Travel

Greetings from the middle of the English Channel, en route to Waterford! The trip over was typical, long, tiring, but we made it fine. We are in fact quite impressed with ourselves with the first days in fact... Landed in Paris, found our luggage, found a taxi, and satifactorily told him that we wanted to get to St. Lazare train station. Made it there w/o difficulty, paid the 55 Euros, and went in. At the station we could NOT just go to a kiosk and get our tickets, like the pre-paid voucher said we could. No, we had to go stand in a French line with the rest of Nigeria and India and Pakistan and wait. Once at the counter it was a simple matter, just stamp something (the French are big on stamping things) and we got our tickets. We then found the train, got on, found some seats, and away we went! Arriving at Rouen we satisfactory got off the train, schlepping our baggage around, and found our rental car. In Rouen, people don't speak English too well but it worked! We then studied a map, and took off. Actually, it went ok. I tried to find the square where Joan de 'Arc was burned, but got a little lost in a parking garage, went the wrong way, so got frustrated and just left. Then started the trip out of Rouen and headed for Asnieres le Bissen, a farmhouse in Normandy, about 2.5 hours away. We passed Caen, passed Caen, and kept on going...at dark...in the rain...and fairly tired tired. We found our B and B, got settled, passed out. The next day we got up early, had breakfast, and headed out on the most fantastic guided tour of Omaha and Utah beach sites I could imagine. We saw exact locales where this happened and that happened, and it was amazing. St Mere Eglise courtyard where the parachutist got hung up and witnessed his whole platoon get annihilated below, etc. Have lots of pics of the countryside, houses, little lanes, bunkers, and I hope you will let us enjoy them again with you guys. The tour guide was truly excellent with lots of first hand knowledge by growing up in the area, speaking with veterans as they returned over the years, etc. We said our good bys after a wonderful dinner in a little cafe by the sea in GrandCamp, close to Omaha Beach; what a meal that night. Anyway, on the way to Rouen we stopped by Bayeau and drove into the museaum of the Bayeaux Tapestry. I've always loved that story and they have done a great job with the display of this 1000 year old piece of tapestry depicting the story of William of Normandy and how he became William the Congueror,King of England. We then made it successfully back to Rouen, checked in the car, caught another taxi, and made the ship! We found Nick and Judy Montalto in fine shape, and we have a great time since. This is our second night on board. The first day we just completed, by crossing the Channel, mooring in Portsmouth England, and getting on a bus to visit Stonehenge. That's another place I've always loved to visit. We've spent the first two evenings on board by going to a couple of excellent live shows, enjoying fantastic food, and dancing and laughing. We have such a good time so far. We are en route to Ireland!! We will stop in a port clase to Waterford and a tour awaits there, but I think we will just take a bus into town and explore on our own. Thinking of you all at home, hoping things are ok! Be in touch..can't exactly get my Droid up and running to do email with all the firewalls etc so while I wish I could send a pic or two via phone email, can't get it done. But I've got some cute ones...Lynn is having a great time as well; her head is on a swivel and it's so good to experience these things with her. Love to all, DAD