The Last Post-What I have learned

on the plane. 2 hot girls heading home.
Putting on her slipper socks. Ahh yeah.
The two love birds kissing goodbye at the hotel before we leave.

Sorry it has taken me a full week to do this last post. (I did write it on the plane ride home just didn't get it downloaded until today) I have been doing....well not a whole lot. Laundry, catching up with friends, sleeping, housework, laundry, sleeping...you get the drift. Since I am a teacher, I obviously had to do some reflecting on what I learned during this month long holiday. Here it is...in no specific order.

1)Water is not free.

2)When renting a 'gite' in France, inquire about whether your bathroom will indeed have a shower or at the very least a hand held spout in the tub. That is apparently not standard. (You'll notice there are no up close and personal photos from France. The greasiness factor in my hair was pretty high.)

3)Change money to Euros before you head onto the Continent because once you're there, it's a week waiting list to get money exchanged and even then only $100 at a time.

4)France is like America. The further you get out of the city, the nicer people are.

5)Just because you're in the front, doesn't mean you know where you're going.

6)There's no chance of 'blending in' when you're a group of 9.

7)We take hot water and water pressure for granted in the States.

8)It doesn't matter how many movies you've seen on WWII, you don't know everything on the subject. Grrrrr.....

9)I'm proud to be an American and proud of my Grandad for the job he did.

10)Everything, I repeat EVERYTHING, is cheaper in the States.

11)Never order open ravioli again.

12)More empathy for people who can't speak the language. A smile does go a long way though.

13)Greater respect for my Nana, who left her family, friends, country, and way of life to move to America with a G.I. whom she hadn't known all that long. At that time, without commercial air flights, she probably thought she'd never see her family again. Can you imagine? At 17? Guts.

14)Bring along band-aids even if you've broken your shoes in and worn them for months. Vacation walking, by definition, leads to massive blisters on day 1.

15)Some people can tour for 14 hours and then come back to the hotel and play cards for another 2. I can't.

16)Thoughts about men.

Scots-are rugged.

English- are dainty and wear all sorts of pastels (but have excellent suits).

French-smoke and wear too much hair gel (probably come to think about it, it's probably grease and they don't have showers either.) But they still look good. Mmm..

17)When traveling bring along a man or wear a low cut shirt. Either way you won't have to carry your luggage.

18)Don't pack more than you can carry if you don't have either of those things. :(

19)When packing for your vacation pack another bag (i.e. duffel) inside your suitcase to carry all your extras home.

20)If you have space issues, don't take The Tube.

21)Deodorant is not widely used anywhere in Europe. Bring extras with you to distribute on the Tube.

22)MC Hammer pants are back in (Harem pants).

23)I love Celtic music and Mr. Whippy's ice cream, not necessarily in that order.

24)I miss clothes dryers.

25)My back garden (and front, if we're being honest) is atrocious. Get that under control before any of them come visit us.

26)Being gone for a month in strange cities makes me appreciate my house and all its space.

27)I'm just a Kansas girl at heart.

28)Wine is cheaper than water in France.

29)Pedestrians do not have the right of way.

30)I am much more suited to First class then Coach. I mean I knew this before, but my 10 and a half hour flight home reiterated it.

31)Elevators are the exception, not the rule.

32)I do not have sea legs.

33)I can not speak French.

34) My new favorite phrase, "Voila". I'll be pulling it out often. Get used to it. Runners up were; 'Mon Dieu', 'Mais oui', and 'Och aye, the noo'.

35) Don't Jaywalk. (refer to 29)

36)There are people paler than me (excluding albinos). You just have to go to England to find them.

37)If someone offers you a fag, don't snicker. It's a smoke.

38)Gypsies still exist. And not the movie kind.

39)I miss air conditioning and drinks that are cold.

40)There's no place like home.

41)I'm a celebrity. (at least to Stefan's classmates anyway. I even signed the KS bookmarks I brought them.)

