American bomb at the museum

This morning we had hostel breakfast and then got train tickets to go to Normandy. This wasn’t really planned but we talked about it and decided to spend a day and go there. We took a 2 hour train ride to the town of Bayeux. The countryside was green with lots of trees and woods. From there we took a taxi 20 minutes out to Omaha Beach where the US troops stormed the beach on D-Day.

It is my favorite place I’ve been while traveling. It was really cold and windy and it kind of fit my mood. There really wasnt much to see as far as the beach..it was pretty greenish water with nice sand. It was at low tide so we walked aways down the beach and looked at the huge cliffs that border the beach where the worst fighting took place. The cliffs are preserved and you can still see where the bombs hit on soft parts. The beach still has broken pilings from the fighting. It wasn’t hard to imagine D-Day playing out there but to be standing where that part of history had happened was unreal. There were 5 landing spots for the D-Day operation but Omaha Beach was where the bloodiest fighting happened. You should know all this already. If you don’t, I’m ashamed of you.

After walking on the beach for awhile we walked up to the museum of Omaha Beach. The most recent things they’ve uncovered were found in 2006. There were absolutely amazing things in the museum. They had it set up to walk through and lots of artifacts in cases. Any kind of German or Allied shell or gun was on display along with packages of toilet paper, gum, coffee, uniforms, land mines, and old postcards from the Allied troops. At the end of the museum was a little film on D-Day where survivors spoke. It was really neat to know you were where amazing and terrible things had happened. Also we take it so for granted that we can live freely because of these people fighting for us. I think we dont realize the true cost of human life because of our stance on war and somehow going to a place like this makes you realize the incredible freedom we have.

After we finished there, we spent a long time walking up the road trying to hitch a ride back into town. Since its off season we had to finagle with different people until we caught a taxi back and then the train into Paris. Got to our St. Christopher’s Inn hostel and got burgers for supper. We’re half done our trip and that’s sad. But we also can’t wait to sleep in our own beds. Ciao❤