Tuesday, April 29, 2014

La Cambe, Normandy, France

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Next on our Normandy trip, we visited La Cambe cemetery. Over 21,000 German military personnel from WWII are buried here. This is a staggering figure when you compare it to the approximately 9,000 Americans buried in Colleville-sur-Mer! Originally, the cemetery had American and German soldiers buried here, but they eventually exhumed the Americans and moved them leaving only the Germans in this location. It is a beautiful and moving place to visit.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Mating Season

Get a Room
A couple of weekends ago we visited our friends on the other side of Geneva. They have a frog pond in their garden and the frogs were getting busy and making a lot of noise. Spring is in the air!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Bird of Prey

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These birds like to come out just before sunset and hunt in the yard below our apartment. I love the color of their wings when the light hits them at this time of day.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Thursday, April 17, 2014

The Cliffs

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The cliffs they had to scale! BTW, this is my 2200th post! Somehow I missed the 2000th post, so thought I'd point this one out.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Pointe-du-Hoc, France

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Moving up the road a bit, we visited Pointe-du-Hoc. Pointe-du-Hoc is a 30 meter cliff on the coast of Normandy between Utah and Omaha beaches. The Germans had the area fortified with gun emplacements and concrete casements. In April of 1944, it was bombed and then on D-Day the United States Army Ranger Assault Group scaled the cliffs and successfully assaulted Point du Hoc. Many lives were lost.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Coleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France

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Next we went to Coleville-sur-Mer to see the American cemetery. It was quite moving to see all those white crosses. This water feature and map were at the entrance to the cemetery after you go through the museum (and security which is depressing). The cemetery is above Omaha beach which you can see on this map.