Normandy

This morning started a little rough. I had left my bag at the Lyle’s apartment so we had decided beforehand to meet there at 7:30 am so I could grab the bags before they left Paris. We caught up with them, said our goodbyes, and took the metro right back to our Hostel about 20 minutes away. By the time we got back and ate breakfast, we had no time to catch the 8:45 train that was 5 metro stops away so we decided to go for the 10:10 train. So we took our time, bought baguettes and casually made our way over to the train station, thinking that we had all the time in the world!
As a common theme in this trip we should have known that whenever we think we have plenty of time…we don’t. So I get in line at the station to get my Eurorail validated and after seeing the 50 people in front of me, knew that we were going to miss the 10:10 train as well. Once we got up to the ticket counter it was like straight out of a movie. The French kid was being trained so it took us three times as long as the other lines. For those of you who have seen ratrace and remember the part when Whoopi and her daughter are trying to rent a car? It went pretty much the same and that image kept flashing to my mind and I had to control myself to keep from busting up!
So we had about two hours to kill and Adam still hadn’t received his lost luggage so we decided to go shopping! I didn’t end up getting anything because even the thought of carrying anything else in my backpack made me tired. Adam got some sweet striped French shirts and jeans, much better than his plaid tourist shorts and USU shirt! We didn’t feel like classic Americans anymore!
So we made it back to the train station with plenty of time and found our seats. It was like right out of a Harry Potter movie! We had our own little room and everything. We each took a side of the car and fell asleep…
I woke up in complete panic! Who knew how long I had been sleeping! I threw something at Adam and said “did we miss the stop??” We looked out the window and saw the sign “Caen” and realized we woke up seconds before our stop. Finally a stroke of luck. We walked off the train and made our way to a sign that said Normandy and read about the taxi service that would take us to Omaha beach and the American Cemetery. We were really confused as how to contact the taxi service till we walked around the sign and saw 2 taxis ready for us. We pointed to the sign and they said oiu oiu and we were off! On the way to the Cemetery we passed several little castles, and the French driver would point and say “Castillo” which is Spanish for castle. We found it is easier to communicate in Spanish than English. I felt like I was in Ireland because all the streets were cobblestone and the towns were tiny and so cute.
We made it to the memorial and walked around the museum and watched the video. I hadn’t studied much about Normandy before so it was really cool to get the background information and hear about personal stories and letters from the soldiers that sacrificed their lives to stop the war. We walked to the beach and there was such a reverence there, knowing that so many soldiers had died where we were walking. A canon was shot every 15 minutes, the weather was perfect and it was so peaceful. Walking around the cemetery was really overwhelming. Row upon row of tombstones on either side of me, beautiful flowers and statues and American flags waving in the wind. I am so glad I was able to go there
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