The tallest, 4 turreted part of the castle was built in the 12th century. We didn't have long in Dover so we didn't actually go up to the castle. The sea is just to the right in the picture above. In the next picture you can see part of the castle above the white cliffs and if you look on the left you can see entrances to part of the secret tunnels built for World War 2.
The harbor from the ferry as we left. You can see the tunnels on the left, the castle on the far right, and just to the left of the castle is something else I hope to go and see some time, the Roman lighthouse (just to the left of what I think is an old church).
Leaving England.
The trip on the ferry was good and I'm glad I went that way. It was also very short , and as soon as we began to lose sight of England, we saw France.
We landed in the town of Calais. Alex and I saw all that remains of a 13th century castle and couldn't help but notice that on the plaque next to it (in English and French) it is noted being partially destroyed many times, and that the French announced their surrender from that tower in the 1300's.
We went to the train station from there to get our tickets to Paris. Unfortunately it was a lot of slow trains that made a lot of stops. We met some cool people at the train station, Lisa and Pam and their kids. Lisa and Pam had promised to take their daughters to Europe when they turned 12 and they had just come from England, too. We all missed the same train to Paris because the platform number wasn't listed, and we asked but got no help (this was very, very common in France). Lisa even spoke French, but it didn't matter. Still, she managed to get all our tickets changed for free to the next train which at least wasn't too much later. And they had a lot of luggage, so Alex and I were able to help out with that, especially since we had to change trains a couple times and move around a lot.
We got to Paris late that night and set out in search of our hostel. Unfortunately I hadn't looked at a map of Paris or seen how we'd get there, so when we got in we got a map and eventually made our way there. It took some doing, trying to ask for directions, and eventually we found the first helpful person in France who was really nice to us, and we found our place.
Some things to keep in mind about hostels: free breakfast usually means a croissant, and is not free, but is 5 euros of your stay. Ask for no breakfast if you can. Also, some of the hostels we stayed at over the trip didn't actually have 6+ person rooms, but lots of 2 person rooms with showers and toilets. And the times when you could get a room with a bunch of strangers you would only save 4 euros each, get a bathroom shared by 10+ people, and not be able to lock your room or know if you and your stuff is really secure, though you can lock stuff in lockers sometimes.
The next day Alex and I set out for Normandy and the D-day sites. We had a little time after we bought our train tickets so we went to the Champs Elysees.
And me at the Champs Elysees. I figure I should put some in every now and then.
Then it was back to the train station and on to Normandy and the D-day sites. We arrived in Bayeux and took a bus from right next to the train station to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. This trip had so many amazing highlights, and this was definitely one of the best.
Just from walking onto the grounds around the parking lot, before you can see the cemetery or anything, it seemed like being in America. They had nice bathrooms with water fountains! Second time I've seen those in Europe. And it was clean water, which was great because you have to drink bottled war in France, since the locals don't even drink the water. Then we walked into the visitors center. From the moment I entered it felt very peaceful, humbling, and sacred. I felt that way the whole time I was there. They had displays up about many of the men who fought, plus a lot of displays about the war in general. We watched a short movie about some of the men who died there that had interviews with their families. And then we walked out of the visitors center and into the cemetery. It was amazing to see.
Looking to the right of this picture is Omaha Beach. The assault of this beach was the one they use in movies and video games because it was the most intense and well-fortified of all the beaches. I took this picture standing at the top of the hill overlooking the beach. It just seems so covered, long, and well fortified that it is amazing that they took it at all. Just to the right of the picture are the remains of some of the German fortifications.
The cemetery and the sea.
The grave of a soldier whose identity is still unknown. A few of these are scattered through the cemetery.
We walked down to the beach from the cemetery. We waded in the water for a little bit and took some pictures. This picture is of the beach while standing in the water, and you can see the German bunkers in the picture.
Omaha Beach today from near the front of the first fortification.
One of the German bunkers up close. They were open, so we walked through them.
I'd love to go back to Normandy some day. I'd love to see the other beaches. One thing we didn't see was Point du Hoc, also part of Omaha Beach but farther down. It was a fortress on a cliff overlooking the beach that was stormed by Army Rangers who climbed straight up the cliff and into the fortress.
We headed back to Bayeux and ate at a cafe there, which was good. And I should mention that the people in Bayeux were nice and helpful. It was way different from Paris. Maybe it's because they made all their money in Bayeux off of tourists, or maybe because it was a smaller town, who knows, but they were nice. We didn't make it to the train station in time so we spent the night there next to the train station. It was just as good as any other hostel and only 32 euros total---the cheapest place all trip. We would have gotten in to Paris to late to do anything anyway so it wasn't a big deal, and we got the first train out at about 6 in the morning the next day so we didn't miss out on anything. The first thing we did in Paris was go to Notre Dame, which was very impressive.
After that we headed to the Eiffel Tower. I wasn't that impressed by it, though it was still worth seeing. The top of it was different than I remembered from seeing it in pictures.
From there we split up. I went to the Louvre, and Alex walked to the train station we needed to take to Italy.
Inside, the Louvre was a very impressive building. I know it is a palace, but it seemed more focused on the building than on the objects. I felt like there were just not very many things on display, which seemed odd for a museum of this popular. But I think it's just because it does such a good job with what it has that it's so popular. The British Museum easily has more and is also very well displayed, but it seems more focused on the objects than the building (but I suppose that could be argued too after the most recent renovations). I looked it up, and the Louvre only displays 35,000 objects, compared to hundreds of thousands at the British Museum. Still, I would have liked to have had more time in the Louvre but I at least got to see the Greek and Roman sections, including this statue room.
From there I went to the train station to meet Alex. We tried to get train tickets to Italy. Now, I had been told by many people that it's best to wait to buy tickets until you're ready since you don't need to book in advance and it only sometimes saves you money and the trains, even the overnight trains, usually never fill up. There was one problem. When we got to the train station they said, "normally they don't fill up, only in the last week of July and the first week of August." And it was July 30th. The next day's trains were full, too, so we got plane tickets online for a little more than we would have spent on the trains, so it ended up ok. We spent the night at the airport, taking turns in the sleeping bag, since our flight left pretty early. Then it was on to Italy!
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