Round Trip

We arrived in Luxembourg city and were surrounded by the features of a bigger city. The walk from the train station to the hostel wasn't a bad one at all, the directions were more or less solid. The thing with Luxembourg city is that a good section of the city is located in a valley below the rest of the city. As far as we were concerned we were standing where the hostel should have been but weren't, it ended up being a nice hike down into the valley. One of the nicer hostels we've stayed at, very large and had a hotel like feeling to it. We were surprised to find that there was no kitchen though, which always in a damper for us because we like cooking our own warm meals. We settled in the first night and got the classic bread, meat, and cheese dinner and vodka to drink and then took advantage of the pingpong table that was available for use. The next day we perused the city. Lots of wealth there that's for sure, most men wearing business suits, Louis Vuitton jewellery cases for 38000 euros, and bank machines that suggest that "your money would do better in Luxembourg." We vistited the sights in the city, the Spanish casements, which were built to overlook the hillsides to defend the area, a cemetary that we thought contained war casualties but ended up being more of a civilian cemetary, and the business and university district. Luxembourg was a very nice city but like most European smaller cities and towns was completely shut down on Sunday, when we happened to be there. After our stay in Luxembourg we headed back to Paris to spend some time with Bas, Annette, Maureen and of course, Gilbert. What a strange feeling to see your parents for the first time in 3 months. One minute you are making your own decisions and wondering what mom and dad are doing, the next minute you are in a kitchen with them. Our few days back in Paris were excellent. We eat very well and got to see some things we hadn't seen earlier in the summer. We were spoiled over these 3 days and paid for very little, which we are very thankful for. We saw some photo exhibtions, The first was a black and white exhibition of Weegee, a famous 1940's New York bases crime photographer. Quite graphic at times but very provocative. The second was Pierre and Gilles at the Jeu De Paume gallery. This was a very colorful display of Pictures that had been altered by paint. Most pieces were very surreal and intense. Ranging from Naked porn stars to a teary eyed child holding a bloodied teddy bear. These pieces were thought provoking and required much examination. Tottaly something we would have not seen on our own. The following day Maureen returned to Vancouver and Gilbert to work. The 4 of us enjoyed the Beaubourg nodern art museum. The building itslef is as much a piece of art as is the 2500 plus pieces in the gallery. There was certainly something for everyone in this immense gallery. Our second to last full day in Paris, Adrian and I were left alone as my parents had not been to Versailles. We made our way to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at la Mode. Unfortunatly the fashion portion of the musuem was closed. This did not stop us from enjoying the rest of the museum. It was full of furniture from the 12th century until modern day. It was lots of fun. Our last day we were re united with the folks. We had decided earlier that this day was to be reserved for shopping. We went to Printemps, Paris' largest and most fashionable department store. The kind of place that makes the Bay look like Wal-Mart. Jeans for 300$ and socks for 100$. My mother managed to purchase a lovely hand bag and we ended up with some items from C&A, being much cheaper. Our last night in Paris we all went out for dinner to a traditional french restaurant and had a great time enjoying each others company. Paris will be hard to erase from our minds. A city I would like to think I will re visit numourous times in my life.
Upon leaving Paris we headed to the small town of Bayeux to set up shop for a couple days of touring the D-Day beaches in Normandy. We rented a couple bikes at a little shop and set out for a nice long ride to as many baeches as we could get to in the one day. Our first stop was a town called Arromanche where there was a 360 degree film which jumped from real time war footage to present day in the same location and had a surround sound system reliving the war time scenarios as well. It was extremely well done. We then headed west toward to ever famous Omaha beach, where the American troops assailed the Germans and had a huge loss of life. The beach itself was very windy yet calm and sombering at all once. To be standing where thousands of young men were killed in one battle was almost unimaginable. We headed up to the memorial and the cemetary that housed more than 10 000 soldiers. It in itself is remarkable. To see the movies portraying the war and the battle of Normandy and to actually stand there is a whole different feeling. Row upon row of white crosses perfectly arranged and spaced, engraved with the names of so many who's lives were extinguished so prematurely is an extremely powerful thing to see. The only unfortunate thing is that the memorial and cemetary has naturally become such a tourist attraction that groups of school children and others are moving around talking and in some cases laughing. Silence and respect is what is written on the signs in the area and unfortunately it isn't always so. Our next stop along the way was a place called Point du Hoc where a group of 235 Rangers were given the assignment to scale what the Germans thought were unscalable cliffs and dismantle the guns at the top to prevent even more bombardment for the troops on the beaches on the following days. The area was surreal. There were partially destroyed bunkers buried into the ground and massive craters were artillery obviously landed from the navy boats. Of the 235 