Way's World

Saturday, 24 July 2004

The Invasion of Normandy!

After watching the D-Day 60th Anniversary services on TV, my brother and I decided it would be nice to take our grandfather (or Gamp, as we call him) back to Normandy.

We set off in the early hours of Friday morning, taking the fast "Condor Vitesse" catamaran from Poole to Cherbourg - the trip takes just over two hours, that's all! As Gamp can't walk very far we took a wheelchair for him, and Brittany Ferries treated him brilliantly - they laid on a minibus to take us straight on board the ferry, dropping us off right by the lift which took us up to the passenger deck.

We came into Cherbourg on time, and our hire car was ready for us within minutes of our arrival. Once all the insurance forms had been sorted, we set off on our day trip! Our first stop was Utah Beach, the first of the beaches taken by the Americans on 6th June, 1944.

We then headed off to the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. The cemetery contains 9,386 graves of American Servicemen, and overlooks Omaha Beach, the scene of the terrible massacre featured at the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan". The American 1st and 29th Divisions which landed here took more than 3000 casualties in the fateful landing, and only two of the 29 tanks destined for this beach made it to shore, although both of these were soon destroyed by the German 352nd Division which had been moved here only a few days before.

Our next stop was Arromanches, where Gamp had been ten years ago to mark the 50th anniversary. Back then he marched on the beaches, in front of the Queen and Prince Philip - this time though, we had lunch and ate ice-cream!

    

Arromanches is famous for the Mulberry Harbour, portions of which can still be seen as a permanent memorial on the beaches. Realising that the French harbours would be heavily defended, these pre-fabricated units were designed by the British and brought across to France during the invasion to facilitate the unloading of vehicles and supplies.

Then we went to Sword Beach, where Gamp first set foot in France 60 years ago. Today it looks just like any other holiday beach, with families enjoying the sun. It's hard to imagine the events of 1944 that took place here, and elsewhere along the coast...

Time was getting on, so we headed off to the La Fayette Hotel in Cherbourg which we'd booked earlier in the week. We had a triple room, which was a bit of a squeeze, but it certainly served its purpose - and it was ideally situated, being within ten minutes of the ferry terminal! We had our evening meal, then went to bed, ready for the early start this morning.

We got up at 5am, and after showering headed off to the port - we left the hire car at the entrance to the terminal and checked in. Once again, we were driven straight onto the ferry (the "Barfleur") and we set off on our journey back to Poole!

We're all tired, but we all had a brilliant time, especially Gamp!

Thursday, 22 July 2004

Active Stick Men!

Take a look at this page - my favourite's the one sitting down, dangling his legs...

Wednesday, 21 July 2004

A New Start

Apologies for not updating these pages as often as I did last year, but I've been a little preoccupied over the last six months or so. A few of you know this already, but a lot of you don't, so here goes... Linda & I are no longer together.

To cut a very long story short, back in January Linda told me that she felt things weren't working out between us. This was a complete shock to me as it came completely out of the blue, but as the weeks and months passed, I realised that this was indeed happening and that she had no intention of us ever getting back together.

She's never told me why she changed her mind about us, and although I have my suspicions, this is not the place to publish them. Over the last few months, things have been particularly strained - we were both still living in the flat and the slightest thing that either one of us did wound the other up, so on July 10th, I moved into a house of my own on Canford Heath.

Although I'm upset that things haven't worked out the way I'd hoped, I now realise that it's for the best - and who knows what's around the corner...???

Wednesday, 07 July 2004

Wonky Webcam...

The webcam is currently out of action - I don't know why, but it doesn't seem to want to talk to the outside world. I'm trying to fix it, but for the time being, don't bother clicking on the link. Normal service will resume shortly (I hope)!