My first attempt at HTML so it's probably gonna be pretty ugly but such is life. I thought I would learn a bit of HTML seeing as I have a webspace from my ISP and can use it to share some of my pictures that I took while in Europe. There is an emphisis on World War II keeping Battlefield 1942 in mind as well. I hope you recognize some of the vehicles that are used in the game. Click on the thumbnail for an enlarged image. Enjoy
2004 was the 60th Anniversary of D-Day which was my inspiration to return to Europe and re-visit the Normandy Invasion Beaches. I had been in 2000 as well. I didn't manage to get into Poland in 2000 due to visa issues. This year I made sure I had my visa in order and travelled to Poland for 5 days. Rather than bore you with every picture I took while in Europe, I have selected what I think are the most interesting.
June 4: After 4.5 hours sleep and jet lagged, I drove for 7 hours from Amsterdam and I'm now set up in Boescheppe France, a few Km from the Belgium border.
June 5: After sleeping 11 hours, I pretty well beat the jet lag and continued on to the Normandy landing beaches. I spent the night in Ouisterham which is a large town in the centre of Sword beach. I walked along the Caen Canal about 4 Km to Pegasus Bridge.
June 6: D-Day. I managed to come up with a pass to get into Juno Beach Centre for the ceremonies, unfortunately I forgot my camera and sunscreen. I wound up with a brutal sunburn and no pictures. The couple from Ontario that sat beside me remembered to send me a couple of pictures. The rest pretty well are from a Dutch WWII vehicle club called 'Keep Them Rolling'. At the end of the day I headed back to Ouisterham for the night.
June 7: Starting in Ouisterham, I visited The Big Bunker and saw Capt Bob Orrell again who was the British Engineer that blew the door off the bunker on June 9, 1944. 53 Germans that were holed up in the bunker then surrendered to Capt Orrell and 3 other British Engineers. After the bunker, I went east a bit to Merville to the battery emplacement. Then over to the German radar station at Douvres sur Mer. Finished off the day and camped in Courseulle sur Mer (Juno Beach).
June 8: Started off at Courseulle sur Mer (Juno Beach) revisiting the centre when it was less busy. Then on to the west finishing the day at the municipal campsite in Arromanche (Gold Beach and location of the British Mulberry Harbour) where I had stayed in 2000 as well.
June 9: Finish looking at Arromanche are and headed for the battery at Lounges sur Mer. Took in a museum of recovered equipment that had been sunk on D-Day. I visited the museum in Bayeux which is probably the best of all the museums in the Normandy area. I camped at the Municipal campsite in Bayeux for the night.
June 10: Woke up to rain but the weather then cleared up and by afternoon it was sunny and warm. From Bayeux, I went to Omaha Beach Cemetery and beaches. I finished the day of near Grandcamp Maisey at a campsite that had been a Benedictine Convent run by a Dutch couple.
June 11: Again I woke up to a rainy morning but once again, it cleared off in the afternoon. From the Grandcamp Maisey, I first stopped at the German Cemetery at La Cambe and then on to St.Mere Eglise. Afterwards I went to the batteries at Crisbeq and Azville. I then went to Utah beach area. I returned to the ex convent to camp with the Dutch people again for the night.
June 12: On to Caen. The Memorial of Caen deals with WWII but is more for world wide peace. After spending the day in Caen, I headed back to the English Channel and found a campsite to the East of the Normandy Beaches.
June 13: I leave the invasion beaches and head to Dieppe. Dieppe Raid was a dismal failure. 5000 Canadians and 1000 British raided Dieppe to see how difficult it would be to capture a deep water port. Over half of the invasion force was either killed or captured. The lessons learned here played a vital role in the D-Day landings.
June 14: Today was pretty much a travel day. I drove from Dieppe, through France and then swung north to Bastogne Belgium. Seeing as I drove most of the day, I didn't take too many pictures (none worth putting up here really).
June 15: Walked through Bastogne and took in their Historical Museum. It dealt primarily with the Battle of the Bulge and the encirclement of Bastogne by the Germans. When the Germans offered the Americans a chance to surrender, the reponse from the Americans was "NUTS". Hence Bastogne is also known as Nuts City. After Bastogne, drove through Luxembourg to Luxembourg American Cemetery. Afterwards, I traveled north to Diekrich Luxembourg where they had quite an interesting museum and then spent the night there.
June 16: Today was 'brain fart' day. For some reason I was thinking North American travel times and distances. I figured it would take me the whole day to drive from Diekrich Luxembourg back to the Netherlands and I was getting close to the end of my camper van rental, I didn't want to be late. 4.5 hours later I was back in the Netherlands with not enough time to back track so I missed out on seeing any of the Maginot or Siegfried lines. I guess I'll have to go back again sometime.
June 17: Seeing as I screwed up yesterday with the travel times etc, I lingered and took a liesurely drive back to Amsterdam and spent the night in a campsite just to the East of the city.
June 18: Back in Amsterdam and returning the Van. I spent a few days here but I'm not including any of the pictures I took there. On June 20, I flew to Krakow Poland (via Warsaw) and stayed at the Holiday Inn, downtown Krakow.
This just a fraction of the pictures I took in Europe. I have many more pictures taken in the Normandy area, Amsterdam, Krakow and the Nazis death camp of Auschwitz/Birkenau but I will save them for some other time to post. Right now I have pretty well used up the webspace provided by my ISP.