Of course, a trip to Normandy would not be right without going to see all the D-Day sights and other sights relating to before and after this tragic day and WWII. In order to fully understand everything we were seeing, we took an all day tour to some of the major sites relating to the invasion.
We started our tour at Longues-Sur-Mer and here we saw several of the German guns that were set up lining the beaches. We went inside the concrete walls surrounding the guns and saw where several were hit and shattered, even causing crevices in the stone walls. It took about 8 men to manage each of these guns and they were older men in their 40's because the younger men were put out on the front lines.
We also went to Omaha Beach, which we had spent the day playing on the day before. Lee found it quite amazing that people were allowed to play on the beach, but I found it as a good thing because if no one was allowed to enjoy these beaches, then what was the point of all the lives lost? I asked the tour guide about this and he confirmed the fact that they fought for life to remain as normal and what's more normal than kids jumping in the waves and building sand castles. Still, it's very surreal when you think about what happened on June 6, 1944, and all the lives lost where you are currently sitting enjoying the day.
Omaha Beach is surrounded by a layer of flat rocks that inclines up to grassy hills, and when you climb to the top, you can see how the Germans definitely had the advantage over the American troops because they could see everything. They also had little holes in the ground on the cliffs where they were surrounded by concrete and were very sheltered when they shot at the troops, and you couldn't even see these when you were on the beach. And then when you see how far the tide is out at even 9 am and think about how much further it was when the Americans landed around 6 am (at low tide), it is crazy to think how far they had to run just to get to some cover with the small layer of rocks that was miles ahead.
At the top of the grassy hill, stands a monument called the 1st Infantry Division Memorial. It 's a thin column standing tall at St. Laurent Sur Mer commenerating the actions of the actions of the 1st Infantry Division, who landed under intense attack from the Germans under the most heavily fortified section of the beach, but still managed to capture the beach and the overlooking cliffs. In doing so, they had over 3,000 casualties. 
This picture is kind of blurry, but it is a close up of the one above.
The Normandy American Cemetary and Memorial stands on the clifftop overlooking Omaha Beach. It holds the graves of 9,387 U.S. servicemen who died serving their country. Some of them died during WWII and others died earlier or later. They are buried here only by choice of the family. Among the graves, there are 3 with a medal of honor and those graves are written in gold, whereas the other are etched in the white stone, and there are 4 women.
Among the medal of honor graves is the grave of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., who helped lead an attack on D-Day at Utah beach and succeeded to later die of a heartattack during his sleep.
The graves are all beautifully lined up and when you enter the cemetary (which is from the east side), you are facing the backs of all the crosses (and stars of David for those who were Jewish) because they wanted to create the effect that all these people were equal and all made the greatest sacrifice. If the writing was facing you instead, you would then focus on that and see the differences, but they wanted to instead let you know that no man or woman was better than the other. All the fronts of the headstones face to the west because they are facing back home to the US.
There is a memorial at the front of the cemetary with the names of more than 1,500 missing men listed on the wall of the memorial. They have found maybe 20 of these men since this memorial was built and they're names are now marked with a start next to them.
We visited Pointe Du Hoc next, which is where on June 6, 1944, US Rangers climbed the 100ft high cliffs using rope and some ladders. Still, they were able to seize the German position on the clifftop. Their memorial is a simple granite pylon on top of a German bunker, which we were even able to go inside and look in. The ceiling was completely blackened due to the Germans setting it on fire when they realized they were being attacked.
The ground of Pointe Du Hoc is also littered with the remnants of bombs being dropped on it before the rangers arrived, which created thousands of huge craters all over the cliff. Here is a picture of Lee and the girls within one of these craters.
There were lots of people walking around this area with their dogs and kids and looked like they were just going for a walk. So, it is not just a tourist area, but one enjoyed by residents of the area as well. I think this was my favorite part of the tour, and Camille said she really enjoyed climbing into the crater, which is deeper than it looks.
From here, we visited Sainte Mere Eglise, which is the location that several Allied paratroopers dropped before D-Day to gain control of this town from the Germans and the major roads surrounding it before troops landed at Utah beach. This was the first liberated town in Europe around 4 am on June 6, 1944, and it has become famous from the movie The Longest Day. We were able to see the famous church tower upon which the American paratrooper John Steele landed and had to play dead for over 2 hours, and in his place, they now have a mannequin. You have to look pretty close to even see it.
We also visited the Sainte Mere Eglise Museum, where we got to see some of the Waco transport gliders, planes and military artifacts that the paratroopers had. They also had an interesting video that explained the events that occured here.
Some other places we saw were really out in the middle of nowhere France in farmland. In a small little town called Beuzeville-Au-Plain, there is a war memorial commenorating the site of the crash of one of the planes filled with paratroopers.
We went to Marmion's Farm, which is one of the first places from the invasion seen on film and several pictures from D-day were taken here. This farm now is not inhabited due to the fact of the family believing it is haunted.
We also went to Utah beach, which was much different than Omaha beach in the fact that it has lots of sand and shells and no rocks and doesn't have the cliffs like Omaha. It also was not well defended by Germans and so when Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. landed here with his troops, they easily overtook this area. There was a German bunker here with windows painted on the outside to look like a house, but not much else.
We also went to Brecourt Manor, which is where Allied forces fought in a field to take over the Germans that had 4 cannons in a ditch pointed toward Utah beach, and Angoville Au Plain, which is a 12th century church where 2 medics took care of American and German wounded soldiers for over 3 days during the initial D-Day attacks.
You can see the special stained glass windows that honored this day and the 2 brave men, Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore.
Later, one of these men who is currently still alive has come back now 6 times to visit this church and he found out that it was built after the saints that were medics. So, it was very fitting that this is the place where wounded soldiers were brought. They even left the blood stains on the pews because it is seen as a good reminder because good things came from all of these events.
This was a very moving tour and day and even Jordan and Camille enjoyed it. I learned so much and have a greater appreciation now for WWII. I highly enjoyed seeing all of these places.
