Frank Mouque landed on Sword Beach on June 6, 1944 at age 19. This man literally helped save the world! On June 7th he was at Pegasus Bridge removing German demolitions and installing British demolitions. That was just in case the invasion failed and they had to blow the bridge to prevent the Germans from getting across the Orn River canal.

Normandy

Continuation of last day in England (7/4/2009)
Anyway, Daniel picked us up and carted us off to Portsmouth. I think it is pretty safe to say that if he had seen just me standing by the side of the road instead of Jordan, we would be cycling into Portsmouth. I think he took quite a shine to my little girl... and vica versa. After exchanging blog and email addresses we said goodbye and boarded the ferry. Jordan immediately met two boys from Ireland (about 16 and 12) who asked her to play 21 and poker with them. The ferry crossing to Cherbourg took about 3 hours. When we arrived we immediately began biking out of town and found a campground. We pitched the tent, showered and started walking back towards Cherbourg to find a restaurant. It was looking pretty bleak and then we found a creperie that was open. The food was excellent.
It rained that night and my new tent performed beautifully. We slept in until about 9AM so the tent could dry off. After a breakfast of fiber bars we took off. The Norman countryside is spectacular. We had the wind at our backs most of the day and a partially sunny day. We found a restaurant for lunch that had free WiFi. We set up shop there, charging batteries and checking email. We finally took off around 3PM. Our original goal was Omaha Beach, but that was not realistic at this poing. We stopped in the city of Carentan, which was the site of a famous WW II action led by Lt. Dick Winters from "Band of Brothers" fame. We camped again (3rd night in a row!), showered, and went looking for a place to eat. By this time it was 8:30PM and it looked like they had rolled up the sidewalks. We were just resigning ourselves to a dinner of a Payday candy bar, when we discovered a place that was open. Food was good, and not too expensive. Jordan ate crepes again, and she is "creped" out. I had the equivalent of the "Blue Plate Special" which was a hell of a deal... big salad, bread, and a chicken cutlet with fries and mashed potatoes. I am definitely getting my carbs. At the end of the meal I ordered a glass of calvados, which is the local apple liqour. It has a bit of a Gran Marnier feel to it, only apple instead of orange. Jordan could not handle it.
July 7, 2009
It rained like hell last night, and the tent held up again. We stayed in bed until about 10AM waiting for it to stop. We finally got up and walked into Carentan to buy fruit and pastries for breakfast. Every town in Normandy has at least one bakery, if not two or three. The pastries and bread are incredible. Jordan and I are stopping at these at least twice a day. We broke camp and finally left town around 11:30. It immediately started pouring ran, which was fitting since we were headed to Omaha Beach. For all of you naysayers who said Jordan would pack it in within a week, she really held her own. She did not complain once, even though we were both soaked and cold.
We arrived at Point du Hoc at the west end of Omaha Beach first. As we were locking up the bikes, a car pulled up near us and an old British gent stepped out with two younger people. We exchanged greetings and started talking. I asked him if he had come ashore here 65 years ago. He said no, but he came ashore close by at Sword Beach. That was one of the beaches where the Brits came ashore. Jordan and I said goodbye to them and started walking toward Point du Hoc. I mentioned to Jordan that we ought to get our pictures taken with him. We saw them again a little later, and talked a little more about his experiences on D-Day. One of the things he had to do on June 7th, 1944 was remove the German charges from Pegasus Bridge and put there own charges on the bridge, in case the invasion did not succeed and they had to blow the bridge themselves. Stephen Ambrose wrote a great book about this key action called "Pegasus Bridge".
Jordan asked him if she could get a picture with him. He looked at me and asked if I wanted in, too, and I said sure. I will post the picture when I get on line. He gave us his email address and said he would email his personal account of WW II if we sent him our email addresses. We will be sure to do that and post the account for any WW II buffs who want to read it. This is the kind of history lesson that you cannot get just sitting in a classroom. I am really pleased how inquisitive Jordan has been during our journey. We are really building memories.
Next stop was Omaha Beach and the U.S. Cemetary. I had been here 10 years ago, but it was still just as impressive this time. There are row after row of crosses and Stars of David for all the men buried there. It is not just D-Day dead that are buried there. I saw some dates from 1943 and some as later as April, 1945.
We left Omaha Beach around 3:30 with a good 25 miles to get to Caen. We made another pastry stop about 6 miles from Caen and then finished at about 6:30. With hills, wind, rain, and wieght of gear, we our making about 10 miles per hour. I think I am going to have scale back on the mileage until we either start getting up earlier, or are stronger riders.
We checked into a cheap hotel. We dropped our stuff and walked to a grocery store next door. Lucky we did that first, because they closed at 7:30PM. Tonight will be a good night for cleaning our gear, updating blog, and drinking a few beers. Tomorrow we start pushing for Paris.
Generlizations on the British and the French
Britain was not a great cycling country. Many of the roads are narrow. There are no berms. Traffic moves very quickly. On the other hand, the French roads are wider and the cars slow down for you as they pass. As we approached Caen, which is a fairly large city, there was a bike path along the side of the road.
This being said, I never met a friendly people than the British. They were quick to offer help and had great senses of humor. They loved to talk and were very interested in our journey. The French seem rather indifferent to us. At first I thought it was just the language barrier, but I think it is more than that. They are much more reserved. Another thing that I think is interesting is the number of French who know no English. I know it is embarassing that most Americans do not have language skills, but we are not really forced to since English is really a world language. Many of the French we are meeting are very dependant on tourism (restaurants and hotels). You would think that more of them would know a little English. There are some restaurants that advertise that their menus are in English as well as French, but very few. My Francophile friends will claim that this more French-bashing by "moir", but I really do think that the French still think they are a world power and are the center of the known world.

