An early morning wake up in Cherbourg. The ship is docked, the sun is out, a light breeze is blowing and we are ready to go. We meet Dannielle in the terminal. She will be our private tour guide for the day in Normandy. The pictures below start with the sunrise entering Cherbourg Harbour, continue through St. Mere Anglicize and Utah beach, Pont Du Lac, Omaha beach and finally the American Cemetery.

May 1st is a holiday in France, equivalent to our Labor Day and the cruise line was unable to secure enough busses to accommodate all the guests that wanted tours that day. We had learned this a number of weeks ago when we were booking the excursions and arranged our own via the internet. Dannielle has been guiding tourists around the Normandy beaches for decades as she was born in the region in 1944. She brings a plethora of knowledge to the tour and has a riveting personality to insure you have a great time.

She had a small car, called a Skoda, made in the Czech Republic, which comfortably sat 4 but was tight with 5. Fortunately, we are not big people (which was the first question she asked us when we spoke with her on the phone at the time of the booking) and we rotated the middle seat in the back. We drove for about a half an hour to St. Mere Anglicize where the famous parachute landing of the 101st Airborne was memorialized. A dummy parachutist hangs from the church steeple still today!

The town is just as it was portrayed in the movie and the shops, church and streets are just magnificent. They were about ready to celebrate Sunday Mass and the priest was greeting his parishioners (and me) as we stepped back into history. We picked up a picnic lunch at a small pastry shop in town and headed off for Utah Beach.

It is hard to describe the emotions I felt seeing and walking on a place where so many soldiers, sailors and marines died. As a veteran I was very moved by the experience here and further on as we visited Pont Du Lac, where the Rangers assaulted the cliffs, only to find the gun battery's moved further back and then to Omaha Beach and the bloodiest fighting locations, nicknamed "Red or Blood Beach". We visited the American Cemetery last. It is on land that was deeded to the U.S. from France in perpetuity and is maintained by the American taxpayer and beautifully and reverently so.

Danielle was well read and capable of answering any and all questions about Normandy and WW2 and showed us the real, rural areas where she and the average person live a quiet and peaceful existence. We returned to the ship just before sailing, exhausted and tired but filled with wonderment from a fabulous experience. A simple and quiet meal up on the Lido deck and early to bed. Tomorrow with arrive in Belgium.