Thursday- we had classes til 10, ate lunch, said our goodbyes and hit our trains to Bayeux. we got there around 8, watson and i set up our tickets back to paris for the next day. then the 8 of us: Than, Kim, Loren, Chad, Leah, Watson, Sarah, and I grabbed a hotel for the night, a cheap one so it was nice. and we walked around Bayeux for a while, we grabbed some food for the week, then headed back to the hotel. i ate supper, watched some tv, took some benidyl (bad idea) and went to bed.
Friday- well taking benidryl is not a good idea when ur only gonna get 5-6 hrs of sleep so watson and i were miserable for the first hr of our waking lol. we got up around 7:15, cleaned up and met the group by the trainstation for our tour of Normandy at 8. our guide was really cool and knowledgable, he grew up in Bayeux so not only did he have the local's stories but he had all the research perspectives also. our first stop was the german cemetary. they have black crosses on their graves. on some of their headstones, since some of the soldiers weren't 18 yet, their birthdate is not on there. there's also a mound in the middle b/c when the cemetary was built they messed up so they had to make a huge unkown soldier grave. we then went to the cemetary museum and our guide showed us on the map where all the cemetaries were and other interesting things then we headed to St. Marie du Mont. this is where the 82nd airborne landed on D-Day on accident. one man, john steele, got stuck on a church steeple and hung there acting like he was dead for 2 hrs b4 he was shot in the leg and taken prisoner. that church now hangs a manican of him from the steeple and has stained glass windows honoring the 82nd AA. after the church we walked over to the airborne museum. it had a sherman tank, half track, c-47 plane, a glider, jeeps and other WWII airborne memorabilia. we watched a movie there about the 82nd AA. then after the museum we headed to Utah Beach, this was the easiest beach to liberate, it was also the first beach to be liberated. the liberation was led by Theodore Roosevelt Jr. who was a general, this was rare for a general to lead the 1st charge; he asked 4 times to do it and on the 4th time the army let him. the reason it was the easiest beach is b/c they landed about 1 km to the west of where they were supposed to land and there was only 70 germans there facing 24,000 GI's so it was easy to liberate and to take the rest of the coast from behind and flank the nazis. i got to see an H-boat which was cool. then we went to Point du Hoc, this is where 225 rangers set out to climb a 100 ft cliff and take over a german fortification on the top. by the time they got to the top they only had 135 men and after 2 days of holding the fortification they only had 90 left. at first the rangers went to the wrong cliff but their ammuntion craft was hit so they turned around and went to the right cliff and scaled it (they started climbing the 100 ft cliff at 7:10 and the first guy up was there at 7:15 and all 135 of them were up by 7:35!!! amazing!) they would've had a more successful and less casualties if their timing was on but they were 40 mins late. the germans had a good fortification w/ mines and everything but our GI rangers were just too much to handle. after point du hoc we went to our guides hometown where once one of the allies' petroleum pipelines went through. then we went to where the allies had one of their artificial ports, then we went to Omaha Beach, the most difficult beach, where 30,000 GI's attacked. the reason it was so hard was b/c of the mountains w/ bunkers on it surrounding the beach and the 2 88's positioned on the beach and the snipers on the mountains plus all the beach obstacles. afterwards we went to the american cemetary on top of omaha. it was beautiful. we saw 2/3 of the medal of honor winners (for my national guard buddies: the one medal of honor winner was a "weekend warrior" he took 35 POW's by himself w/ a grenage and a bayonette...talke about a bad bad man) and when we left all the GI branch songs were being played it was really nice to hear something american again. after that we we went to another port and it was getting dark so we headed up to this 360 degree WWII theater. it was a really graphic and accurate movie of real WWII clips and pictures compared to what normandy looks like today. after the movie we headed back to the trainstation, paid the guide, grabbed our bags and were waiting at the trainstation by 6 for our 6:21 train to paris...ugh....the start of the worst 18 hrs of my life! soooo here we go:
the train didn't get there until 6:45. and once we all got on it went about 1 mile in 30 mins!! (note: we have only 50 mins in paris to get from one station to another one on the other side of paris to catch our train to brussels) all b/c of leaves on the track this is happening. so we finally start moving along and get to paris w/ 25 mins to get to the other side of paris. we sprint through the metros, and every sub has a 3-6 min wait. we finally get to the station just 10 mins late for our train...after alllllllll that...just 10 stinken mins....soooo we start callin around and getting info on different trains. i switch our tickets to the next morning at 6:50. then we sat down and tried to sleep at the station until 1 am when an officer came and kicked us out and we walked down the red light district and found the cheapest looking hotel and paid stinken 110 euros for 5 hrs in there...ugh...it was a long night...
