.

STEPS: 8675

Canadian Museum