Day 11: Tuesday June 14th

Today was quite the exploration day. To begin our stay we decided to explore the land, locals style. So of course we had to get on boat. They have these things which are basically the water equivalents of New York City taxis. You get on at one spot and you can travel down the canals all the way from one end to the other. We decided to hope on at the stop near our apartment and ride it all the way to the very tip, well as far as they would let us go. It was amazing to just ride down the canals and see the different levels of water damage on all the houses. There were even some crazy old historical buildings that used to house the Venice royalty. Overall I wish I could have just stayed on the boat all day. But sadly we had reached the mouth of the canals and descended upon land.

Smaller Canal View

View from the water

View down the canal

As we got off around lunch time we decided to hunt for Pizza, obviously, but instead found a little awesome park in which I took a trip back to my younger childhood. In this park they had the coolest miniature zipline which of course my Brother and I had to try. That was pretty interesting considering I picked that day to wear a dress.

Swingin'

Warning: About to talk about toilets again...

Toilets in Europe are apparently very interesting to me because I am yet again going to mention the bathroom system of Venezia.

After our park detour of course my Mother and Brother needed a little bathroom break. So we looked on a map to see if we could find one but nah, why would thy put restroom locations on a tourist map? What a crazy idea right? Anywho we eventually found a couple bumper stickers(yes, I'm not kidding) that had WC (water closet) written on them with an arrow. So we followed the arrows. And we followed them. And we kept following them and following and following. Catch my drift? Basically we walked half the island before actually finding one. During that search, Kody had booked it to about 50-60ft in front of us. So when he eventually finds the bathroom and takes a sharp right down a hidden alley..of course we freak out a bit. So we go down a few streets and find the bathroom ourselves and was just gonna walk in. BUT NO it costs 1.50 euro. I swear! Toilet prices! Ridiculous! Eventually we find Kody and carry on with our trip.

Our next stop is the famous Piazza San Marco. The cool thing about the Piazza is that during high tide it gets completely covered in water just like the rest of the island, but people bring out their boats and canoes and just float. It's oh so pretty in pictures and I wish I could have been there to experience it. Instead Kody and I, being the big kids that we are, tell Mom and Pop to find a shady place to sit and we would go pizza hunting. After around 30 different turns in the back alleys of the Piazza we eventually found a little hole in the wall to buy pizza from. And let me just mention this man was THE HAPPIEST Italian I had ever met. He was just overly excited to present me with the newly baked pizza and Kody and I could not get over his joyfulness.

Next we got some gelato before going inside the church. After the church my mother and I come outside to see Kody and my dad surrounded by a group of Bambino's aka a elementary school group.

So many kids

Ice cream time

After that we of course had to go get more gelato. This time at Cafe Eden.

Our next stop happened to be Designer Street of Venezia. There was every kind of designer name label you could imagine. Some like Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton were the largest. Some even had multiple stores, one for men, women, purses, kids. It was insane

Prada Purses

Our last stop that we stumbled upon was an outdoor gallery that had painted images of American icons except they were screwed up in a violent or inappropriate way. Here are a few of the G rated ones.

Lonely Robin

Puking Spiderman?

Playboy Hitler

For the nights end we found an empty dock and sat with our feet in the water while watching the sunset and boats hurry past. Finally pasta for dinner. What a beautiful way to end our first night

Day 10: Monday June 13th

Today was another travel day.

We were on our way to Venezia. A.k.a Venice 

That morning, after cleaning up our Florence apartment, we spent about 3 hours driving to a train station about 30 minutes outside of Venice. Cars are illegal on the island so we had to take a train there. After getting to a parking lot to leave our car for a few days, we realized the car park owner didn’t speak English…but he spoke French. So again Kody and I had to attempt to converse with the man and try to tell him we needed 3 days for our car. I thought I was done with that language for 2 weeks! It took a lot of gestures and such but finally we figured it out and paid the man some amount of money for train tickets. We weren’t sure what he was asking.

