Normandy

After an evening of very little sleep at the Only Suites Hotel next to Charles de Gaulle Airport, which I do not recommend for various reasons not worth getting into, we piled into our silver Citroen Picasso and hit the road for our Normandy adventure. The first stop was in the city of Giverny at the Fondation Claude Monet, where Monet lived and painted his famous water lillies. This was at the top of Sooze's (my mother-in-law) bucket list, so there was a lot of anticipation and anxiety around this stop on our trip.

After a very small breakfast of croissants and a baguette we shared at Les Nympheas, we entered the property and quickly walked through Monet's home, which wasn't that interesting besides being able to look through the windows out at the garden. We then spent a couple of hours walking through the gardens and around the water lily pond. We took a ton of pictures, which hopefully do a decent job of capturing the beauty we observed. It's obvious how Monet got his inspiration to create beautiful paintings there. I was glad there was no tour or anything. It was nice to just walk through and appreciate it without much interruption...besides the hundreds of other people there, all fighting for position for the same perfect picture spots.

To break up the drive to Honfleur, our final destination for the day (and our home based for Normandy), we stopped in Rouen, known for having a big, beautiful cathedral and being the site where Joan of Arc, who I really only know from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, was burned at the stake. The town itself wasn't all that impressive, but the cathedral was nice.

Jenn and I shared a caramel macaron with ice cream in the middle. As my teeth sunk into the soft crumble of the macaron cookie and into the rich, smooth caramel ice cream, I felt a mixture of refreshment, excitement, deliciousness, and pure joy. I felt different, like my life would never again be the same. Jenn suggested we get a second helping, but I naively assumed that this was a new trend and we would see these as we traveled through France and at the least when we returned to Paris. I was dead wrong and I may never forgive myself.

We arrived in Honfleur, a small picturesque coastal town at the end of the Seine River in the early evening. We chose this as our location since it was within relatively close driving distance of the D-Day beaches, but was more tourist friendly in the hotels and restaurants it offered. We also thought it would be a nice place to stay. After getting situated at our rented apartment, we had galettes (savory crepes) and dessert crepes (just Jenn) for dinner. We then walked back, showered (we had to schedule and alternate showering because there was only one for the four of us) and went to bed since we had an early morning ahead of us.

The morning drive into Bayeaux was uneventful and smooth given Tim, the British voice from our GPS, was providing directions. I don't know if she doesn't trust technology or the British, but Sooze never completely bought in on Tim the GPS. She had paper printouts of google directions and maps for every single stop on our trip and insisted on giving them to me to help with navigation. She also found every moment possible to question Tim's recommendations for direction or point out when in some situations there was some confusion and we took a wrong turn, most likely to justify the fact that she lugged 5 pounds of paper printouts of directions across the Atlantic Ocean and through Europe. 

We met up with David, our tour guide, at the train station, and we were on our way to see the D-Day beaches. I am not a history buff by any stretch of the imagination. I find it interesting sometimes and do think at least parts of it are important to know, but generally, I also find it incredibly boring. I'm not sure if I wasn't paying much attention during school (I actually am quite sure this was the case) or what, but it is embarrassing how inept I am on this subject. Having said this, I have become interested in World War 2 and D-Day since we figured out this is where we'd be going with Jenn's parents. I've read a little and we toured the World War 2 Museum in New Orleans on our last visit, which was excellent and very educational for both of us. I started reading a book on D-Day in the past few days. Hopefully, I'll see it through and finish it, but it wouldn't surprise me if that does not happen. However, I do predict viewings of "The Longest Day" and "Band of Brothers" in my future and probably a re-watching of "Saving Private Ryan."

We spent the first day viewing the American Sector. We started with Sainte Mere Eglise, which was the town where the first wave of American paratroopers landed early in the morning on D-Day. I haven't seen it, but apparently, the church has a prominent role in "The Longest Day." I couldn't get past the extremely tacky and inappropriate paratrooper dummy hanging from the top of the church. Why this was necessary, I am not sure. The stained glass windows inside blended religious themes and figures with paratrooper soldiers.

