A Trip Worth Taking

​I have returned from my ten-day trip to London and Normandy, and it was almost everything I had hoped for. It was an extraordinary adventure and my son and I had a great time.  In my last blog, I gave a list of what I was expecting, so let me continue in that format.
 
What worked?

1. My schedule. The flights were on time, the trains were on time, the underground was always working and on time, the tours were on time, the hotels all expected me, all the rooms were small but adequate. I had printed out every ticket that I needed and put them into my pocket so they’d be there when I needed them.
2. The phone. It’s amazing. All you have to do is type in the phone number and it works! I sent texts with pictures every day.
3. The ATM. I used my local ATM/debit card and it never failed.
4. The museums in London. Amazing! The Imperial War Museum was particularly fine.
5. My experience in seeing the Cemetery, Omaha Beach, and the Utah Beach Museum. It wasn’t as emotional as I expected, but to see Omaha Beach and to walk on it was significant. I wore my dad’s dog tags all week.
6. The photography. My son and I had ample time to do some good photo shoots. I took over 700 photographs and several of them are very good.
7. The surroundings. Normandy’s lush countryside is going to be hard to describe.
8. My World War II knowledge. I’ve read a lot of books, but hearing stories told in the places that the events actually happened increased my imagination. I also saw a lot of the equipment, vehicles, and strategies up close.

 
 
What didn’t work?

1. My carry-on was adequate, but my planning on washing my clothes quickly went by the wayside. After a long day of adventuring, the last thing I wanted to do in the evening was to wash and dry my clothes. Plus, the humidity was beyond what I expected so the clothes, literally, took two days to dry enough to not be clammy. Even an iron and blow dryer didn’t help much. Next time – medium-sized bag that I will check, plus a carry -on, plus an over-the-shoulder bag.
2. The taxis didn’t function like I assumed. Paris and London were okay, but there was little or no taxi service to go from a small town train station to the hotel and vice versa. The Pondorson (Mont St. Michel) train station has a small sign posted that says it’s closed until next June. Fortunately, for each time my son and I were stranded, something happened to save us.
3. I expected to not use my phone so as to save money. Forget that. I was far too anxious in the evening to text photos to friends and family. I used it every day and it was nice to be in touch.
4. Europe doesn’t understand the concept of air conditioning. The culture has adopted ecological responsibility, I guess, but there is no “cool” to their air conditioning. The hotels and the subways are ventilated, but not “cool”. I was typically too warm inside (certainly too warm to sleep well) and going into the cold outdoors resulted with constantly putting my jacket on and off.
5. The tour guides like to talk and don’t give enough time for their clients to wander the museums. The Beaches Tour (Utah and Omaha) were led by a very informed ex-British Commando, but I had to be rude in walking away from the group so I could see the site and take the pictures that I wanted. The Mont St. Michel tour guide was an expert in history and architecture, neither of which I was interested in. I wanted to spend time in contemplation in the MSM sanctuary but was limited to 5 minutes because of his schedule.
6. My diet. I ate food like it was just invented, and it was all good good good. The French know how to eat.
7. My budget. I spent money like I could print more when I got back home. The biggest temptation was to buy gifts for friends and family.
8. There are a LOT of stair steps, especially in the train stations and the Underground. Don’t take luggage that you can’t carry comfortably up and down two flights of stairs. There are escalators, but sometimes not. Even without luggage, for example, there are 207 steps to negotiate on the Abbey at Mont St. Michel tour. They have a sign up to warn the unwary tourists.
9. Sleeping on the oversea flights didn’t work going and didn’t work coming back.
10. It rained every day, but every time we wanted to do a photo shoot, the rain stopped and sometimes even the sun (such as it was) came out. Having a hooded raincoat is a requirement.

 
The most remarkable thing was unexpected. It had been low tide in the morning and afternoon, making the ocean almost a half-mile away, and making the beach area around the Mont St. Michel Abbey flat, muddy, and empty. You can see it by looking at the website picture. We had just finished shooting pictures and were walking into the Abbey area to find dinner. As we did, we saw a foot-high wave of water moving up the river (not down). The tide was coming in. When we came out after dinner, all the mud flats were covered in twenty feet of water and the waves were strong and aggressive. It was lapping up against the girders of the walkway we had used to come to the island (see the picture again and imagine how much water it must have taken to fill that area). It was unusual, it was powerful, and it was glorious.
 
Now, that’s what our soldiers were facing when they were lingering in their boats off the Normandy coast, waiting to land.
 
As it is with all the adventures I go on, I wanted to go back before I had even left. Maybe someday I will.

---