42)I missed my calling as a woman of leisure.

43)Kindles stay charged for 3 weeks. Ipods-1day.

44)I should never travel by myself. I'll get lost. Dad will as well. (How has he done it all these years? He REALLY has NO sense of direction. None.)

45)Don't make eye contact with strangers. They'll start talking to you. Don't let Mom make eye contact with strangers. She'll start talking to them.

46)I have the best family in the entire world. Thanks for the trip of a lifetime.

And then there were 3-last day in London 2/7/10

This entire building here is Harrod's. (sorry this picture got in here out of order and I can't figure out how to move it.)

The Cabinet War Room where Churchill met with his War Cabinet. This room is where they planned out D-Day among other things.

Maps left just like they were with pins on where troops are fighting.

In the tea room at Herrod's.

Today we went back into the heart of London down to Westminster. After visiting all the D-Day sites we wanted to go to the Imperial War Museum (The war rooms). These are the underground rooms that Churchill directed the war from. It was really interesting. After V-J Day (Victory Japan) they closed up the rooms and walked away. Now almost 70 years later they've opened them all back up just as they were when they left them. Maps still on the wall and coffee cups on the table. Then we went to Harrod's for tea (very fancy) and bought some things in their gift shop (all we could afford!). It's 6 floors! We got lost multiple times (not hard with us I suppose though). Then we went for the last time to Boots (their version of Walgreens I'd say) and stocked up on all our British medicines since Dad won't be bringing them home anymore. (Jed, I got more LemSip!) After Boots we saw Crabtree and Evelyn!!!!!! Means nothing to the men I know, but Mom and I were super excited. I know you can go to one back home but it's way more exciting to go to it over here!

As we got back to the hotel we decided to do McDonald's for supper (no chance of stepping foot in the hotel restraunt) and then called all of the friends and family we've visited while over here to tell them thanks again for their hospitality and friendship.

It's been a very fun, wild ride for the 4 weeks we've been here and we will all have memories to last a lifetime (and hopefully fill a scrapbook). I was joking with Dad on the way back from McDonald's that this has been the longest I've ever spent with him at one time. An entire month of him! No school, no work, just 24 hours chock full of Mikey. And we're all still speaking.

Now that's a good vacation. Thanks for coming along with me.

I'll post random pics from the trip when I get home so you're not finished with me yet!!

1/7/10 Leavng on the ferry in Cherbourg

These 2 don't need captions.

Leaving France

Left this morning and drove to Cherbourg to catch the ferry. This one is an Express so it will only be 3 hours versus the 6 it took us coming. John and Jessie will then leave us at Portsmouth and we will continue by train back into London by ourselves. We have one more day in London (going to the War rooms) and then will fly out on Saturday. Mom and I to KC and Dad back to Yemen for one more hitch. Cross your fingers everyone. He still says he’s retiring. He doesn’t have much time to back out yet. (I’m sure he’d find a way though.)

At the hotel, in London, we decided just to eat downstairs versus wondering around and looking for a restraunt. We looked at the menu, and other than being expensive as all hotel restraunts are here, it looked good. Italian. We went in and all three ended up ordering a dish that said it was open ravioli stuffed with seafood. Now what would that mean to you? I thought fish, crab, and maybe some sort of stuffing to hold it all together. Um, no.

After managing my way through France without ever having to eat anything that could look at me, I got a flat square patch of pasta that was covering mussells. Are you kidding me? I think if you're going to throw mussells in a dish like that there should be a disclaimor. In between the so artfully laid mussells was a miscellaneous assortment of bottom dwelling sea creatures including tentacles of squid and more, as of yet, unknown to man...things. I think Nessie might have been in there somewhere. I never wished I was at McDonald's before.

Dad ate his (he's so cultured). Mom and I filled up on bread and olive oil and told the waitor we were just simply too full to eat our meal.

All I could think of was the Family Guy episode where Stewie turns into an octopus after coming into contact with nuclear waste. Ugh.