Utah Beach was next, which of the two American landings met much less resistance and also resulted in less casualties. It was low tide and since it was early in the day, there weren't many people around. It was a good way to experience it. It's very hard to picture the fighting that occurred as you stand there and look over this perfectly peaceful and beautiful coastline. 

After a stop at the understated German cemetery, we then stopped at Pointe du Hoc, the prime German defense position over Omaha Beach. We observed crater after crater created from bomb hits. We also saw several German bunkers. The area is marked with a memorial with an extremely unfortunate shape to it. I'm unclear as to how no one ever pointed out how phallic it looked during its erection (pun intended).

After a stop for lunch, we went to Omaha Beach.People were playing in the sand and in the water as they would at any beach. It made it difficult to view it in the context of the horrific battle that occurred there. We ended the day at the moving American cemetery, which sits along the shore of Omaha beach. This was one of those things that you really need to see in person to appreciate. I had seen it in Saving Private Ryan, but it was powerful seeing the thousands of perfectly symmetrical crosses (with a few Jewish stars mixed in) with my own eyes. It is tragic how many young people had to die there on D-Day and the months preceding and following it. I felt an overwhelming sense of pride in my country and respect for those willing to sacrifice their lives then and now in order for me to enjoy freedom. Freedom is something a lot of us tend to take for granted. This was an excellent reminder not to and to value and appreciate it and those who defend it.

For dinner, we stopped in Trouville, a coastal town near Honfleur, known for being pretty upscale in the mold of Nice and other towns along the Cote D'azur. We ate at Vapeurs, a good and it seemed very popular seafood restaurant. I had the dorado, since I had already had mussels for lunch. Allan and Sooze had sole. Jenn ordered a shrimp plate which ended up being the tiniest shrimp I'd ever seen. It was ridiculous watching her peel and eat them, but she was determined to do so. I had cider, which is big in Normandy. I liked it and at that point made the decision to drink as much of it as I could during the trip.

Day 2 of D-Day was probably too much, but the tour guide was already paid for, so we went with it. We began the day with the Bayeux tapestry, which has nothing to do with World War 2. It isn't a tapestry as one would traditionally think of, but kind of a long stitched mural. It tells the story of William the Conqueror and how he became the King of England, even though his cousin Harold was kind of a dick and tried to do what he could to prevent that from happening. For the remainder of the day, we saw other historically relevant sites including the British and Canadian landing beaches, the Canadian cemetery, some more bunkers, the Pegasus bridge, and Arromanches, site of the makeshift harbor created to allow supplies to be brought in for the troops, which was by far the highlight of the day. As the afternoon went on, we were all D-Day-ed out. 

We dropped David off, said our goodbyes and headed back to Honfleur for an excellent dinner at the new and innovative L'Endroit. The funky dining room was pretty empty, so hopefully they will stay in business. I started with mussels and had the foie gras burger as my main dish. It is not something I would normally order, but it sounded good, and it was outstanding. In fact, everything we had came out looking beautiful, and tasted terrific.

We got a late start on Friday and embarked on a slightly longer journey than the previous days out to Mont St Michel, which is a monastery and surrounding town built out on a steep hill completely surrounded by water. We parked and walked the causeway to enter. We then walked the narrow sloped streets past souvenir shop after souvenir shop all selling the same exact things. We ate our lunch at Mere Poulard, which apparently is the most famous omelet place in town, and also from what we figured out quickly, the most expensive. Because the folks at Mere Poulard seemingly were not content with the healthy margins of selling omelets for 20 euros or so required its patrons to order from a fixed price menu which included an omelet, but also a starter and a dessert. The least expensive menu was 45 euro. It was price gouging at its worst. We had already waited to get in and figured we would never be back, so what the hell. The first course was a throwaway. It was a seafood plate that really wasn't impressive. The plate sized omelet was really good, which it should be for the price they were charging, and so fluffy it was hard to believe. It was like eating a souffle. Allan was the only one at the table who could eat the whole thing. He was proud of himself. I felt bad leaving anything on my plate because of the cost, but I wanted to save some room for the dessert. Our desserts were all really good, so it was a nice note on which to end the meal. I had the Normandy dessert plate, which was three different apple desserts: a cake, poached apple over a wafer, and apple sorbet. Jenn's chocolate dessert sampler was also excellent.

