Normandy

I got through some more photos from my trip. On the 9th I made it to Caen, the capital of the Calvados department. With only 109,000 people, it's not a big city, but it's Europe so of course it has a cathedral:

The next morning I hopped the train for Bayeux, where the famous tapestry usually resides. In no small irony, the very same day I visited Bayeux, the British Museum opened the tapestry to the public.

Bayeux (population 12,659) also has a cathedral, of course, and it had the benefit of being largely ignored by Germany during WWII, so it didn't suffer much damage in the D-Day invasion:

I mean, just look at this:

I would have spent more time in Bayeux, but the bus to Omaha Beach only runs a few times a day. (It also only costs 6 € round-trip!) So after grabbing a latte by the cathedral, I caught the bus to the American Cemetery and Omaha Beach:

And then I hiked back to the bus stop through the outskirts of Colleville-sur-Mer:

Seeing Omaha Beach was wild. Even with erosion of the bluffs overlooking the landing zone, being up on the ridge gives you a complete view of the beach for 5 kilometers in each direction. Had the Allies not completely fooled Hitler about the location of the invasion, and had his army properly reinforced Normandy's beaches, Allied losses on D-Day would have been catastrophic.

I will have to go back to Normandy. Next time, I'll rent a car, because there was just too much to see.