Europe: Day 22, May 22, time to head home!!

Today we head home.  It has been hard to say goodbye to the friends we have made.  Most of them we will never see again :(  Some of them we will.

           This is Sara our tour guide.  She was awesome.  She made our trip a great experience!

As we boarded our plane, we knew we had an 11 hour flight ahead of us.  We were headed to San Francisco.  The flight went by relatively fast.

But when we got to San Francisco, we found out our connecting flight to Salt Lake City had been canceled.  We were going to have to stay overnight in San Francisco.  At least the airline got us hotel rooms and gave us food vouchers.  We had been up for 24 hours now and were so tired we couldn't think straight but we didn't want to waste our food vouchers.  Luckily we could use them at a restaurant close to our hotel.  I actually fell asleep as we were waiting for our food!

The next morning we said goodbye to San Francisco and flew to Salt Lake. 

It was good to be back in Utah.  

The trip had been amazing, a once in a lifetime experience.  So very lucky to have had this opportunity!

Europe: Day 21, May 21, London, England

Today we were in London. We had signed up for a tour of the Tower of London.  It was fascinating.  Here is a little bit of information that we learned:

The Tower of London is a historic castle on the bank of the River Thames.  The castle was used as a prison from 1100 until 1952 but that was not its primary purpose.  Early in history, it served as a royal residence.
The Tower has served as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.  From the 14th century, a procession would be led from the Tower to Westminster Abbey on the coronation of a monarch.
The peak period of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen, were held within its walls.  This use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower".  Despite its enduring reputation as a place of torture and death, only seven people were executed within the Tower before the World Wars of the 20th century.  Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle.  (some of this information came from Wikipedia).

 After touring the Tower, we had free time to explore London.  First on the agenda was to find some good Fish and Chips.  We found some delicious Fish and Chips at the Sherlock Holmes!

After lunch we went for a ride on "The London Eye".  It is a giant Ferris wheel on the bank of the river Thames.  We had noticed it during our tour of London and had to go back. It was a lot of fun and the view of London was amazing.

After riding "The London Eye" we walked over to Trafalgar Square.  There are four pedestals on the square which have statues on them.  Three of the pedestals feature statues of previous English Kings. 

The fourth statue is changed regularly and is decided upon by the people voting on what they want displayed there.  The current statue is of a blue rooster; not sure why they voted for a blue rooster but it is pretty cute!!

We walked around the city for a little while.  We went by "10 Downing Street" but we couldn't figure out how to get around these guards to go down the street to see the Prime Minister.

We took the subway back to our hotel and had time to relax and explore a little more.  

We had agreed to meet with the some of the others in our group that knew each other before the tour  and go out to dinner on this last night of our trip.  We decided to stay at the hotel and eat in one of their restaurants.  It was kind of a disaster.  The service was the worst we have ever seen.  But the food was good and we weren't in a hurry, so it was all ok that dinner took over 2 hours!

One of our favorite places we had discovered by our hotel was the "Whole Foods Market".  It was fun to walk through and we enjoyed one more gelato from there.

 Time to head home tomorrow.  We have mixed feelings but will be glad to get home and see all of the family!!

Europe: Day 20, May 20, London, England

Today was the day that we had to say goodbye 

to our bus driver, Angelo :(  

He took us to the Paris Gare du Nord railway station 

where we were to catch our train that would transport us to London, England.  

Angelo was awesome and we were so sad to have to tell him goodbye!

Angelo is the one in the white shirt. The man with him in the luggage compartment is Tracy. He was the one on the trip who was always joking and clowning around.  I'm sure he was the one that suggested the two of them have a photo shoot in the luggage compartment.

The time had come when we were to board the Eurostar Chunnel train that would transport us to London.  It was a 3 hour train ride, and a lot of which was under the English Channel, in the "Chunnel Tunnel"!

When we arrived in London, we were met by a local guide, Sheila, who gave us a tour of the highlights of London.  The first of the tour was on a bus and then we had a walking tour.

Probably the most impressive part of this tour was Buckingham Palace.

We spent the night in the Copthorne Tara Hotel London Kensington.

Europe: Day 19, May 19, Normandy Beaches, France

We got up early and a shuttle picked us up and took us to the company from which we had booked a tour of the Normandy D-Day landing beaches and surrounding area. We joined about 70 other people on a big double decker bus for the three hour ride to Normandy. 

Our first stop was in Caen where we spent time in a museum.  The time spent there was way too short. We literally could have spent all day there. It told of the events leading up to the Second World War by beginning with the First World War. It followed in some detail the history of the war and atrocities committed. It was fascinating, but horrific. Some of the photos and accompanying captions turned my stomach. They pulled no punches. Descriptions, complete with photos, detailed the fighting and unimaginable events that took place.

The thing I found most surprising was the description of the actions of the French government. It portrayed the French leaders as a spineless group who made, at best, token efforts to resist the German advance. It referred to their fighting a "phony war."  The museum is not an American institution.  It is French. I was impressed with their apparent honesty. Credit was given to the French people, especially the resistance movement, for their heroic efforts.  I would have loved to have had more time, but we were on a very tight schedule. 

We watched a film depicting the war from the perspective of both the allies and the Germans. It was a split screen with no narration. Interesting and quite effective. 

We visited Point du Hoc, on the southern end of Omaha Beach which was one of the two beaches invaded by the Americans. The other beach attacked by GIs was Utah.  I am curious to know how the beaches were named. I do not know the significance of the name "Utah" Beach. Utah is the farthest south beach and was too far away for us to visit.  It is in the area where Josh served (Cherbourg) on his mission. We had hoped to visit it, but were disappointed. 



This is a picture of a big crater that was caused by the bombing of the Allied forces.

And then here are a lot of pictures of the bunkers.

We visited the American cemetery at Omaha beach. It contains the graves of 9387 American servicemen, including Theodore Roosevelt, son of President Roosevelt, actually, I think it contains the graves of two of President Roosevelt's sons. Theodore was a high ranking officer and was not supposed to part of the invasion force, but insisted that his men expected him to lead them. I think we were told that his brother was killed someplace else and brought there to be buried with his brother. 

The Utah beach invasion went more smoothly than Omaha. Omaha was a bloodbath for the Americans. Our forces were fortunate to have not been annihilated. When studying the history, it is amazing that they were able to eventually prevail. 
The cemetery, like one we visited at Margraten, The Netherlands, is beautifully landscaped and cared for. The rows and rows of crosses are touching and beautiful. 

We visited (briefly) Gold Beach (stormed by the British) and Juno beach (invaded by the Canadians).

Mike and Linda, Ray and Mary Helen and Candice and I were the only ones who went to Normandy. It was the one thing I wanted to do on this trip. I was not disappointed.