somewhere in France

[pierre the shy]

In Bayeux today, having survived driving round the arch de triomphe and 300km of French motorways, even managed to find Nery on the way  ...thanks largely to the free satnav in the car though it does parle francois 

You can probably guess where we are off to today...Juno beach were my father was on the big day on an 1st wave LCT landing part of 79 Armoured.

Living the dream for a few more days. 

Hope all at home are Ok....lots of rain and floods north of Wellington currently.

[mad lemmey]

Wow, sounds like a great day.

[Leman]

Great location and lots to see in that area.

[Rob]

Did you get to see the Normandy invasion museum?  IMHO one of the best military museums I have been to. The French do, do museums exceedingly well. The other must-see in Bayeux is the Tapestry museum, another great place. 

If you have time you must see the Merville battery, I was really amazed at the scale of it,  and there are many, many bunkers that had to be taken. The history of Colonel Otway’s para assault does not do it justice. And of course Pegasus bridge while you are there. 

And Hillman, and Falaise, and the beaches ……….. Hope you have a good time. 


Cheers, Rob

[Leman]

Make sure you see the real Pegasus bridge in the adjacent museum. The one in use now is a replacement. Also look out for the concrete markers showing the landing site of each of the gliders.

[pierre the shy]

Well saw Omaha Beach  the American cemetery  (quite a moving experience),  the Normandy Invasion museum, the Juno Beach  museum and park at Courcelles, Nan Red beach where my father landed and went past Pegasus bridge. Then drove over the huge bridge over the mouth of the Seine, much to Mrs Shy's horror as its quite steep. Got to Abbeville ok  in the end

French motorways are tres bonne, but, as we have learnt today, keep your wallet handy as you will pay a toll of up to 5-6 € every 50 - 70 km 

[Leman]

This is why they are tres bon. We have one toll motorway in Britain (part of the M6 network) and it is a joy to drive along.

[paulr]

Hope all at home are Ok....lots of rain and floods north of Wellington currently.

Peter
Wellington itself has got off fairly lightly, SH1 cut near Otaki, major flooding in Whanganui - 400+ evacuated
~500 houses without power for fourth night in Otago due to snow late last week
Rain has eased but cold southerly coming through the, snow on Rimutakas

Sounds like you are having a great time 

[pierre the shy]

Got to Bruges, which confused the hell out of our sat nav, which is no match for trying to drive round the one way system of the
medieval centre of the city, but we got there ok in the end.

Annoyed Mrs Shy with a couple of diversions to see villages round Abbeville on the way to St Valery en Caux, then a walk up the hill to see
the 51 HD memorial up a few hundred steps in the rain. Well, at least one of us was happy 

Off to last stop at Amsterdam with Lisa's aunt for 3 days. Haven't forgotten Roy's request for some Waterloo centenary stuff if we go near Brussels 

[Westmarcher]

Off to last stop at Amsterdam with Lisa's aunt for 3 days. Haven't forgotten Roy's request for some Waterloo centenary stuff if we go near Brussels 

Pity you didn't get to 'the big one' (Waterloo) - so close (but maybe that's not your thing). Sounds like you're having a great time anyway. All the best for your last few days in hamster jam (and safe journey home).

[pierre the shy]

We got to Amsterdam, though it took a while, a couple of accidents (not involving us directly...) on the motorway held things up badly. The number of trucks/HGV's on the roads is staggering.

At Waterloo, not a single re-enactor in site! Mrs Shy wanted to get on to Amsterdam so we didn't stay long, but got a few small goodies, though with the recent anniversary the  visitor centre was not fully stocked.

Have a couple of days to repack and have a quick look at the city, then its off to Hong Kong and on to NZ.

Can't see us getting to Europe again anytime soon, so think we've done pretty well, got really good results from the Pvnh conference, seen lots of places and people and we've both found a few things that we wanted.

cheers
Peter

[Techno]

Hope you had a great time 'on tour', Peter.
It certainly sounds as though you did.
Have a safe trip home.

Cheers - Phil

[pierre the shy]

Got back to hong kong ok......7.30am and 32 C already....sitting under an air conditioner  until room available 

Reality check in 2 days.....but just want to get home and see the family 

[mad lemmey]

Safe trip