Stop 2 - St Malo

Today we were disappointed to see that it was raining when we left the Hotel this morning…..thankfully this didn’t keep up all day and by lunch time the sun was shining again.

Our first stop this morning was at Omaha Beach, another of the places where Allied troops landed on  D-Day.  Here we saw the quite modern silver metal sculpture which has been erected on the beach as a remembrance point.  From here we travelled on to see the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.  Some 10,000 US personnel are buried here and there are some 9,800 white crosses ‘planted’ out in rows in a total of 10 fields. We went through a museum firstly, and in here were narratives on how the defence of France was planned and implemented….. then were able to go see these crosses. Unfortunately, as preparations were in full swing for the 70^th Anniversary Commemorations , we were unable to go on the grass to see the names of these people.

Our next stop was to visit Mount St Michel.  This impressive building sits high on a hill which is really an Island of it’s own.  We caught a shuttle out to the area and then climbed lots of stairs to see the place. The area was very crowded so it is a popular place for people to come visit. After climbing LOTS of stairs, most people climbed even more stairs to go and see the Abbey…this is where Joyce had to chicken out…too many steep stairs. The trip out to the Mount is 2 km and no one is allowed to walk on the sands which surround the Mount as there is reportedly quick sand in some areas and people have had to be rescued from this from time to time. After a good look around here we caught the shuttle back to the coach and had a wander around there.

From here we travelled to St Malo where we are staying the night. This place is very pretty and reminds us of English beach Holiday areas. There is a castle in the water, on an Island, just across from our Hotel. There is also an Old City within walls and we managed to go over and walk around the top of this wall from where we saw some quite nice sights. There is a Ferry which leaves St Malo to take people and cars etc across to Jersey. Tonight we had dinner together across the road from our Hotel….very nice, but when we came out, it was raining again.  Hope that it stops in time for tomorrow.

There are 42 people on our tour and of those there are 4 Aussies and 2 Kiwis, the rest Americans and Canadians.  Everyone seems nice and we all get along well together.  It’s interesting talking to all these different people over lunch or dinner.

Memorial at Omaha Beach

 Mont St Michell