Follow our journey on this map.

Day 51 and we were back at Normandy. This time the weather was splendid.

We took a bus from Rouen to Caen to visit the Caen Memorial Museum. The museum focuses on World War II but from different perspectives. Often a story is told from the perspective of the winner; this story covers the strife in the 20th century leading up to the war from the views of the Allies, civilians, persecutors and the persecuted. There were several recorded narratives of survivors that looked really personal but they were all in French. The emotion was palpable though.

The exhibits were very well laid out and easily understood. The most impressive portion of the museum (to me anyway) was the “Bunker.” If seemed random that the museum is located outside of the small town, but it became clear when we found out that the site of the museum was where General Wilhelm Richter had an underground headquarters to direct the German 716th infantry division. Supervising operations in the event of an attack necessitated a sick bay, living quarters, transmission center. Built into the walls of rock quarry, the bunker was a 70-meter tunnel with side rooms.

Leaving the museum, we went to the American Cemetery. We were at the cemetery several days ago (see Day 40) under very different conditions. While the storm we encountered previously provided a sobering context of the invasion, the clarity of vision today brought more perspective. We could clearly see the beach during low tide to get a sense of the expanse the soldiers had to cross with absolutely no protection.

Viking arranged a very sobering memorial celebration honoring a young airman. You can see the video here:

After a visit down to Omaha Beach where Mae collected some sand we headed back to the ship. We had a quick dinner (photos of course) before calling it a night. The tour was almost over 11 hours and we were beat!