Fourth of July in England

Fourth of July in England
I forgot to mention that just before we got to Salisbury, we made a quick side trip to Stonehenge. They were charging an outrageous amount to walk around it, so we just admired it from a little greater distance.
Salisbury is a really cool town. Whatever river runs through it is incredibly clean. I saw pretty big trout hanging out underneath a bridge. There was long, very green grass growing from the bottom of the river. The river looked about 5 feet deep and was very clear. We left Salisbury and began biking the last stretch of the day to a campground about 12 miles east. My Garmin screwed up for the first time. It tried to take us on a small gravel road. I should have suspected something was wrong, but we started riding down it. Both of us fell. I cut my right arm and a good amount of blood was flowing, but it did not need stitches. Jordan got a couple sharp rocks jammed into her backside. At that point, I said screw the Garmin and we went back to the main road. Luckily, I had written out the directions, too. We did not get to the campsite until about 8PM because the terrain was extremely hilly. We were both at the end of our ropes. I set up the tent quickly and then we rode about a mile to a pub. The food was incredible! We both had lasagna, beer, and dessert. It is amazing how food picks up your spirits. We rode back to the campsite, where I showered and fell quicly to sleep. I discovered that my Big Agnes pillow was missing. I stuffed some clothes into my sleeping bag sack and used that. I am going to have to get something better or I will end up with a stiff neck.
Today (July 5, 2009) we got up pretty early, around 7:45. We were on the road about 9AM. We had to get 50 KM by 2:30PM to catch the Brittany Ferry to Cherbourg. Everything was going smoothly until we got to Southhampton. It is a pretty large city, and the Garmin was directing me on roads that looked way to busy to ride safely, so I kept on detouring onto less busy roads. Jordan was getting upset with me, but I told her that this is what we had to do. We were sitting by the side of a busy rode when a young man drove up to offer Jordan help (I had gone ahead to scout out the road). He drove up to me and told me to get in and he would tell me how to bike to Portsmouth. We drove back to Jordan. He explained how to bike to Portsmouth and then took off. He then reappeared in a minute and asked if we were dead set on biking to Portsmouth or did we want a ride. We said we would certainly take a ride. We threw the bikes into his van and took off. His name was Daniel and he drove us write to the Ferry. We bought tickets and I then offered to buy him lunch. He took us to a great place where he used to work.... Running out of battery... will continue later...