So we got to the platform and accidentally looked at arrivals to try and find our train and therefore spent a few minutes waiting for the wrong train before realizing it was that. But we eventually figured it out and found one and got on it towards Venice.

After arriving we were supposed to meet a man named Guido to take us to the apartment. Apparently he flew in from Rome???! So we got there and went to our meeting place and then decided to call him. Turns out..we had the wrong number. So then we sat around trying to figure out what to do. My dad went up to 2 men and even asked if they were him. Obviously they gave him the weirdest looks. So we decided to text him and even look for a payphone for a phone book. No luck

But then suddenly a guy walks up to us and asks us if we were Larry Mallory…which we were...and so we found him. He took us to his apartment and gave us a few minutes to explore. It was beautiful. Then he sat us down at the table and pulled out 5 wine glasses and 2 mini bottles of wine. So he served us all up while explaining random things about the city. After he is done pouring, he makes a toast and then chugs his. During this, me being me, I’m nervously looking at my family trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t want to insult the man by not drinking it and I knew it was legal in Italy, but seriously! I have a reputation to keep up with! So my brother and mom are looking at me like “just do it” and my dad is just giving me this no good quizzical look. So I decided to just pretend. I lift the glass and keep my lips tight and then set it down. Then later…while he is distracted explaining the map to my dad...I switch my glass with my mothers, whose is less full, and have her finish it off. She was a little tipsy that night.

Next the man took my parents and brother on a tour of the ENTIRE city. They were gone for like an hour and a half. Meanwhile I’m at home starving to death eating saltines trying to stay alive until they get back.

When they do arrive back…we go to a nice little fish place for dinner. The only catch was that I don’t like fish. So I just ate the fried onions. Afterward we went looking for a pizza for me. But after awhile I couldn’t find a good one and stopped in at a bakery for a nice little corn dog. Good ol’ American food. And while we were in the bakery it decided to start pouring on us. When we left our apartment it was super hot so we hadn’t even thought to bring umbrellas. Our bad indeed. Regardless, we got soaked.

What a way to start off our stay in a place already surrounded by water?!

Day 9: Sunday June 12th

Today we decided to explore the city of Sienna. It's not famous for much but there are a lot of grand and glorious churches and buildings. When we got there we parked farther down from the city and had to walk up to it. But when we got to the first fork in the road we obviously had to take the wrong turn. That turn took us basically into someone's yard. We walked all over that until we came to a building..but it was a deserted building..we walked through it until we came to an elaborate gate. But the gate was locked. Turns out that on the other side of that gate was the street we NEEDED to be on. But we couldn't go through it.

So we finally got out of that random persons yard and then went back to the fork in the road and took a different street. That led us to the base of the city. We walked around in circles in the side streets of the city trying to find the Church before we found it 20 minutes later. "BUT we got to explore" claim the men who "never" get lost.

Since it was Sunday..service was still going on and we had to wait outside before we could go in. It really was a magnificent church. The color detail you see must have taken hundreds of years to complete. The architecture is impeccable. And inside the murals were so elaborate. Again at this church you had to cover you shoulders, so we were prepared this time with scarves!

Holy church

After walking through the church we decided to find the town square. In the town square is this giant bell tower that apparently has no base support. It just stands by itself. It's pretty amazing. It was around lunch time so we decided to turn to trusty Rick Steve's Italy to tell us where to eat. He pointed us to the pizza place exactly to the left of the bell tower. We ordered ourselves a nice little olive pizza and went out into the square to eat it. It was SUPER crowded though (as you can clearly see in the pictures) and it was hard to find a seat….NOT!

Bell tower

Only water source in the town. Jokes

Crowded square

After pizza we found ourselves some more gelato and then headed to the car.

Off to Pisa we went..the Tower of Pisa that is. We arrived and got the cheesy cliche photos of the family and individuals and then decided to browse the shops.

