Day 3: Normandy

Thanks for staying tuned!

Normandy was by far the best experience of this trip. I don't foresee anything surpassing it, either. I had already done a report on the D-Day invasion of WWII, so I was prepared mentally for the visit. I wasn't, however, emotionally prepared for the experience. Many people in our group were very touched by this day.

We made our way from East to West on the coast of the Normandy region of France. We visited Gold Beach, Juno Beach, Omaha Beach, and then Pointe du Hoc. As we moved across the beaches, we could see the Mulberries, which were the structures left in the water to serve as temporary harbors.

We came across some batteries of German emplacements on the shores. It's interesting to see the damage some of the emplacements took during the invasion. Talk about hands-on history!

Next came Omaha Beach, which was the deadliest D-Day beach, and was also a beach completely covered by U.S. soldiers only. Our tour guide, Allison, was absolutely phenomenal. She took us to a few different tombs of individual soldiers who fell in Normandy. She told us the soldiers' personal stories, and about their family members. The one picture is the tomb of Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. Their stories were amazing. A few people in our group were brought to tears with Allison's stories.

We were then allowed to walk down to the beaches where the amphibious invasion took place on June 6th. Some great pictures were taken with the sun casting awesome shadows on the sand.

After Omaha we still had some time for Pointe du Hoc, which was the Germans' strongest position, which also meant it was the most bombed upon. Notice the craters and the destruction.

More to come! Next will be some reports on some World War I sites. Thanks!

Day 2: Paris (again)

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the tardiness of the 2nd blog. Wireless internet is hard to come by over here, plus we've been very busy.

The second day of Paris was very productive. A few friends and I went to 8:30 mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral. That was very enjoyable. After that we headed through downtown Paris, where me and a couple guys posed for a picture in front of the hotel where the Treaty of Paris was signed, thus giving the U.S. it's first formal independence. Needless to say, we wanted to smoke cigars for the occasion. We kept moving to Les Invalides, Napoleon's tomb. How cool! What an extravagent and gigantic tomb. That was definitely my highlight of the day. Next to the tomb was the war museum, where we saw many exhibits on World War 1 and World War 2. As I'm surrounded by a ton of military history geeks, you can imagine how we enjoyed that part of the day.

After lunch we headed to the Eiffel Tower. WOW! It had to be 4 times bigger than what I expected. It's enormous! We didn't go up in the tower due to long lines, but we got some good pictures there. On our way back to the hostel we made one more stop at the Musee d'Orsay where we saw the impresssionist art of Van Gogh, Monet, Picarro, and others. It was also very very cool. I recognized a few of the paintings from seeing them in textbooks for art classes.

More to come later when I get some more time! You defintely want to stay tuned for my report on Normandy. It was the most amazing experience of the trip! Thanks for reading!

Day 1: Paris!

And we're off!

We flew out of O'Hare at 6:30 pm EST, but by the time we landed in Paris, it was 8:35 am local time!!! Talk about jet lag! I am exhausted even typing this journal entry!

To fight against the jet lag, we took a walking tour of Paris, starting at the Notre Dame Cathedral (which is near our youth hostel), and ending up at the Arc de Triomph, which was by far the highlight of the day. I was simply astounded at how well structured the entire city of Paris is. Feeding from the Arc de Triomph there are 10 wide, straight boulevards extending out. Almost every building is the exact same height, so the entire city looks beautiful and very well organized. The pictures we got from the top of the Arc de Triomph are great!

In between the Cathedral and Arc de Triomph, we also go to see the outside of the Palace of Justice, the beautiful Seine river, the outside of the Musee de Louvre, the famous Hotel de Meurice (German headquarters in WWII), the plaza where the guillotine was used to behead criminals, and we saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance. Walking up the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomph was outstanding. So much culture and business!

Tomorrow we are in Paris again and I will focus on more specific endeavors. I plan on making it to the French War Museum, where Napoleon is buried. I plan on visiting the Musee D'orsay, where I will see great art on display. I also want to see the inside of Notre Dame, the inside of the Louvre, and the Basilique du Socre-Couer. We'll see how it works out! If I have time I'll go see the opera house.

The group I'm with is awesome. We are having a lot of fun together and the rest of this trip seems very promising with such a great group.
I was glad to hear that the Millers and the Boilermakers took care of their first games of the weekend while I was out of town. Hopefully by tomorrow they will have completed their second victories of the season.

Let me know if you all have any questions or suggestions for my trip!