30/6/2010-Tour of Gold and Sword Beaches and Bayeux Tapestry

In the British Cemetary. Don't think there are more fitting words to sum up the loss of life here.

Retail therapy at L'Occitane. (Anne this picture is for you!)

Dad napping at the museum of the Bayeux tapestry.

Dad and I on Sword Beach.

The gang on Sword Beach.

The circa WWI guns that the Germans were using.

Today we went on another coach tour of D-Day sites. This was only a half day though. We had a different tour guide. Not as good as the other one, Sylvan, but still very knowledgeable. We had another American family with us like yesterday. This one was from New Jersey as opposed to Ohio. They reaffirmed my thoughts that I only like mid-westerners (minus the occasional exception I suppose). At one point the New Jersey man, a high school principal said when trying to decide whether our group should go see a 15 minute movie that tries to give you a real inside view of what the soldiers would have gone through during the landing on a 360 degree movie screen-like an Imax I imagine, “I’ve seen every movie made about the war. You’re not going to show me something I’ve not already seen.” He also corrected the guide’s English (which was very good and much better than the American’s French I would bet). They’re the ones that give us bad names.
We went on a bit of a walkabout through the country side and saw Chateaux. We then saw some more coast fortifications and this time the guns (which were all leftovers from WWI-I didn’t realize those were the guns the Germans were using) were still attached.
We went and saw both Gold and Sword Beaches which were both landed by the British. My Uncle Ron landed on D-Day at Gold Beach. He was injured shortly thereafter.
In the afternoon back in Bayeux we did a bit of retail therapy and then went to the Bayeux Tapestry. (For all you, like me who didn’t remember learning about it in school, a Mid-evil scene depicting the entire story of William the Conqueror’s conquest of England in 1066 in embroidery on linen. It is 76 ½ yards. Long. It was amazing. (reminiscent of the Globe Theatre experience. Is there a sarcasm font on here?) In other words…Bored out of my gourd, but Mom loved it. Dad and I found some lounging chairs out in front of the building and took a nap while she finished going through the exhibit. Even the gift shop was boring. I didn’t even know that was possible. Too much culture for me.

29/6/2010-D-Day tour

Point Du Hoc. The craters you see are from the bombs dropped by the Air Force and Navy's off shore Destroyers.

St. Mary E'Glise.

A look from right above Omaha beach at Point Du Hoc. Can you imagine climbing that?

Stained glass window at the church in St. Mary E'Glise. Notice the American paratroopers surrounding the Virgin Mary instead of the typical angels.

German Cemetary. This mound is made up of unknown soldiers. The statues on top are of a mother and father weeping.

A jeep like what my Granddad drove.

Today we took a coach (really a van) tour to see D-Day sights. We saw Utah and Omaha Beaches, Pont Du Hoc, The American and a German cemetery, Airborne Museum, and St. Mary E’Glise. I wasn’t super familiar with all of these sights by name, so for the purpose of this blog I will assume you won’t be either. The beaches were well; I’m not sure what adjective to use here. Amazing makes it sound as if they were wonderful, and while they were, that doesn’t quite give the right connotation, does it. It was hard looking out at the pristine beautiful beaches to imagine such a ghastly and horrific battle being fought there just 66 years ago. The Utah beach didn’t have such quite steep terrain for the American soldiers to climb, but Omaha did have quite a big cliff to scale. I could still imagine it though. It was nothing compared to Point Du Hoc where the Army Rangers went in. If you haven’t watched The Longest Day, I suggest you do so you can understand what I mean. They scaled cliffs (and I mean straight up and down for at least a half mile) with ropes at 5 AM with Germans throwing grenades and cutting their climbing ropes. They had gotten wet as they swam ashore so I can’t even imagine how they were able to throw them high enough to get anywhere while under fire. At the end of taking Point Du Hoc (which they did succeed at) they had a 60% casualty rate. Staggering…. After they finally made it there; the troops found out that while there were gun emplacements there, there were no guns. It was telephone poles made to look like guns. Althought it wasn't all for naught. The real guns were found about 2 km further down the way and the Germans hadn't gotten orders yet to fire them so the guns were captured.
St. Mary E’Glise was the first town in Normandy to be liberated during Project Overlord. The paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne were dropped further inland and their job was to secure a route for the troops that were storming the beaches. During the bombardment of St. Mary E’Glise, 2 paratroopers got their parachutes caught on the steeple of the church and survived by playing dead and hung there for over 2 hours before the heaving fighting was over and being taken hostage only to escape during the chaos shortly afterward. There is now an effigy of one of the paratroopers and his parachute still hanging on the church’s steeple.