Cliche 1

Cliche 2

Cliche 3

So cute

During our browsing..mother and I found 2 purses that we really liked. We found them at one place for a reasonably good price but didn't know if it was the best one. So we slowly told the vendor we needed to look some more and he should hold it for 10 minutes and we would be back. Little did we know the tragic magic of haggling. So mom and I decided that if we needed to be back in 10 minutes we had to book it through the line of stores. I had seen a really big purse place at the entrance and wanted to go there..so we ran down to that. Once there, we completely forgot about that first man. We started haggling left and right. I would go to one store and find the purse I like and ask for the price and he would say a price and I'd walk away and they'd lower it. And the games began. Mom goes..I go…She finds lower price and waves me that direction..I tell the vendor I'll be back..he says what price do I want (he really wants a sale)..I'd escape from him and move to where mom was. Then while she's talking to that guy, I was getting a better deal the shop over. Man it's quite a game in those markets. But, eventually we knocked off 10 Euros of our original offer. We were happy campers.

But on the way in…I had seen a different color of the purse I wanted and decided on the way out to ask how much they charged. They're price was tons higher! But they wanted my sale..I kept telling him I had already bought a purse but they wanted my sale. While my dad and I were fending off the guy so I didn't buy 2 of the same purse, mom had moved down and accidentally pointed at one purse. One thing about these markets is like "you touch, you buy" Once you even look at an item they will bug you, bug you, bug you until you buy the thing. Unless you book it out of there they will literally follow you for at least 20 feet. So originally this guy says this one price for my moms purse and she laughs and says no. He says "how much then" mom says this ridiculously low price and then all of them laugh (Imagine a bunch of really african guys with heavy accents). So we start to walk off but then he says "Fine! I give you for that price." So of course..it was a pretty good deal for a purse and I told mom if she likes it..buy it. So we bought that purse and were walking out…when the guy that had been haggling me, comes running up with the duplicate purse and says "I give you for same price as moms". But I didn't want two of one purse so I said no I already have one. He tells me I can pick another one..so I made the mistake of following him back in to look at more purses. To make a long haggling story short..we ended up with ANOTHER purse. Overall, we went in not looking to buy maybe one purse and came out with 4! Street hagglers are a pain! Oh did I mention while this was all happening, Kody was getting haggled to buy a "rolex" AHHHHHHHHHH

I can't wait to be back in America where I can shop in peace and quiet! Remember me? Miss Walmart? Oh how I miss it!

After driving back we settled in for a nice little Mediterranean dinner of olives, mozzarella, and tomatoes. It was our first non-pasta/pizza dinner we had all trip!

Delish

Next stop...Venezia!

Day 8: Saturday June 11th

Today is our first day in Florence.

We decided that we should actually go into the town of Florence to do a little sight seeing. To start off, we took the bus into town. And of course…I fell asleep and my family forgot about me. Luckily a nice Italian lady decided that I should probably be woken up, so she told my mom and they finally woke me up.

Since it was pretty late in the day we got our first of many Italian pizzas. It was from this little pizzeria right outside this giant church. We didn't want to pay the cover charge to sit down so we took it to go and ate it on the side walk. It was more of a greasy pizza so my dad warned us not to get it on our clothes. Obviously he was the one to spill it all over the front of his shirt. 

Then we decided to go inside the church..we waited in line and got to the front and as I was walking in the man stopped me and said that I needed to cover my shoulders and my knees. My mom didn't see me get stopped so she just kept going, unaware that her daughter couldn't even get in, but my brother and dad saw it and waited outside the church. So we had nothing to cover me up with and had no way of getting anything to do so.  After a few minutes of watching a few other people get stopped and then sneak in we decided to do that. Kody was like "I'll cover you on 3. One. Two. Three. ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ" But clearly it was much more stealthy.

Yes, so not cool to sneak into a church. But when I got inside I used my dads hat and our tourist book to cover my shoulders. And we didn't stay that long and avoided guards.