Saturday-so we got a lil sleep, got up showered then headed back to the trainstation to catch our 6:55 train to brussels praying that we make it in time to catch our flight to dublin. so we get to brussels at 8:15, run off the train and out the door to find a shuttle or a taxi to the airport, so we find a taxi at around 8:25 or 8:20 idk, and we tell him that we need to be there at 8:50 and he laughs and says 9 is the best he can do. so he flies to the airport and we get there pay him 140 euros, and go to check in and w/ ryanair they close the checkin 40 mins b4 our flight at 9:30...i begged the lady and she said no...so we sat around depressed and thinking what we could do b/c we just missed our flight and pretty much screwed over our whole trip so we sat for an hr or 2 debating and thinking of what we could do. we go and talk w/ several ppl and get a bunch of information on trains, planes, and automobiles!...and even hostels and stuff to do...and we decide just to buy another ticket to glasgow, scotland. it cost us 37 euros a piece but now we have a flight to scotland and we don't have to lose all of our flights that we had. yes we're out of some money but after forking out as much as we have already i'm not too concerned. so we bought our tickets and headed back to the trainstation w/ hopefully all the necessary information we need to get there tomorrow. at the trainstation we go to Info and grab a schedule from verviers to brussels and we were able to come back to verviers for the evening so we don't have to pay for a place to stay tonight and can get cleaned up and all that jazz....mama T, and Lisa are amazing! they cooked us a nice hot meal and just boosted our morale all around! if it wasn't for them the whole week would have been miserable probably but thanks to them it wasn't bad. hopefully the rest of the trip will be better. don't worry bout us we'll hopefully be fine just pray that the rest of the wk goes smoother
Sunday-today we got up at 4:45 am, packed, grabbed a lunch, and headed to the station to catch our train to brussels. we got there around 7:10, and hit the airport shuttle at 7:30. we were at charleroi 3 hrs b4 our flight. at 2 hrs, we checked in, paid for our luggage, and headed in to the gate. it was about an hr and a half flight to Glasgow. i slept the whole time. we got there at 12:25. the ppl of scotland are awesome and they speak english!!! we grabbed a bus into the city and grabbed some info and left our bags off at our hostel then walked around for a while then it got dark at 4 so we were in bed by 8 after we had communion.
Monday- we got up at 8, got ready and hit a train to Edinburgh. we hit up info once there and got a bus tour around the city for 16$. its a beautiful city! we went and saw and toured the edinburgh castle and saw the scotland royal jewels. the oldest in the UK. then we hopped on the bus and toured around and went to shops. watson and i bought kilts lol. we went to the queens palace but decided not to go in so instead we went to starbucks and chilled and waited for the next bus then we headed back to the station. i bought a meal at KFC so we could all split it when we got back. we bot back around 7. it was pitch black and raining. so i heated up our meal, split it up and we ate and went to bed.
Tuesday- we got up at 8, ate breakfast and left by 9:30 for the bus station then to find our other hostel. it was a 30 min walk. we checked in and dropped our bags off and headed to the kelvingrove and transport museums for the day. there were cool. we went back to the hostel and chilled then watson and i took a walk. then we got back and i did some more research and we went to bed early around 8 b/c we had a long day the next day.
Wednesday- POP'S BIRTHDAY! at 2:30 we woke up b/c leah forgot to switch her clock. so we got up, and i called dad, and we chilled til 3:30 then we walked to the bus station and got there at 4 and waited for our 4:45 bus to the airport. we got there round 5:30, checked in, got starbucks, and hit up some souvenirs. then we boarded around 6:20 and arrived in london around 8ish. we grabbed our bags and bought a train ticket for 30$ ugh...english pounds are bank account killers!...we got to liverpool station, got some info, grabbed an underground pass, and went in search of wicked tickets...we got lost several times but after about 1.5 hrs we found the theater and bought tickets for 15 lbs. we then went in search of our hostel. we dropped off our bags and went to buckingham palace...our equivalent to like the white house kind of but not really lol. it was nice. then watson and i headed to chinatown...it was pathetic so we left in the rain back to the hostel. checked in, rested, cleaned up and headed out to our show around 6:30. we got there around 7 and relaxed and the show started at 7:30 it was an awesome show...#2 only to lionking in my opinion. then watson and i went and saw big ben at night. it was neat. afterwards we headed back to the hostel. i checked somethings on the internet then we went to bed around 12 or 1.
Thursday- we got up around 8:15, cleaned up and packed, ate breakfast, then headed out for st. pauls cathedral. it was really nice. there was alot of security b/c of all the different US thanksgiving services there. then we headed back to whitehall place and westminister abbey where all the parliament stuff is and a bunch of war memorials it was nice. then we went across the bridge and waited for sarah's friend sean. he was 40 mins late. so at 12:40 he got there and we took off to the london bridge (nothing special) then the london tower, where we had our thanksgiving dinner of fish n chips lol half cold...ugh...nuttin like turkey. the tower bridge is neat. then we went over to see shakespeare's globe it was cool. then we headed to the national gallery where van gogh's painting of the sunflowers is, and a bunch of other famous artists stuff i guess lol. we then hit an underground back to where sean was parked it took 45 mins to get there. and the london security are very nice, we should've had to pay $24 each to leave the underground but they let us go b/c we played the tourist card lol. but then we had another 30 min walk to his car up hill w/ all of our bags which we've been carrying all day ugh...so we got to his car and we started out...he's not good w/ road signs or directions. lol. he missed the exit to the airport 4 times lol...so we got a 32 mile detour. but we made it there just in time for the gate to open so no worries. we got checked in, grabbed some starbucks and souvenirs and the other 3 went to the correct gate and i did not lol...i took a tram across the airport so some unknown gate and finished my mocha ate a snickers and there was still no one there and it was dark an hr b4 take off so i asked a lady and she had to call security to come pick me up and take me back to my gate lol. so i got a free escort across the airport it was unique. and no i'm not the only one...he said it happens all the time lol. we we caught our flight to dublin at 9:45, got to dublin at 11, and found a cozy seat at the airport and attempted to get some rest...
Friday- after attempting to doze off for about a total of an hr and breaking my coffee cup, i gave up and we went up and checked in at around 4 am. and we chilled then hit our flight at 6:50 and got to brussels around 9. we got a shuttle to the trainstation and got back to verviers around 12:30. we bought the women flowers for their generosity last friday. we cleaned up and relaxed and i put on my kilt...its sooooo comfy and free!! lol...over all not a terrible trip....but only 10 days left til i'm back in the states :)
