May 25th
It feels somewhat refreshing that tomorrow’s European World Championship final in Prague won’t include Sweden or Finland! It’s a nice change, although it doesn’t really affect our plans much.
Today, we were very diligent drivers. We made it all the way to Normandy in one go. It took an 8-hour drive, but that’s just a routine trip for us! With two drivers, we can take turns resting.
On the way, we had a not-so-gourmet meal at a motorway rest area. It did satisfy our hunger, though! Besides their expertise in cognac and other bottled products, the French know how to set up rest areas along their motorways. There’s Starbucks, McDonald’s, and all kinds of food options. They have toilets, showers, gas pumps, play areas for kids, outdoor tables for picnickers. And of course, their cheeses go well with port wine for an evening snack.
Tellu is having a tough time now. During the journey, we noticed some noises from the front end again. I’m quite sure we need to get the front wheel balancing and bearings checked. For that, we plan to take the ferry from Caen to Portsmouth on Monday and book an appointment for Tellu with a mechanic for Tuesday or Wednesday. This ongoing repair routine is starting to wear on us a bit. You have to fix issues as they come up. We’ve learned not to get too stressed about it. And luckily, we don’t have any fixed schedule that forces us to be anywhere at a specific time!
Our campsite is great, located quite close to Omaha Beach in Lion-sur-Mer. It’s a lovely village, and we managed to explore it a bit on foot before it got dark and started raining. On June 6, 1944, this place saw some serious action, which is still remembered today, especially with the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings coming up in just over a week. In these uncertain times, with the brutal grip of war tightening on Europe once again, everyone should remember what happened here 80 years ago. Today, I’ve been pondering a lot about how the Russians, who lost tens of millions of their people in WWII, now want to subjugate and destroy another nation’s citizens by force. Do they have no sense of history?
The Normandy invasion was a significant show of force by the Western Allies, aiming to crush a violent dictatorship and enable peaceful coexistence and societal development in Europe and beyond. These principles were enshrined in joint declarations at the United Nations. Those declarations seem to have suffered massive devaluation, pushed aside from the tables where generals converse and from the fields where weapons speak.