Normandy, France - Honfleur and D-Day Beaches

After our cruise, Colin deployed and I visited the States for a bit.  Then, a day after he returned from his deployment, his parents came to visit us!  We had so much fun traveling with them to Normandy, France and Rome, Italy.  

On our way to the Normandy beaches, we stayed in the lovely harbor village of Honfleur, France.    We visited its unique church (looks like an upside-down boat) and had a delicious dinner - one of many amazing French meals to come!

Colin and Tom standing in front of Honfleur's St. Catherine Church ...There's no resemblance at all between these two handsome guys, is there?  ; )

Colin and Judy catching up on Rick Steves outside of St. Catherine's Church

The next day, we visited the Caen Memorial Museum, where we learned or refreshed our memories on all WWII history, as well as the specific events leading up to D-Day.

Then we went out to the D-Day beaches, beginning with Arromanches.  At Arromanches, we stood on the cliffs and looked out of the the remains of the Port Winston Artificial Harbor.  We watched the 360 degree movie that fades back and forth between the calm, gorgeous beaches of today to the calamity of the war-torn times. 

These remains of the Port Winston Artificial Harbor don't look that big, but they are actually the size of a football field.  500 tugboats towed 115 of those cement blocks across the English Channel to help form the harbor.

Our next stop was the Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery at Omaha Beach.  At this stop we saw four German casemates (3 with guns intact) built to guard against seaborne attacks.

Observation Bunker

Colin in the observation bunker at the edge of the coast.  Field telephones connected this bunker to the gun batteries by underground wires.

Finally, we went to the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.   At this beautiful and touching site, we saw the 9,387 white marble crosses and Stars of David that memorialize the Americans who gave their lives to free Europe. 

 

We walked down to the beaches below, which are absolutely pristine.  Its hard to believe that it was once the site of so many deaths.  It is a beautiful tribute to the Americans who lost their lives in battle.

Fifth Stop: Stockholm, Sweden

Our final stop on the cruise was the fastest - a quick day trip into Stockholm, Sweden.  We made the most of our time though - touring the Gamla Stan (Stockholm's charming "old town"), seeing the awesome sunken ship Vasa, catching the Changing of the Guard outside the Royal Palace, and touring the City Hall, the site of the annual Nobel Prize Banquet.

Of all the cities we saw on the cruise, I'd love to go back to Stockholm.  We had gorgeous weather when we were there, and the city itself is beautiful and surrounded by a lot of water.  I also enjoyed when I was approached by a lady asking me for directions, thinking I was a local.  Gotta love those Scandanavian genes!  We are going to have to get to the real homeland of Norway at some point.

The warship Vasa sank in 1628 in Stockholm's harbor on its first voyage, was rediscovered in 1956, and raised in 1961.

Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace

The troops played a jazzy rendition of "Amazing Grace"

Standing in front of City Hall, where the Nobel Prize Banquet occurs each year

Inside City Hall's Courtyard

Fourth Stop: Tallinn, Estonia

Our fourth stop was to the lovely town of Tallinn, Estonia.

What I remember most about this cute old walled town is (1) running into life size Matryoshka dolls!!!!!!

(2) leaving the guys so us girls could shop all the beautiful handmade wool clothing at the "sweater wall" and

(3) reuniting with the guys to find that they had spent literally the entire afternoon not touring the town but touring the types of Estonian beers in a certain pub...

Before the guys and girls split paths, however, we did do the classic Rick Steves' walking tour of the town.  And we grabbed lunch at a festive German beer hall!  Tallinn was a nice relaxing break from the crazy amount of sightseeing in St. Petersburg.

Tallinn's old city walls reminded us a bit of Rothenberg, Germany

Russian Cathedral

Excuses excuses

So I am months behind on our travel blog... 

I could list a series of excuses, or I could just start posting pics and trying to get up to date ASAP while we have a mini break from traveling during Colin's current deployment.

I think the more productive is the latter so... now I need to reach back into my memory for the next stop on our Baltic Cruise: Talinn, Estonia

Oh wait...

Did I not mention that we actually had a decent amount of time to shop in St. Petersburg too??

Well, we did.  And I rekindled a girlhood love for Matryoshka dolls.  I really do remember playing with a doll my grandpa gave me, and I guess that love still exists because I just could not get enough of them.

And they also served complimentary vodka and coffee in all the souvenir shops.... so maybe that had something to do with it?