Clearly I never pay attention to cameras

Awkward statue pictures

My family

Next we decided to get more pizza so we let the boys find a nice little pizza place with a sit down area downstairs. It was the best pizza we've had so far on our entire trip(including future since I'm writing this a week behind) and the sitting area walls were covered in graffiti. It was super cool and one of  the signatures was Jimi Hedrix's. Not a bad little shop.

More pizza

By the time I walked out of the restaurant, my dad had found him a vendor to haggle with about paintings. We only wanted one but came out with three. They just don't leave you alone. They will lower and lower and lower their price until you make a buy. After we bought those we walked by another one and that man asked what we got those for and then he tried to sell us MORE at a lower price. We didn't want 5 paintings so we tried to escape him but he followed us for quite awhile. Oh the life of a vendor.

Next we just walked the streets looking at clothing and postcards and doing a little bit of shopping, just enjoying the Florence ambiance. After shopping we were getting hungry so we had the brilliant idea of instead of going to one gelato place and getting 4 cones. We would go to 4 different places an get one at each to share. Well that was our plan until we started getting 2 at every one and trying EVERY flavor we could find. We ate so much gelato that day..but we weren't done…we had to hunt down a place that our tourist book recommended. But it was the BEST gelato we have had so far..so I'm glad we hunted it down. The shop had about 100 flavors too. Instead of just like 10.

Round 2

Passing of the gelato

Next to the gelato shop, while the boys were vino hunting, I found a nice little clothing shop that was decently priced and had clothes that fit me. So I did my trip shopping there. By then the boys were pooped and we decided to try and find our way back to the bus stop. Apparently on the way back, Kody and my dad saw Snooki from the Jersey Shore (their next season is filmed in Florence) but sadly they didn't get pictures..and they don't watch the show so they can't confirm it was her. 

At the bus stop to go home, I personally saw a pretty funny scene. We saw a group of friends, 3 girls and 1 guy waiting for the bus. That's not funny in and of itself but the 3 girls were dressed almost identically. You just wouldn't see that in America. These girls had the same style skirt, with tights underneath, converse for shoes, 2 out of the three had white tops, 2 out 3 had matching purses and all three had the same sunglasses. It was just so different. In America, girls have their own style..we wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same outfit as our friend on purpose. So clearly I needed to creep and take photos.

Girl 1 and Girl 2. Matching skirts, tights, shoes

Girl 2 and Girl 3. Matching tights, shoes, skirts, purse, hairstyle

The masterpiece

For diner we had a nice pasta meal on the patio of our apartment. And the elders enjoyed a nice bottle of vino to complete the evening. 

Dinner

Day 7: Friday June 10th

Today Is the day we leave for Italy!

First we packed up from our little cottage in Normandy and headed back to Cergy to Kody's apartment. He had left his phone charger at his dorm and we decided we might need it just in case we get another flat. No big deal. So we drove there, snatched it up and then headed to the McDonalds down the road for breakfast.

But again you would think it would be easy enough to just grab breakfast and go right? Well we pulled into the parking lot and they had 3/4 of it blocked off for reserved parking(??? reserved for what!?)..so we drove around the thing like 3 times only to find they had 5 customer spots and the rest were employee spots. But of course they were ALL full. Then we started looking inside to see if anyone was there and to see if they were open. I saw some people so I walked up the door to go in but it was locked. I just don't understand what kind of restaurant gives customers only 5 spots and then locks them out…do they not want us to buy anything?? So my dad and family still are driving around looking for a spot when I walk around and finally find a door unlocked. So I motion to them and we finally get inside and try and communicate with the lady that we want our food. For a fast food chain, McDonalds in Paris likes to take their sweet time.

