Reflections on July 18

On this day of the tour we started out by going to Omaha beach and the American war cemetery. Knowing what had happened on that beach years earlier it was strange to see people just spending a normal day at the beach there. Walking back up to the cemetery from the beach made me realize how difficult it must have been for the soldiers who stormed that beach to actually get up onto the land. From what I heard other people say about the cemetery it was very different from the Commonwealth cemeteries that we had been to. There were rules posted on signs, music playing and people telling you to put you shoes on. Later on in the day we went to Pegasus bridge that was taken by the British. In that area they have things that will appeal to the tourist who go there like the first house to be Liberated. Thorough out the day I wondered how the people who organized what country would be given which beach, how they decided to take their areas and why the cemeteries of different counties designed there cemeteries the way that they did.

- Submitted by Janelle