Crossing the Channel
The next morning we woke up early to catch the P&O Caen Express ferry for a symbolic crossing of the English Channel. The ferry ride took about three hours. Mid-way through our journey I got up from my seat and went outside on the back deck. I looked out over the open water and imagined what a sight it must have been on June 6th, 1944; ships all around as far as the eye could see. Hitler was about to meet his doom, but not without a high cost.
We arrived at the Ouistream ferry port outside Caen a little past noon. Our pre-arranged taxis were there to meet us for the ride to Bayeux. The city of Bayeux is really interesting with lots of old stone buildings and narrow streets. It was pretty much untouched during the war and probably looks a lot like it did back then.
Upon arriving we split up into two groups and checked into two different B&B’s that were about a 5-minute walk from one another. The couple that owned our B&B was very nice and helpful even though they spoke very little english. Our B&B also had a nice view of the Bayeux Cathedral. Another interesting thing we found out about our hosts was that they had previously worked as interior designers for billionaire Malcolm Forbes.
After we settled into our homes away from home, we had dinner at Les Arcades on la rue Laitiere. Then we walked to the Battle of Normandy Museum and spent about an hour there. The museum was very nice and we could have spent more time viewing all the interesting displays but unfortunately closing time came too quick and we had to leave.
Later, Billy and I walked to a park that was near the other B&B and watched some British kids play a game of cricket. It stayed daylight until about 10:00pm which kind of made it hard to go to sleep at a normal time. Overall, it was a very good day.
D-Day Twins 