Finally we got on the road back to the airport. My dad really wanted to switch back to our old car so he called from Normandy and told them we would be by today to pick up a "Eco Opel" which was the first car we had. They said no problem and they would hold one for us. So we go to the garage..ask them..they send us back to the front desk…we go to the front desk..they send us back to the garage…they show us the car..it's not a diesel and it doesn't have Gertrude…so they show us another car..which is smaller…So we pick the Opel without diesel…We wanted diesel because gas is cheaper but my dad didn't even think to mention that on the phone

You have to imagine this scene. So it's in a parking garage and the Opel that we want is on the top floor and this other smaller car is on the bottom floor. So we have our little luggage cart with all our bags on it. I got in the Opel and said let's go downstairs to see the other one…so we take all our luggage down there…then we decide that we don't want that car..so dad goes to tell the lady that we want the Opel. So My brother and I start lugging our cart up the ramp when we see a car just get done cleaning and get parked. I tell Kody to go check it out and see if it's a diesel (we really wanted our old car!) So he leaves me to fend for myself with the luggage and then goes to check out the car. So we unload all our luggage and put it into the Opel. Kody comes up and says he couldn't tell what it is. I REALLY wanted Gertrude back so I say..should I go check and see..they decide I should. So I walk downstairs and go check it out. Guess what!! It was exactly like our first car except black. Even the license plate was similar. So next I BOOK it up the stairs and go panting to my mom that it's and Opel diesel. Kody and her yell at me to go tell dad. So I go running into the office and say "dad wait!" He was just about to sign for the Opel without diesel. I say "Dad *breath* there is *breath* and Opel Diesel *pant* downstairs *breath* with Gertrude and everything * breath* just like our old one! *pant*

2 weeks off of soccer, living on croissants and baguettes really gets a girl outta shape.

So he's like "what..I can't understand you" and then to the lady "hold on..just wait..I think we want ANOTHER car" So the lady is clearly like "VHAT! STUPIDE AMERICAN" So I explain again to by dad..this time in more complete sentences and then he tells the lady we want the car downstairs. But the lady doesn't understand so I'm like here…I'll show you. So we start walking out downstairs and she's like "What is wrong vith ze car I gave you?" So I calmly tried to explain that there was nothing wrong with the car except that we want the diesel and it just became available. I finally convinced her to follow me after a few more angry question about why we need to switch AGAIN. So I showed her it and said we wanted it and she is like "You vant me to switch ze contract again?" We promised her it would be the 4th and final time and continued to say thank you and she just replied "you are welcome" once and then said something else we couldn't understand under her breath. So eventually we got the right car and left. We were off to Italia! After 2 hours in the car place.

On the way we stopped at THE sketchiest bathroom ever. The women's toilet looked like a shower. There was no seat and it just had a sortve stall and a drain. We eventually braved them and saw you had a handle and you had to squat. Weirdest experience ever. I would also like to tell you that as we travel the country, the toilets have just gotten weirder and weirder. I wish I had taken pictures of all of them. I would have an album of crazy toilets that Americans don't know how to use. In France they have these toilets on the side of the street. They look like oval shaped port-o-potties. They are completely gray on the outside and could by mistaken for a vendor who closed up shop and on the inside is all the merchandise. But this is how they work.

You look on the outside and make sure the green unoccupied sign is on. If it's not, it's a red light and the directions say they are allowed to be in there for 20 minutes before it opens the door and kicks you out. So you could be waiting awhile. If you are lucky enough to get in, you do your business while this lady on the speaker is speaking directions to you in French. So if you speak another language you have no idea what to do. After you are done…there is no flush. So after looking for awhile you give up and decide to have a go at the sink. At the sink you stand there waving you hands trying to get the magical sink to work. If you were French this would be a piece of cake because all the directions are in French. Finally you decipher enough of the pictures to see that you wave your hand in a certain spot and soap and water will come out. Then you must shake dry your hands and attempt to open the bathroom door. After you get out (you still haven't flushed) make sure you warn the next person not to go in yet…because…it gives itself a shower after ever use. The door stays open for like 40 seconds and then it closes and the light switches to wash cycle. It flushes the toilet and washes everything including the floor. So finally the light switches to green and the next person can go. So with my family, going to the bathroom was a 40 minute ordeal. I would hate to be the unlucky person that just walks right in after someone and gets stuck in the washing cycle. I'm pretty sure the directions on the speaker were probably telling us to make sure we didn't get stuck in it..but once again..you wouldn't know if you can't understand them. We saved a few people from getting that fate. So now we understand why it takes a person 20 minutes to use the toilet..if you can't figure out how to use it, it takes forever.