I don’t really have any words to comment on the cemeteries. It was just too sad. In the American one there are over 9,000 men buried there with an additional 60% of the casualties having been taken back to the states to be buried by their families when the cemetery was first put in. The Germans who died do not have that luxury. This courtesy has not been bestowed upon them, although relations are improving year by year. Now it goes without saying that there were certainly horrible people in the German Army; SS, Gestapo, etc. but the majority of its fighting (infantry) army (especially in Normandy) were normal people who were not given the choice of whether or not they wanted to fight. There are no words to express the sight of all these young men who gave up their lives courageously so that we live in a free world. I was reminded today as I was standing, slack jawed at the cemetery, something I heard in a sermon a few weeks ago. “Bless me Lord in my unthankfulness because if you were to bless me in my thankfulness, I would starve.” Thank you Granddad and all the other veterans that served, serve, and will serve in the future.

27/6/2010 Mount Bail, Cateret, and Briquequebec, France

We visited the west coast of Normandy today. We saw the sea and many towns that had been bombed and like a phoenix, eventually rose again. We ate lunch in Mount Bail on the seashore at a nice little seafood place. This was the first restaurant that had the menu subtitled in English. Thank Jesus, because it was full of mussels, clams, and other beasty things that I will not eat. I did find a grilled cheese and ham sandwich, but unfortunately it was the kids’ menu and I couldn’t order from it. I did finally find a Salade Nordique that was nice. It was basically lettuce with salmon and what tasted to be sour cream and there were no accusatory eyes looking at me, so I ate it. (Note to self, ‘doggie bag’ does not translate.) We got ice cream afterward in Cateret, while walking along the shore and that was more my speed. We came home around 7 and like all vacationers, we read until bedtime. I am finishing up my 4th book that I’ve read this holiday and I didn’t start any of them until after the troops left. You can see we’ve slowed our pace considerably.

26/6/2010 Traveling around w/Diana to see local D-Day sites.

The memorial to the 7 paratroopers at Hemevez.

A much fought over bridge on the left and one of the (supposed to be) biggest drop sites from D-Day for the partroopers (although lots didn't end of being dropped here).

She took us to the Massacre site and we also went to the town church where the memorial is for the 7 GI’s. This part of the country had mostly paratroopers here that were landing then trying to meet the troops halfway who stormed the beaches (that was the plan anyway). Lots of the paratroopers, because of weather and poor conditions, missed landing sites and basically it sounds like pandemonium trying to find out where they were because of the hedgerows everywhere. The Germans also flooded a lot of the land that they were to land on. And many drowned in less than 3 feet of water b/c of all the equipment they jumped with. We went to see many different memorials close to Hemevez and the German cemetery. It was just really moving. Grave markers as far as the eye could see. Most of the headstones were for boys much younger than me, 18, 19, some even 15. Not much of a life. It was just sad basically. We went to one memorial and there was an American giving a small tour to a family and he was just talking about different battles that were fought there at that bridge trying to capture it and he just kept making it all into what seemed like a ‘war video game’. He even said one time that after such and such happened it was, ‘game on’. It was irreverent in my opinion. None of this was a ‘game’.