The Women's World Cup

In 2015, the Women's World Cup was held in Canada and Shana and I drove up from Seattle to catch a couple of games at BC Place in Vancouver, British Columbia. We had the opportunity to see both the hosts and eventual runner-up Japan. This year, by coincidence, the Women's World Cup is again in the country next door, France. When we decided we wanted to attend again, we looked at the cities that were hosting, and decided Reims was the perfect place because it is in the Champagne region, which gave us a great location to celebrate Shana's birthday as well as watch games (more on Reims and Champagne to come).

We left London on the Eurostar train to Paris (of Mission Impossible fame), which whisks you from one to the other in 2 hours, 15 minutes. After a day in Paris, we caught another high-speed train to Reims, which only took 45 minutes to cover a distance that used to take two hours, and allows people to live in Reims and work in Paris -- pretty cool.

For the games in Reims we had bought a ticket package for three games, but were still in London for the first game, so we only got to see two. The stadium in Reims (Stade Auguste-Delaune) normally hosts both a men's and women's team that each play in the top French league. The stadium seats about 21,000 people and is only about a 15 minute walk from the center of town.

The first game we attended, between Norway and South Korea, was fairly sparsely attended, (13,000) although we saw a good game in which South Korea appeared to play better, but Norway won 2-1 on two penalty kicks. Our seats were near one end of the stadium, which was not great, but we had a very good view when the action was on our end of the field:

Norway advanced in the tournament, and after beating Australia in the round of 16 (1-1 (4-1 on penalty kicks)) will play in a quarter-final against England on June 27.

The second game we saw was Canada v. The Netherlands, which was great because the Dutch fans are really crazy and they were out in force, with overall attendance rising to around 19,000:

Although the Canadian fans were significantly outnumbered, they were boisterous, and we had to represent for the Canadian branch of Shana's family (notice the orange-clad Dutch fans to my right and behind us in the upper deck -- they really were everywhere):

After a scoreless first half in this one, the Netherlands scored in the 54th minute, but Canada equalized just six minutes later on a goal by Christine Sinclair who has the second-most international goals of any women ever, and is now only two behind record-holder Abby Wambach. The tie didn't last all that long as the Netherlands scored again in the 75th minute and held on in a game that they deserved to win.

Although both teams advanced to the knockout rounds, Canada was eliminated in the round of 16 by Sweden (1-0), while the Netherlands beat Japan in a very exciting game (2-1) to advance to a quarter-final against Italy on June 29.

The tournament is now heavily dominated by European teams, with 7 of the remaining 8 teams from the Continent, but the US remains the favorite to win. If you have a chance, we highly recommend their upcoming quarterfinal match against the hosts on June 28 from Paris. It should be a barn-burner.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

London

We just returned from our latest trip, which took us to London to meet up with my sister Karyn and her family, and Reims (pronounced Rahmes), France to drink champagne and watch Women's World Cup soccer. We have lots to report, so let's get started with London.

Being in London was a little strange for us because nearly everyone was speaking English. We have gotten so used to hearing Spanish at home and a foreign language (usually French) when we travel that hearing English full time actually felt strange.

Although we were there for five days, it didn't feel like we did all that much. Oh well, we may have to go back . . . One thing we did do a lot in London was walk. Public transportation in London is really expensive (about twice as much (!) as in Paris), and frankly was not very efficient when we did take it. So, we walked a lot. What did we see? Well, lots and lots of monuments. There are many. And, right near our hotel was St. James's Park, where we enjoyed seeing all the waterfowl. And, at this time of year, there are many cute chicks:

We even saw a mother coot chasing away the other birds who were trying to steal her baby's bread. In the third picture, Buckingham Palace sits in the background. And, while we decided not to deal with arriving early and waiting for the changing of the guard ceremony, we did catch the changing of the horse guard ceremony on the other end of the Park:

Not sure exactly what the horse guards are guarding, but the pomp of the ceremony was entertaining. Later in the trip we saw one of the guys in the helmets with his sword at his post. But, directly in front of him was a policeman with body armor and an assault rifle. Clearly one of those guys is superfluous.

Other things we saw walking around London include an Egyptian obelisk, called the Cleopatra Needle and seated on the Thames since 1878, with two flanking bronze Sphinxes, "gifted" to England  (notice the London Eye in the background):

Parliament and Big Ben (the latter completely under scaffolding):

Westminster Abbey (2 different nights):

The Tower Bridge:

So, what did we actually do in London? Well, let's see. We had dinner with friends from Spanish school and met their new baby; we visited the National Gallery partly to use their bathroom, but also got to see some great impressionist art; we briefly visited the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles, although it was so crowded, we wanted to leave almost as soon as we were inside; we saw an hysterical show called The Play That Went Wrong (highly recommended if it comes your way); and we saw an exhibit of vehicles from the James Bond movies at the London Film Museum:

(My brother-in-law Jim and I next to the Rolls Royce Phantom III that was Goldfinger's car in the movie.)