Yes, I know, I just spent an entire paragraph talking about toilets. Toilets are a big ordeal for tourist. You can rarely find one..and when you do it cost money to use it..and then when you get inside it's this crazy contraption that looks like it should be a shower or a pandas play house.

While waiting to use one of these egg toilets, my father and I decided the reason it REALLY takes that long is because it's actually the portal to get to the Ministry of Magic. Tiny spoiler if you haven't seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. But they currently use toilets to flush themselves into the Ministry. So I'd like to say I've found the toilets that take you there.:)

Super legit Metro poster

Eventually we came to a halt on the border of Italia. Apparently in order to get into Italy you must take and 8 mile tunnel to get there. But only a certain amount of cars can be in the tunnel at one time. So you spend 20 minutes waiting outside the tunnel before they check your ID and let you in. I passed out 1/2 way in trying to hold my breath.

Jokes. I only made it like 33 seconds.

Finally we made it home. At like 12 midnight. The lady that owned the Florence apartment was just AMAZED that we had driven all the way in one day. It's like a 14 hour drive and she was flabbergasted. For Mallory Family Airlines..that type of drive is a piece of cake. Easy. The apartment had a great view of Florence and was really nice and the lady spoke GREAT English. So far Florence is my favorite place. She even left us a bottle of wine. So of course my parents popped it open. The joke of the night was that my mom had barely eaten anything all day and then she got 1/2 a glass of wine and she was a little more than tipsy.

So that was our trip from France to Italy. Complete with a glass of vino (wine) to end the long day.

Firenze apartment

Trying to open the win bottle

Still trying

Success

Day 6: Thursday June 9th

Today we went to a lovely little…okay maybe not so little, actually kind of huge, abbey. It is the Saint Michel abbey. The abbey was used a long time ago as a church and then in the 1800s as a prison, sort of like a fortress. It's this great big castle on top of a hill in the middle of a sea. All around it is sand and during certain seasons the sea actually rises enough to cover the parking lot. So they have all these pictures of of people walking across the water just so they can get to the abbey. It's completely crazy and gigantic. It took us 3 hours just to get through the main tour. It's really cool because the abbey was built and then slowly the village below came into existence. On the way in, it's lined with vendors and shops.  

Ze Abbey

Abbey Garden

Abbey streets

After we finished exploring the church and watching little kids below stomp on the sand/water on their way to the church, we headed to our car for our trusty lunch of baguettes, cheese, and salami. We ate that in the car on way back to the Normandy Museum that we went to yesterday. Dad dropped us off  at the museum and went to the nearest Avis to try and get them to fix the flat. While he was gone we spent the afternoon wandering through this GIGANTIC museum all about the French side of World War II. It was actually really cool to see the differences from how the US teaches about it, but it was so big that after about 1/2 of it, you can't  handle the reading anymore and you just give up. So we finished as much as we could and then sat in the cafe waiting for dad to come back. We had no communication with him so we just hoped he would come back for us.

Eventually he did. He told us that they had to switch us to a different car because they didn't have a way to fix the flat right away. So dad tried to grab all the belongings he could find, but he had no idea where we put it all and when he got to us we told him that he had left stuff in the car. So we had to go back to the agency and see if we could grab the stuff out of the car. BUT by the time we got there, someone had come to get the car and taken it to the garage to fix it. Also in this new car, the clutch was completely shot and it didn't have Gertrude the GPS or bluetooth hookup for the music. So my dad being the brilliant American that he is goes inside and starts asking the lady about getting our car back and trying to explain the clutch isn't working. By the time Kody went in to help with translating, the lady and my dad were in a heated argument. So finally the lady says "show me" and they come storming out. To give you an image of this lady. Think Ms Pillsbury off Glee with a French temperament and accent. So she didn't understand why the clutch wasn't working and when my dad tried to show her, she got so angry and was like "WHY ARE YOU DOING ZAT!? YOU WILL BREAK ZE CAR! VHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU STUPIDE AMERICAN!" Okay so maybe she didn't say the last part. But she did tell my dad to get out of the car and let her drive it. So my dad and this lady get in the car and start driving around the neighborhood and all you can see from the outside is this lady about to loose her head and my dad trying to understand what she is saying. Did I mention she was a ginger? So in the end she decided that we were stupid Americans that didn't know how to drive clutch and would break her car. To say the least we still had the new card and our 50 cent postcards were still in the glove box of our first car.  

