Normandy: 2nd Try

Yesterday we took a second chance at taking a look at the D-Day Beaches of Normandy. We did in fact get to the right town this time and it was well worth the second trip. We ended up spending the afternoon at the American Monument, which is located at the Omaha landing site.
When you first get there, it doesn’t really hit you as a memorial site because it is so absolutely beautiful. The grass is so lush and the sounds of the ocean are so peaceful. It is still hard to understand how such bloodshed occurred at such a beautiful spot. We first just went to a couple of the lookout sites that they have set up for people to look over the beach. Next, we went to the gravesite, which is when it really hit me. You walk past some trees and all of the sudden you are looking at thousands of white crosses (in some cases Stars of David). There are over 9,000 soldiers buried there. It is just aisle after aisle of people who gave their life. The front of the cross bears each soldier’s name, rank, and when they passed. Each one is sad and hits you, but the absolute hardest ones to see are the Unknown Soldier crosses.
After a very depressing time in the memorial site, we decided to walk down to the beach. It was quite a walk down, but well worth it once we reached the sand. Again, it’s so hard to even comprehend what happened, it looks like any other beach. Trying to put myself in the soldiers place, seeing the exact beach that they saw when they were landing, I know I don’t even fully get it. We spent a while down there, but you feel bad relaxing there so it’s kind of an uncomfortable spot.
After the beach we went into the Tourist office/Museum. The first thing you see when you go downstairs is a movie that is playing. The movie talks about 3 different soldiers who were involved in D-Day who eventually pass away. All of them are undoubtedly heroes, the movie really made the whole experience hit home.
We were lucky enough to have actually chosen the weekend of the 65th anniversary of D-Day (the exact date was actually the day before we went). But there were a lot of veterans there, which made the experience that much more real.