10-Night France, Iceland, and Norway Cruise - Day 5 Cherbourg, France
Cherbourg
We arrived in Cherbourg for our first port of the cruise and I had arranged a private tour with Brigitte from Unforgettable Normandy for a D-Day tour. Some months back, I found two other families with whom to share the tour on our Facebook group so all together we were eight: our family of three, another family of three (16 year old son) and one couple (empty nesters). We all met in the atrium at 7:35 AM to meet with Brigitte at 7:45 AM. The terminal building in Cherbourg is actually really beautiful. Fun fact: Titanic also called here after leaving Southampton. We hopped into Brigitte’s van and off we went into the rainy, overcast morning. Apparently this weather is pretty much par for the course in Normandy and the drizzle would continue all day long. We were prepared with our rain gear.
Our first stop after a little over an hour drive was Omaha Beach. One thing I really loved about our tour that day was that at each stop Brigitte had a big book with maps of each place and gave us a rundown of how everything happened and the way that the events unfolded. She gave us a lot of very detailed history about D-Day that I was unfamiliar with. I only really knew the basics that we learned in history class and also what was in Saving Private Ryan (which she did reference a couple of times so now I feel like I need a rewatch).
We had a little time on our own at Omaha Beach to walk around and take photos. I was struck by just how wide the beach was from the water up to the cliffs. The tide was out, as it had been on that day. And in fact, on that day, it would have been out even further so the beach would have been longer (to the advantage of the Germans).
We left Omaha after about 30 minutes and drove about 20 minutes to the American Cemetery. The land is actually American soil and only soldiers who died in Normandy were eligible to be buried there. The government gave families the choice of burial there or back home and I’m surprised by the number who chose Normandy. It’s a beautiful and peaceful place overlooking the ocean and is well-kept by the US government. We paid our respects and reflected on the sacrificed made by these young men.
We left the cemetery after about 45 minutes and went to Pointe du Hoc where the Army Rangers scaled the cliff face with ladders and grappling hooks. There are large craters in the ground where the US tried (unsuccessfully) to take out the large guns with a bombing run. We were also able to go into some of the German bunkers that had been dug and built into the ground there (by French who were forced into the work). Throughout the tour, I got a real sense of gratitude from Brigitte on behalf of the French people for the efforts of the American, English and Canadian forces on that day.
We left there and drove about an hour away to Saint mère Église which is the first town to be liberated by the allied troops. Again, she gave us a lot of very specific historic information about the way the paratroopers came into the region that night, the places they landed, their objectives and then how it actually played out. We went into the church upon which a soldier got hung up on the steeple with his parachute. They now have a dummy soldier hanging there to show what it looked like (except it’s hanging on the wrong side). We went into the church and she showed us the specially designed stained glass windows that show the paratroopers coming in to liberate the town.
After that she set us free for an hour in the town for lunch and shopping. We had our French lunch in a small local café, which I affectionately call “bread with crap on top” which we also enjoyed in Nice when we were there in 2018. I absolutely love bread with crap on top and this cafe had very good bread with crap on top. We were all happy. We did a little shopping and then went back to the van for the 45 minute drive back to the ship.
Once back at the port, Roger went off into Cherbourg to quickly buy a couple of bottles of wine and Emmaline and I went back to the ship. She immediately went to meet up with her friends in Vibe while I started some laundry. Roger got back to the ship and we ordered some room service for a snack and we continued with the laundry shenanigans. I say shenanigans and that sounds fun, but it was not. Dryers weren’t available and when they were, they weren’t working right and it took me four cycles to get the clothes dry. I was traversing multiple decks looking for open machines. It was just a huge mess. Laundry would continue to be a massive headache nearly every time we did it, which was frequently because we didn’t want to go crazy packing for this trip (in fact, Dru marveled at our packing skills when she saw our luggages that first day).
At 6 PM we had dinner, this time in Royal Palace. Originally this evening was slated to be formal night and indeed on each and every cruise we’ve done, formal night is the second night. But they changed it to night three and for that I think everyone was grateful. It was such a long port day for many, and an early port day (made earlier with the time zone change).
After dinner I dealt with the laundry some more. In fact, I was still mucking about with it during dinner and had to get up between courses to check on it. After dinner it was FINALLY done and we were able to fold it and put it away. Except Emmaline. She went and had fun in Vibe. How nice for her!
The show that evening was a juggler we had never seen before (in fact, all the variety performers on this cruise were entirely new for us, which was nice, because we have had some repeats before). Pete Matthews did some comedy and juggling and while his juggling wasn’t as technically impressive as some others we’ve seen, he made up for it with some good comedy. After that, we were tired and went to bed.
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