Right now I am in a hotel in Caen which is in the Normandy area in Northwest France. Today we went to a memorial/museum for the the invasion of Normandy which was all about both of the World Wars. I really enjoyed it. When I think of WWII, the 2 things that first come to mind are the hard times the US had to go through and of course the Holocaust. Walking through the museum opened my eyes to see that the entire world was struggling during this time and it effected millions of people's lives. I knew that it effected lots of people of course, but reading about it and hearing dramatic sound effects definitely makes it a reality. War makes me uncomfortable and makes me wish that everyone could just get along. It was so sad to read about specific families' stories of pain. I learned so much reading the information on the walls. There is so much to learn, that I could probably get a Bachelor's degree in WWI and II and STILL not know everything. And then I started to wonder about the history of Europe even before the 1900's. Being in such an old country fascinates me. We hear little parts of stories that about things that happened a thousand years ago in France and it just amazes me. But that is just so much history! So much information. About half way through the museum, I thought of this saying: The more I see, the less I know. And it is so true.
After the museum, we went to the American cemetery and memorial right on the beach where the D Day invasion took place. It was a very sad place. I didn't bring my computer, so I will upload the pictures tomorrow. We got to go down right onto the beach. It was windy but so beautiful! One of the nicest and largest beaches I have seen. It was weird to think that men actually fought there. Then we went to Pointe du Hoc which is a cliff right on the edge of the ocean. It was a site that was bombed so there were giant craters in the ground and some of the bomb bunkers were still standing and open to go inside.
We went to a Greek restaurant for dinner which was really good! I had a gyro. Me and my roommate at the hotel thought the lights in our room didn't work but we actually had to just leave the room key in a slit in the wall in order for them to be on. Odd. When I started writing this post, I was watching a tv show where a lady dances and acts out a song in front of a panel of judges who can't hear the song, and then they try to guess the song. It was in a different language, I think maybe Spain Spanish or Italian, so I had no idea what was actually going on, but it looked funny!
I will upload the pictures from today later! Many times today, I was so proud to be American! It was a good day.
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