After lunch, we winded our way through the town up lots of steps to reach the entrance of the abbey. The abbey itself was very cool, but the audio guide wasn't all that exciting. I don't blame the audio guide, but there just didn't seem to be much material with which to work. It was a monastery and then a prison and then back to a monastery and now pretty much just there for tours. The whole thing made for some great pictures.

Dinner was uneventful, but not too bad at Bouchon de Honfleur that evening.

After a stroll through town and the Saturday market in Honfleur, we headed to Paris. We walked around the city picking up crepes, ice cream at Berthillon, and a macaron or two at Pierre Herme. I had never been to Paris in the summer. I had always been at slower, quieter times. I've never had to wait in lines or weave around people in the streets. My whole world was shattered. I hope to never go back in the summer. Paris was kind of ruined for me. But, I'll get over it.

We were exhausted by dinner and ate at Chez Georges, which happened to be near the hotel. We had some reviews about it and wanted to eat steak frites. It was an old school French bistro that was packed with old school French people. We didn't hear any English being spoken in the place. The steak was pretty good and the frites were fantastic. Overall, it was a good experience.

Allan headed back to Dallas on Sunday morning while Jenn, Sooze, and I had the day together before I was to fly back to Bratislava. We didn't do too much on the last day, but we did have nice weather. We had a nice, long, French brunch at A Priori The. There was nothing spectacular about it, but the ambiance was nice sitting in the atrium of the beautiful Gallerie Vivienne. It was a good way to pass the morning. The quiche/omelet thing I had was good and I thoroughly enjoyed my chocolate brownie for dessert. We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking the streets of Paris, through the Marais and then down Rue St Honore and then eventually hopped on the metro and headed back to the hotel, which was a few blocks past the Arc de Triomphe, where I then caught the bus to the airport.

Czech Airlines added some new flights to some of the major European cities direct from Bratislava, so that was nice being able to fly straight home rather than tacking on the extra travel time from Vienna. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed and we sat on the ground for an hour and a half, but eventually I made it back to the flat around midnight. 


It was a fun, but exhausting week. These type of vacations are tough because, while it was a great trip, between the early mornings, late nights, hours logged in the car, and all the sights we saw, there wasn't a lot of time leftover for rest and relaxation. Oh well. We'll have to do that on our next vacation I guess. It was fun having the in-laws here, but it'll also be nice to get back to normal life with just Jenn and me again, or at least as normal as our lives get these days. 

To view more pictures, click here.

Searching for Gatorade

After months of planning, the Sutkers are here in Europe. I ended up meeting them for a night and a day in Budapest. I hung around long enough for a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Center, which is an excellent and extremely educational museum. I highly recommend it. After lunch at Cari Mama, a pretty good kosher pizza restaurant, I headed back to Bratislava on the afternoon train.

It's been a while since I've traveled with my in-laws, so I think I had forgotten some of their travel quirks. I'll mention two. To preface this, I know I have plenty of things I'm particular about, so I'm most definitely not judging. First of all, they like ice, and a whole lot of it. It's not the most widely available thing here at restaurants, so it takes a special request and some extra effort from the wait staff. Usually though, they are able to get it regardless of language barriers and any other obstacles put in front of them. There were a couple of times over the week where a waiter or waitress, in response to their request, brought an over-sized bucket with an obscene amount of ice. I couldn't tell if this was them making some kind of statement against Americans and our ice or if they were just trying to be nice. The other little travel thing is Gatorade withdrawal. My father-in-law, Allan, loves Gatorade. He works out a lot and drinks abnormally large amounts of it. I swear he must have lemon-lime green or bright orange blood running through his veins. Anyway, though when they go to foreign places, he and Sooze, my mother-in-law, know it's harder to find than the holy grail, but that doesn't stop them from stopping and looking at any and every convenience store or any other kind of store that may sell beverages. They are persistent and as I witnessed in Tel Aviv a couple of years ago, they usually find it. They were unsuccessful in Budapest, but I have no doubt if they would have spent less time visiting sites and more time focused on the Gatorade search, they would have found it.

