Lana, the kids, and I took a week long trip to Greece for our 5th anniversary a couple weeks ago. It seems just like yesterday Lana and I were getting married in Italy! The five years have been great and our two kids are gifts from God! After high temperatures in the 40s here in Germany, it was nice to see the 80s again and swim in the ocean. We flew RyanAir from Frankfurt Hahn Airport into Volos and then stayed in the town of Kala Nera. Each day we were able to see something different and had our fair share of Greek salads and gyros. Of the sites we visited, the Meteora Monasteries were the most impressive.
Liam enjoyed the water and so did Lana and I, especially after a run. Kala Nera is located on a big bay where the water is a little warmer than the open ocean, but we were able to swim in both.
We also visited a few towns up in the mountains near Kala Nera and took Liam on an old train ride. The smile on his face was priceless as he sang, "Thomas and his friends" from Thomas the Tank Engine series.
Our next family trip will be in early December to the Alps for some snowboarding, and I'm flying to Poland for a few days in November with work. In the meantime, we're enjoying the nice fall weather (its been in the 60s and sunny for a few days now) here in Germany.
The same week we saw Schloss Cochem and Burg Eltz, Lana and I went with the kids to the Normandy region of France to see the D-Day beaches of Operation Overlord as well as Mont Saint Michel about an hour to the southwest. Lana did a great job and found us a very nice French B&B far out in the French countryside, with very nice accommodations and hosts. In addition to the beaches and Michel, we also saw four of the largest cathedrals in France at Amiens, Rouen, Paris, and Riems during our drive to and from Normandy.
The area surrounding Utah and Omaha Beaches is full of museums and sites which are a sobering reminder of the battles that went on there and the number of soldiers who died, both on the Allied and German sides. Our first stop was the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Omaha Beach. This is the fourth memorial site I've been to, the others were in Luxembourg and Italy (Florence and Rome). This memorial is set on a hill overlooking the beach and as we stood there looking down I could imagine the chaos of such an event (mostly from movies I've seen like Saving Private Ryan). This memorial holds nearly 9,400 Americans. After walking around through the crosses, we made our way to Omaha Beach and on the way saw an old concrete German bunker which still housed it's old gun.
After Omaha Beach, we made our way to Pointe du Hoc, where the Marines climbed the cliffs on D-Day to take out five German gun emplacements (the cliffs in the background of the picture directly above). It is the site which still shows the most scares of war with multiple destroyed German bunkers and bomb craters every few feet. What a task to climb a cliff and overtake those who are shooting down from above!
The second day we saw Utah Beach, and some of the surrounding sites where members of the 81st and 101st Airborne Divisions parachuted into France hours before the D-Day beaches were taken. Towns such as St Mere Eglise and Carentan are where the Airborne jumped in a fought starting on 6 June, 1944. These are also shown in the Band of Brothers series.
Our third day took us to Mont Saint Michel, which is a large and rocky island off the north coast of France which houses a very large monastery and some medieval buildings. It was very impressive to see and walk around on! The pictures are worth 1000 words.
On our drive back to Germany, we stopped at a really cool coastal city called Honfleur. Lots of history, and its where a French explorer left from and discovered the Mississippi River, naming the area around it Louisiana after the French King Louis XIV.
This month took me / us to Sweden and France and in October we're taking a week long trip to Greece for our 5th anniversary...the benefits of living in Europe!
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