Colin was over the Matryoshka doll obsession really fast.  But he cheered up when he used all our remaining rubles on Russian chocolate!!

St. Petersburg Day 2

Standing next to the Neva River across from The Winter Palace and the State Hermitage Museum

On our second day in St. Petersburg, we were all over the place.  We went to Peter the Great's temporary home while the Peter and Paul Fortress was being built, and then on to Peter and Paul Fortress, Yusopov Palace, the State Hermitage Museum, and finally the amazing Church of Spilled Blood.

Colin posing by Peter the Great's temporary home while the Peter and Paul Fortress was being built.  He is mimicking the coat of arms we saw all over St. Petersburg, which has two eagle heads pointing in opposite directions to illustrate the meeting of the East and the West.

Entering the Peter and Paul Fortress.  The Peter and Paul Fortress was the birthplace of St. Petersburg, built to protect the lands on the banks of the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland from Sweden.  The Fortress developed into a city under the rule of the Romanovs, the ruling dynasty in Russia from Peter's grandfather Mikhail  until the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II.   

One of the funniest parts of our two day tour was watching our group earnestly trying to learn the succession of various Russian tsars.  Our poor tour guide!  Our questions must have sounded like a broken record after a while: "wait - which Peter did that?" "was that Catherine the First or Catherine the Second?"  "Whose son was he? "Why did they all have to use the same names?"  After a while, she handed us brochures with an enormous flow chart of the Russian monarchs and we understood that to mean she had probably had enough of these sorts of questions...

Almost all the emperors starting with Peter himself are buried in St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral, which is in the Peter and Paul Fortress.  These are the tombs of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Elizabeth.

The St. Catherine Chapel is where the Romanovs were buried about 90 years after the Bolshevick Revolution on July 17, 1918.  Initially, it appeared that the remains of one of the Romanov dutchesses were missing, but ultimately all of the remains were found.

After seeing where the Romanovs were buried, we got to go see where Mr. Rasputin himself was supposed to be murdered - the Yusopov Palace.  Rasputin had a tremendous and controversial influence on the Romanov family, and was eventually killed in a dramatic murder plot by St. Petersburg's other richest family, the Yusopov's.  Our tour guide took us into the gorgeous palace where we admired its theater, ballrooms, paintings, etc, and then got to retrace step-by-step the murder of Rasputin in the basement of the Palace.  It was pretty eery, I have to say, but so interesting at the same time. 

Ornate private theater at the Yusopov Palace

There was no end to the dazzling chandeliers...  at least until you get to the scary basement.

Felix Yusopov poisoned Rasputin in the basement of his home, which we visited.  When Rasputin did not die, Felix hit him with a barbell.  Rasputin still managed to get away through a secret exit out of the basement, and ran toward the Neva River, where he was shot.  His body was then thrown in the river.  Autopsy reports showed that his lungs had water in them, indicating that the cause of death was not the poison, beating or shooting, but actually drowning in the Neva River. So dramatic!

The photo is of Rasputin's body when it was found in the Neva.

After all the Rasputin drama, we lightened up the mood a bit with a delicious lunch of these Russian pie-type creations.  Colin was so pleased I think he had seconds and thirds.  It was a good break, considering after that we were going to walk and tour the many rooms of the Hermitage Museum next!

This guy is always happy when its lunch time...

Hermitage Museum - view from Palace Square

We ascended this beautiful staircase as we walked into the Hermitage.  It is truly one of the most beautiful museums I've ever seen - each room is different and outstanding, no to mention the amazing art collection!

Proof of the Russian Pose!  Thats for real.  She is posing in front of a Da Vinci painting... Margaret was sly enough to pretend to be taking a picture of the painting at the same time as catching a pic of this lady!

View of the Palace Square from the Hermitage.  The famous shopping street Nevsky Prospect is through the arch.

Standing by one of the many canals in the city

And our favorite and final stop: the Church of Spilled Blood. 

The Church of Spilled Blood was built from 1883 to 1907 in response to the killing of Tsar Alexander II in 1881.  Alexander II was murdered by a terrorist who believed that his reforms were not progressive enough or accomplished fast enough. Alexander II in fact was one of the most liberal tsars who ordered many advanced reforms and abolished serfdom.

The Church of Spilled Blood is covered with astonishing mosaics.  It was designed in the pseudo Russian style and resembles St. Basil Cathedral in the Red Square in Moscow. 

And we ended our tour with a raucous sampling of Russian Beers with our tour guide Maria!  So fun.