29-30/04/2019: Caen
Km travelled today/sum: 55429- 1921km / 400 km
Sunny, twisty country roads, highway
It was a bit chilly and foggy this morning. The temperature was around +5 degrees (Celsius) and the fog was hanging over the highway. We were really happy that we had our heated vests! Around lunchtime the fog disappeared. Not long after, we arrived at the ‘Pont de Normandy’, a huge bridge at Le Havre. It took seven years to compete the bridge. As usual, it is not possible to capture the sheer size of the bridge.
From here we took some nice backroads along the ocean. In some villages we passed over tiny cobble stone roads which was much more enjoyable than following the highway.
The next day we visited the ‘the Caen Memorial Museum’, an exhibition about peace and war in this region. It was built on top of ‘General Richter’s headquarter’. On our way we found something which we first saw in Cape town, a hand gun with a knot in the barrel as a symbol for peace.
After entering the museum we had a look at the bunker, which was used as a headquarter during the Allied Invasion.
From here we went through the museum, which showed everything prior to WWI all the way to the Cold war. It was a lot to take in, so we decided to call it quits after a couple of hours. On the way out we were looking through the cold war section and found plenty of material about Berlin, showing places the we knew quite well. The museum ticket also ent, itled us to entry into the 360 degree cinema, which was nice but nothing to write home about. We did hear that ‘Pont Du Hoc’ would be nice to visit, so we hopped onto our bike and rode there. Pont Du Hoc is the highest point on the cost and the German army stationed some cannons there to control the coast. Parts of the bunker and casemate (armoured buildings surrounding the artillery) were still standing.
Ignoring the wartime paraphernalia, it was actually a nice seaside where you could hear and see the calming waves of the Atlantic ocean. It has been a long day, and tomorrow we’ll have a look at Camembert and will see if we can score some nice oysters in Cancale. 😋