We also visited the Churchill war rooms, which is the underground location from which Churchill and his cabinet ran the British government during WWII. Many of the rooms are preserved exactly as they were during that time, and there is a really interesting museum about Churchill's life as well. Not exactly a great location for pictures, but this is a classic:

One thing we did not do in London was have "High Tea". I don't even like tea, unless I'm sick. But, while Karyn and her family were having tea at Fortnum & Mason, we walked around the store (less chaotic than Harrod's was), and went to the wine bar in the basement for a wine and cheese lunch (much more our speed). Here is the store's homage to the history of the teapot:

(Yes, that is Shana holding a teapot shaped like a cat. Where else but London?)

Finally, although we did not do anything related to Harry Potter, I thought this picture of one of the towers of the Parliament Building with the full moon hidden behind it easily could have come from one of the movies (maybe with a bunch of Dementors coming out of the sky):

Overall, we had a great time in London, although the weather was cool and rainy. We might have to return when it is a little quieter and brave the bad weather to see some of the sites we missed because there were a huge number of tourists in the city.

Cheerio,

Jeff and Shana

Normandy

With the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings having just passed, there has obviously been a lot of news recently about the events of that day and the days that followed. Our visit to Normandy was just a few weeks before the anniversary. We had a fantastic time in the area - it is really beautiful - and learned a lot of details about the history, mostly through a fabulous full-day tour, which we would highly recommend for anyone visiting.

I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about WWII history, but I learned a lot from the tour and related museums so, this will be kind of a combined history lesson (hopefully not too boring) and review of our visit.

One of the first things we learned is that the area where the Allied troops landed in 1944 is known as hedgerow country because property is divided by rows of hedges (and sometimes trees) that have been there for centuries. This was a big problem for the Allies because it turned out that the American Sherman tanks (the primary tank of the invasion force) could not go through most of the hedgerows.

(Nice tank, but it couldn't really do the job).

Fortunately, US Sergeant Curtis G. Cullen came up with the idea to use the metal "jacks" (actually known as Czech Hedgehogs), which the Nazis had used to make landing on the beaches more difficult, to create giant hedge-cutters to be added to the front of the tanks. With the "Cullen hedge cutters," the modified tanks, known as Rhino tanks, were able to regain some of their mobility in the area.

(Monument at Utah Beach showing a landing craft and Czech Hedgehog).

Another of our early stops was in the village of St. Mere Eglise. On the night before the landing, US airborne troops were supposed to land outside St. Mere Eglise and secure the village, because it sat in an important strategic position along the then-only paved road toward Cherbourg (a port that was one of the ultimate targets of the Normandy campaign). Unfortunately, some of the airborne troops landed in the middle of the village where (and yes, this actually happened) the entire village was out fighting a house fire on the very edge of the church square in the center of town. One US paratrooper got caught on the church, as is memorialized even to this day (notice the white parachute with attached soldier on the roof of the church):

Ok, so here is where history mixes a bit with Hollywood. What is depicted on the church today actually represents what happened in the 1961 movie The Longest Day. In reality, paratrooper John Steel did get caught on the church, but much lower down (also, his parachute would not have been highly-visible white, but camouflage). He remained hanging while playing dead for two hours before being taken prisoner by German soldiers.

Inside the Church, there is an interesting stained-glass window dedicated to the troops that arrived on D-Day, especially the US paratroopers:

There also is a fantastic museum dedicated to the airborne troops, which includes one of the gliders that landed in Normandy on D-Day. This was another fact that I did not know about the history of the Normandy landings. While about 13,000 US airborne troops jumped into Normandy just after midnight on June 6, 1944, another 4,000 followed in gliders. In addition to being incredibly flimsy, the gliders were very small. I couldn't even stand up straight in the tallest part of the one on display in the museum:

After St. Mere Eglise, we went to visit the two American landing beaches (Utah and Omaha). At Utah, there are a number of monuments to the troops, along with the first kilometer marker of the Liberty Highway, which follows the route of some of the Allied troops who landed on D-Day and runs 1,146 kilometers (with a market each kilometer along the route) to the end in Bastogne, Belgium.

Interestingly, we learned that the assault on Utah Beach was a complete success. With only 197 allied  wounded (including only 16 killed), the beach was taken within one hour of the landing, and by the end of the first day, the troops from Utah Beach had penetrated six miles inland. Of course, such relatively easy success does not make for good cinema, so all the movies (including, most famously, Saving Private Ryan) show the landing at Omaha Beach, which was the most difficult of the five landing beaches to secure.

This is Omaha Beach today:

As you can see, the beach is very wide, and there are cliffs just off the edge of the beach. On the morning of June 6, 1944, a naval bombardment was supposed to soften up the target by destroying the German bunkers, including machine guns and 88 mm anti-tank guns that were set up to be able to strafe the beach. Unfortunately, the naval bombardment at Omaha substantially missed its targets, and the result was what you see in movies, with the initial wave of troops having almost no chance. Worse, the Allied strategy was to land at low tide to avoid the Czech hedgehogs and other obstacles that would have been hidden at high tide (and thus a danger to the landing craft), but they landed as the tide was beginning to increase, forcing US troops to move inland or drown.