So we just left the place after the lady goes storming into the office and went towards the D-Day memorial. Let me just start off by saying it has been my year for history. This year in school it was U.S. history and we studied pretty much everything. Right before spring break we had just learned about the Manhattan Project and can you guess where I went on spring break? Yep Los Alamos, New Mexico where the U.S. tested the first ever nuclear bomb that ended WWII.  So now..here I am in Europe…literally 6 weeks after I studied the D-Day landings visiting the very beaches in which it all occurred. Wanna know what else. The D-Day landing was June 6, 1944 and I am visiting it on June 9, 2011, 67 years after. It's like my teacher mentions a place in history and I'm like "obviously I'll be visiting that next time I have a holiday, I might even try to go ON the exact day in history". Oh I forgot to mention we had studied the Holocaust and in Normandy part of the museum was dedicated to the Holocaust. What can I say…I'm a history buff. 

At the memorial it was really cool. A lot of it you can't describe with words. It's just miles of white crosses dedicated to men who lost their lives on those beaches. We got there around closing so we witnessed the service in which they take the flag down for the night. They had the trumpet playing and the current soldiers folding it up and everything. They also have a little area where its basically a few statues and walls with things about the war. It was covered in flowers and banners because the locals had just had the D-Day festival of remembrance a few days earlier. They also have a section with all the names of the missing soldiers whose graves are unknown but they died somewhere on the beach. In the main part of the cemetery they have hundreds of crosses which say "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God". It really is just hard to explain the significance and feelings that you get at a place like this so I'll just show you the pictures I took. I recommend that everyone should try and go to some sort of war memorial or cemetery at least once in their life. It's truly amazing to see how many young men have given their lives for our beautiful country. I've been to a few military cemeteries and it's unforgettable. The image of the thousands of crosses will forever be a burned image in my mind. 

I few images of the flowers left over from the remembrance festival

Fountain with Crosses in background

The local kids wrote their thanks

The living and the dead

Inside this is a little chapel with murals on the ceiling that depict two soldiers. One  has been killed and an angel is taking him as an honored soldier to heaven. The other is a soldier in combat with an angel spreading her wings in protection.

Next we actually went to a place on the coast where the German soldiers had what they call batteries which were little bonkers about 5 miles off the coast with huge canons that they would fire at the American ships in the ocean. One of them had been hit pretty hard by a returning missile by the Americans and was fenced off. But the remaining ones just had a few dinks in the concrete barrier surrounding them and you could walk around in them. When you looked out toward the ocean you could imagine the battle that took place over 60 years ago. It was so amazing to just get that feel of a piece of history.

3D family photo

Finally we went down towards the water in a little town in which you could see the temporary yet permanent stations that the US navy had built in the ocean to be like a dock to place the giant battleships before the men would wade through to attack the beaches. These were the things that the Germans were firing at. We had been here 10 years ago and there used to be one that we could climb on and we took pictures on it. It's not there anymore. That piece of history has been washed away into the ocean's abyss. While I was there it was an amazing feeling to look out into the ocean and know that hundreds of men didn't even make it to the shoreline. They died in the ocean. Their graves unknown, somewhere near these temporary docking stations, that soon even time will erase. 

Best sibling photo ever.

Temporary station

After a few peaceful minutes of reminiscing we booked it back to the warmth of our car and drove home.