It has been three weeks since I've been in Europe, so it was weird going back into the office. I was pretty frustrated to find that my desk chair had been taken when I arrived on Monday morning. I realize I'm not there often, but whoever took it has to know someone sits there and would eventually come back. I literally have no idea where it is and also haven't a clue how to get a new one. Honestly, who does that? Who borrows (steals) a desk chair in the office and doesn't return it? It didn't matter because I was in a training class for the entire week, so I wasn't sitting at my desk, but eventually I'll have to get this thing figured out.

The Sutkers arrived in Bratislava having seen most of what Budapest had to offer. They then spent the week taking day trips to Vienna with a jam packed itinerary. We were able to have dinner together a couple of nights during the week, but for the most part, Jenn and I were not able to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, but we both had very busy work weeks.

We spent this past weekend in Prague. Prague is a great walking city, but it's not so much fun when it is cold and raining, which is the weather we experienced the entire three days we were there. It was unfortunate, but it's one of a few things that simply cannot be planned or controlled no matter how hard one tries. If there was a way to do it, Susan Sutker would have figured it out by now, I'm sure of it. We stayed at the Hotel Josef, where Jenn had been wanting to stay at for years, since she first heard about it 5 years ago when we came to Prague for the first time. It's a modern hotel in the Josefov (Jewish) area of Prague with small, simple, clean, and nice rooms. It was everything Jenn hoped it would be.

On that first afternoon, after lunch at Bohemia Bagel, we had a guide walk us to and through Prague Castle. Jenn and I had been there a few times, but it has been 5 years since we actually went into the palace and past the preliminary entrance area of the Cathedral. It was a long tour, but we did get to see the site of the second defenestration. We also had never been through the Wallenstein Gardens, which were really nice. I'm not sure how we missed this with all of our visits to Prague Castle.

Dinner that evening was at the much hyped Allegro, at the Four Seasons Hotel. All of our food was good, but most interesting and exciting was the dessert, aptly named Chocolate Art. This is where the pastry chef came to our table, put a plastic table cloth down, and proceeded to dribble a little of this, toss a little of that, and then laid down a chocolate mousse, white cacao ice cream, and something else that I cannot remember. It was fun and tasty. I was shocked that Allan and Sooze were willing to eat off the table, but they had no issue with it.

I sat out day two, which included a visit to the concentration camp, Terazin, which Jenn and I toured once before, and a tour of the Jewish synagogues of Prague, which I had done twice previously. It was nice having the morning to myself, though I really didn't do anything. I slept late, had breakfast, and walked around a little. I'm constantly tired these days, so any time to relax is just fine with me. In the afternoon, I braved the rain and went up to the Strahov Monastery and viewed their beautiful library. There were two incredible halls filled with books and then some other strange collections of shells, sea creatures, etc. I then walked across the way to their very own brewery and sampled two out of the four beers. The amber wasn't bad, but the summer wheat wasn't for me. It tasted like a flat Sprite. There were some nice views from atop the hill where the monastery stands, so I got some nice pictures before I headed down for the long walk back to the hotel.

We ate dinner at the very delicious V Zatisi, which was mostly upscale continental cuisine, but had a few touches of Czech on the menu. The goat cheese appetizer was outstanding. My main course of duck was good, but not great. The chocolate mousse for dessert was good, but so rich I couldn't finish it.

We spent the final day walking around and doing some shopping, or browsing actually. We then headed out in the evening for our flight to Paris where we'll be leaving from for our week in Normandy. More to come with the France report, but wanted to get the blog up to date as I know there are some big Sutker fans out there who want to hear about Allan and Sooze's trip.

To view more pictures, click here.