World Tour

July 11 - Tuesday Caen to Arromanches We left the Astrid, late around 0930. We started out after picking up some contact lens solution, a couple baguette sandwiches and a Florentine for me and a pain au chocolate for Jon. I was in charge of getting us out of the city. We were off course within two minutes of riding. The good news is, is that once Jon got us on the right track we had a wonderful dedicated bike lane to take for the first 10 kilometers or so. The hills started getting a little steeper. We had started drafting each other a few days ago - well, me drafting behind Jon. When it worked it was great but the moment my attention was diverted from his back tire it was over and he almost always lost me on the hills. On the flatter sections we could really fly which was so fun but I think, over all, my knees suffered for it. I also had mixed feeling about drafting since one of the main reasons for bicyling was to enjoy the view of the country side not the view of Jon's back fender. Before long we caught our first glimpses of the English Channel. Its a beautiful blue green. It was nice to be riding along the water again. The salty air reminded me of home. We stopped at Juno beach which is where the Canadians landed and secured on D-Day during WWII. We went into a small museum chronicalling the first US mail tansatlantic flight and had a general overview of the D-Day landings. We continued on, heading west along the coast there was a museum in Arromanches that looked good with a 360 degree movie screen. We had a good view of the remains of the temporary harbor constructed by the British - it was impressive, what was left of it. There was a Pillbox, a circular cement enclosure that housed high powered machine guns and the guys who knew how to use them. They're built at least 2/3 underground with just enough opening to get the barrel of the gun out. There was a large overlook of Gold Beach near the museum. We had a bite to each (goat cheese and bread) before going in as it suddenly hit us when we stopped that we were hungry. The theater was round and the movie was about 20 minutes long it would fade in and out of Arromanches today and Arromanches on D-Day. It was captivating. I was turning all around trying not to miss anything. You could almost go twice just to make sure you saw it all. All of the soldiers looked so young. We decided to stay in Arromanches for the night. They had a campground for cheap. It was pretty full and we had a campsite in a perfect spot for being robbed. Right on the corner that everyone walks past to the route taking them into the village. We're a little paranoid about our campsites now as I'm sure you can imagine. The biking was hillier and the weather was hotter so we had a bite to eat and went to sleep. Tomorrow we would go to the American cemetary at Omaha beach.