Rangers who assailed the cliffs only 95 remained at the end of the day. After Point du Hoc we decided we had to head back to Bayeux to return the bikes before 830pm, we had been riding since about 1030am and it was nearing 5pm. To take the quickest route back we took a turn off which actually spat us out onto the N13 highway. It was not the best place for a couple of bikes. Cars were whizzing by us at speeds of 110km/h and honking their horns. As if we didn't realise that we shouldn't have been there! We had no other choice but to continue on down a stretch of 15km and to make matters worse it started to absolutely pour buckets of rain on us. By the time we got back to the bikes it was 730pm and we were soaked, so a quick trip to the grocery store and we were back at the hostel to warm up. The next day we were leaving Bayeux to head towads Juno beach where the Canadian soldiers landed. A little town called Courseulle-sur-Mer was where the Canadian war memorial and cemetary were so we stayed there for a couple days to absorb it all in. The memorial is the only memorial for Canadian soldiers and was fantastic. Walking through and reading and listen to all the info gave us a great sense of pride to be a Canadian. The cemetary was more secluded as well so it was very peaceful and reflective for us. So many young men, younger than us, were laid rest here well before their time. Paying our respects there was a must in our journeys. We spent another day in the area and just relaxed and the following day we bussed to a town called Caen and splurged a bit. We decided to rent a car for the next three days and head up to the famous WWI site of Vimy Ridge and Dieppe before returning back to Normandy. After filling out all the paper work we were shown our new ride, a brand new Opel Corsa TDI. How exciting to be behind the wheel of a car again after 4 months. We had talked previously about how it would be strange and possibly difficult to drive around again but I found it very comfortable and a lot of fun. We managed to escape Caen and we made a push for Vimy, which turned out to be our farthest drive of the 3 days. After driving all day some 300 km's we arrived just before dark and managed to see the memorial before night arrived. What a site. A gigantic stone monument that dominated the surrounding area. Visible from some 30 kms away from the North. This memorial was created for the 60000 soldiers who gave their lives for a small piece of french countryside during the first world war. The sheer number of lives lost mtahced with the size of the memorial was hard to take in. On one hand you admire the beauty of the monument and on the other you read the names carved in the stone. They seem to go on for ever and ever. We have seen many things on the trip but this site was not only one of the most impressive but also the most profound, not only because we are Canadians but also because of the surrounding area and the peacefullness that is now, Vimy. That night we decided to sleep in the car to save money. We found a quite farmers road and parked in the middle of a cabbage patch. Fairly uncomfortable but we survived. That morning we went back to Vimy amidst heavy fog and walked through the trenches and went into the Tunnels that remains open to the public. The land that surrounds these trenches is full of massive craters made from heavy shelling more than 85 years ago. A tour was required to enter the tunnels so we joined up with a school group and did the tour in french as it was the only available tour for the next few hours. It was strange to walk in these tunnels and hear the sad stories of these brave soldiers. It was also strange to be in a place where Adolf Hitler visited numerous times. The Canadian cemeteries were also very sad, there are over 1000 war cemeteries in France. We paid our respects and left Vimy with a strong impression of pride gratitude. We highly recommend it to anyone who plans on being in the area. It is well worth the trip. We travelled from Vimy to Dieppe to be at another site of Canadian war history. Unfortunatly Dieppe suffered from the war and does not have much to offer for anyone searching out there dark past. A Canadian museum exists but was closed while we were there. So for us Dieppe was rather boring. A dark, dirty city with little to do. We found ourselves at the movie theater again after a pleasent meal at a local seafood restaurant. Another night of sleeping in the car and we moved on again back towards Normandy. Over the large Normandy bridge and we were back. It felt like home again, Normandy is one the most enjoyable regions of France. Amazing food, friendly people and lots of history and beaches. We happened to stumble on The Merville Batteries, one of Britains most important battles which paved the way for the landings on Sword beach and we saw Pegasus bridge, the first bridge liberated in all of France. We ended up In Oustreham and decided to book a room as we had enough of sleeping in the car. The house we stayed in was very quaint. We were greeted by an elderlycouple and showed to our room. Before we could even get settled we were offered tea and home made cider, which we both indulged in. That evening we relaxed and made a sandwhich for dinner and went down to the beach. After eating we headed to teh cinema to watch Shoot em' up the new Clive Owen action movie. We couldn't have picked a better movie because there wasn't much dialogue and with it being entirely french with no subtitles we were still able to enjoy the movie. In the morning we headed back to Caen, checked out the memorial and info center there, which was quite amazing and a must see if your ever in the area, and drove the car back to the dealer. We hoped on a train and headed back to Paris for the night. Next stop is Calais to ferry us back to merry old England for our last couple days. Happy Birthday Mike! Let's go out in style.