V Day Landings

Cherbourg to Utah Beach.  85km

We are relieved on two accounts.....Burnley squeezed a draw against Middlesborough with a goal in added time and Wendy hasn't mentioned anything about the Anzac biscuits mentioned in yesterday's blog.

Today we have managed to make a fairly short cycling day into a long one.  If we had cycled direct it would have been a 50km ride, however, we cycled by a coastal route against a wind gusting up to 45mph and then got  within 10km of Utah Beach and then followed a cycle route which added a further 8km unnecessarily.  The cycling by the beaches has been superb but we are fairly pooped out.

Cherbourg harbour as we left the town.

We had our coffe stop in the nice town of Barfleur, see below. 

And then our lunch at St Vaast la Houge and had a nice lunch and had oysters as a starter.

It appears that the shellfish is very local as we passed several tractors with oysters and some with cockles.

After our deviation we arrived at Utah Beach.  We have researched some of the history of the Normandy Invasion and there appear to be many similarities with that and the current V Day landings of the Vernons.  There has been a massive logistical effort to get us coordinated, including the personnel, the equipments, the transportation and the misinformation necessary to create an element of surprise.  

David was actually approached by a Frencman and thanked for saving Normandy from the Germans.  Maybe, David looked old enough to have actually been in the landings in 1944 or perhaps he just looked knackered after today's cycling?  Anyway it was nice to hear that French people still appreciated the efforts of the Allies in defeating the Nazis.  A good reason for voting to stay in Europe.

Having arrived at Utah Beach we worked out that it isn't a village, just a museum, a restaurant and a small cluster of houses.  The restaurant was closing as we arrived and we spent the next half hour trying to find our accomodation which should have been easy considering how small the place is.  It transpired it was a bed and breakfast in a house that was cunningly disguised as a house on a road covered in sand!  Having secured our bikes the owner told us there was nowhere to get food within a 6km radius.  You won't be shocked to hear that the Vernon boys stomachs overruled the objections of their legs and we cycled to the village 6km away for our evening meal.

By the at the last photo shows the monument to French General Leclerc who is celebrated as a hero for arriving victoriously on Utah Beach two months after the Americans!

Sorry to hear about Victoria Woods death.