Hello all.
Been away for a while.
Three weeks to be exact.
I have to apologize for not letting you know.
We went on our annual family vacation trip.
This year we went to Normandy, France.
We had a FANTASTIC time.
Even my kids were impressed and very silent and humble at times, but there was also the beach and the sun.
I was able to combine it all this year.
I made lots of pictures, so I’ll tell the story using the pictures.
This way you will be (a bit) able to see what we saw in France.
We started in a little village called Saint Aubin sur Mere.
Even here, in this little village, the war was still present.
German anti armor canon used as a coastal gun.Next we went to Ranville, to see the famous Pegasus bridge.
This bridge was taken by 181 British soldiers on June 6th 1944 led by major John Howard.
The Horsa gliders they used landed about 50 meters from the bridge.
Pegasus bridge today
The original Pegasus bridge in the ‘Pegasus Memorial”.We also went to Arromanches les Bains to check out the remnants of the “artificial harbor” or Mulberry harbor that was built by the allies a couple of days after D-day.
A visit to Normandy without a visit to Sainte Mere Eglise is not complete.
I saw the movie “the longest day” several times and it felt fantastic standing in that town and looking at the church where private John Steele landed on.
In fact, a copy of private John Steele is still hanging at the church roof.
Next stop was Colleville sur Mer.
The visit to the Normandy American Cemetery Memorial made me feel very humble and grateful at the same time.
It was the first time that I saw my daughters speechless.
They let me walk along all those graves without calling me back ones.
They could see and feel that this was a very important visit for me.
Next was a visit to the village of Longues sur Mer.
Well……not the village to be exact, but a coastal battery that the Germans built in 1944.
The battery was equipped with 150mm guns.
It was heavily bombed the day prior to D-day but was still able to open fire on June 6th.
The guns had a very wide range.
They could fire on both Omaha (US) and Gold (British) beaches.
One of the casemates was heavily damaged.
A guide told us that this casemate was hit on June 5th.
The grenade landed exactly on the gun.
The Germans never knew what hit them.
Picture of what is left of the 150mm gun that was hit by a grenade.
This piece of the barrel was found about 30 meters from the gun.
I made many pictures, but I thought I’d share these with you.
It’s good to be back.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Martin
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FAQ
...I have hoped to visit there once before I die... the way things are these days,not likely-but we'll see...thank you for a beautiful set of photos as usual... 