First 3 days of biking in England

We had no problems catching the train to Oxford. We had to cram our bikes into the entryway of the last car. The English trains are a bit cramped and don't do anything special to accomodate bikes. Got to Oxford around 11AM and immediately started biking. The weather and countryside were beautiful. All was going fine until about 4PM and my rear derailleur starting acting up. I thought maybe it had just gotten bent. I tried to bend it back into alignment. I got back on my bike and almost immediately, the chain caught and as I pedaled, I broke the rear derailleur in two. That was a real show stopper, but fortunately we were right by the Cotswold Water Park. I went into a store and made numerous phone calls to local bike shops. They all acted surprised that I had a 10-speed cassette. I thought it was a lot more common. Luckily, there was a very nice hotel in the water park, and we stayed there. It had internet access, so I got a hold of several people (my cousin Paul and Dave Baer). Dave advised me on what to tell the bike shop guys I needed.

The next morning, I got a cab into Cirenshire (sp?) and went to a bike store that was recommended by the hotel. The guy fixed me up as best as he could, but it turned at that my hangar was extremely bent and the large ring in front had bent teeth. I don't know how that happened. He got it into the best alignment that he could, but it still isn't hitting on all cylinders. I biked back to the Cotswold Water Park hotel and Jordan and I hit the road by 1PM.

We had an extremely hard day of biking. Scenery was beautiful, but very hilly. We finally made it to a campground around 7:30, but they said they were full. What total BS. We could have easily pitched a tent in numerous spots there. I used my Garmin to find a little hotel called Hollie's in Westbury. They had a room for 45 pounds and it was only a few clicks away (that's kilometers). By the way, the Garmin has been fantastic! I would be hopelessly lost without it.

We got up kind of late this morning and took off from Westbury. Jordan was following me a little too closely and I hit my brakes as I approached an intersection. Jordan ran into me and fell off her bike. The intersections in England are tricky and I could not tell who had the right of way, so I stopped suddenly. Several women got out of their cars and came to Jordan's aid. She kept a "stiff upper lip", although she was pretty shook up. We continued without mishap and are now in Salisbury. What a cool town! I am in a hug pub drinking a brew and letting all of you know we are OK and on schedule. I will get more pictures on the site later when I have more time. We still have an hour to bike to get to our campsite.

Pictures in London

Touring London

Started off with a good English breakfast. Jordon did not care for it so I had two! She then took another nap and then we did an afternoon tour of London. Saw St.Paul's and Tower of London in detail. We then took a boat down the Thames past Big Ben and Westminister.

Met Ben Gifford and his mom, Klaudia for dinner at a Thai restaurant in Picadilly Circus. They went to a play while Jordan and I walked to Buckingham Palace. We then took the tube to Kings Cross, had dessert, and went to our new hotel, The Princess.

Heathrow Airport

We flew from Columbus to Chicago then to Heathrow in London. Flight was smooth and I splept for about half of it. Bikes arrived along with all other equipment. I took them outside and assembled them. We thought we would be able to take the "tube" into London, but some Eastern European hardass babe would not let us. We t ook the Heathrow Express tO Paddington Station and then walked two miles to our little hotel. Room is small, but nice. We took a three hour nap and then took a walk. We had sheperds pie and a BLT in a pub. Excellent beer. We then walked about 3 miles around town and then took the tube back. I am using my Garmin to navigate. I got a little confused tonight, but starting to get the hang of it. Tomorrow we plan on doing some site-seeing after a traditional English breakfast.

I threw in a picture of the "boys", Aslan and Wrigley. We wish we could have taken them on the trip.