Our next to last stop was Pointe Du Hoc, a promontory with 100-foot cliffs situated between Utah and Omaha beaches. On D-Day, army rangers landed on the narrow beach at the base of the cliffs and climbed up under fire using nothing but rope and grappling hooks:

This is a very interesting site for several reasons. First, the site has been left roughly as it was found, which means there are giant impact craters from both ship-based guns, and bombs dropped from airplanes all around. At one point, there is an impact crater right next to a concrete German bunker with no damage to the bunker itself! In addition, there are a number of bunkers that you can go in:
 
Finally it is interesting because we learned that the anti-ship guns that were the target of the attack on Pointe Du Hoc were not found there on D-Day, but had already been moved inland. In fact, some historians now believe that this attack was not only unnecessary, but also contrary to orders. Of course, I doubt they will remove the monument to the US Army Rangers that is there:

Our final stop was the US Military Cemetery where we were unable to walk among the graves because of the then-upcoming anniversary (got to keep the grass green for the big-mucky mucks), but we were able to see the daily lowering of the flags ceremony:

This brings me to one of the most interesting things I learned on our tour: there is a German military cemetery in Normandy. Actually, this should not be surprising; German troops who died in World War II were often buried in the countries where they died, but I had never thought about it before. It was interesting to see (and feel) the difference between the US cemetery and the German one, which we visited early in the day.

And that was our organized tour of the D-Day sites in Normandy. Of course, our tour focused on the US sites. There were three other beaches (Gold, Juno and Sword) that were attacked by British and Canadian troops (and where British and Canadian tourists generally go), and we did go on our own to a small town called Arromanches-Les-Bains, which is on Gold Beach, the day after our tour:

In the picture of Shana and me, you can see some "junk" in the water behind us, which is remnants from the invasion. There is actually quite a lot of that at Gold Beach where the Allies built a temporary port that was used to bring a huge amount of heavy equipment into Normandy after the beachheads were established. Apparently it was a truly impressive feat of engineering, but we were a bit surprised to see that so much stuff has just been left in the sea off Normandy for the past 75 years!

Overall, we had a great time in Normandy. In fact, Shana and I would very much like to return and spend more time in the many little villages along the coast, along with Caen, the larger city in the area. So, if any of our readers are planning a trip to Normandy, definitely let us know.

Au revoir,

Jeff and Shana

Mont Saint Michel

Mont Saint Michel is one of those places you see in a photo and immediately think I must go there one day. That’s partly because it is hard to believe what you are seeing. Can such a place – an isolated castle-like-fortress emerging from the sea – really exist? And you wonder, who built this and why? These same thoughts and feelings popped right back into my mind as we approached Mont Saint Michel on May 18.

WOW! Right? You can see why this is a “bucket list” place to visit. Enchanting, yet ominous in its remoteness. Mont Saint Michel has an almost perfect mix of awe-inspiring views, monumental history, medieval architecture, and kitsch. I say almost perfect because the touristy kitsch can be overwhelming in the village area.

Mont Saint Michel is an island, about 1 km off the northwestern coast of Normandy, that is not solely a holy place of pilgrimage, but also a defensible strategic outpost. It has a long history dating back to 708, when a bishop had a sanctuary built to honor the archangel. It used to be accessible only at low tide (or by boat), but today you can walk (or ride by horse-drawn carriage or tram) along a man-made causeway. It seems even more fairy-tale like as you get closer:

In the 10^th century, Benedictine monks settled into the abbey and over the centuries it expanded as builders wrapped the buildings around the granite rock base of the mount. The architecture is fascinating. Here is the abbey church, tower, and cloister:

Here are the views from the west terrace towards the sea and from the Saut-Gaultier terrace down towards the mainland, across the mudflats:

We were able to avoid the huge crowds that converge each day by arriving early and heading straight up to the abbey. The village at the base of the mount is tacky and full of one souvenir shop after another selling the same schlock.

It would have been interesting to walk the mudflats surrounding the mount (there are tours), but it looked like a sticky mess and was less enticing on the gray day we encountered. Instead we headed to a nearby town for a memorable lunch in a restaurant filled with locals where our host was a very amusing woman with blue hair, but not before taking a photo with one of the artistic Normandy cows on display.

Au revoir,

Shana & Jeff 

Giverny --Visiting Monet's House and Gardens

Some of you may remember our visit to the L'Orangerie Museum in Paris where we saw some of Monet's famous Water Lilies. At that time, we did not visit Monet's house in Giverny where he painted the various iterations of the Water Lilies along with many other paintings. This trip, we decided to take a trip to Giverny before taking Mom and Dad to see the Water Lilies at the museum.

Giverny is a small town about 45 minutes by train outside Paris. Despite catching the first train of the day, Monet's house and gardens were packed with tourists who had arrived previously by tour bus. While we were there, more kept coming and by the time we left we thought, despite the beauty of the location, it was difficult to justify the trip given the hoards of tourists.

That said, the site was interesting and beautiful. Monet's house contains a ton of art (all replicas, but they give a sense of what it looked like when he lived and worked there), and the gardens, which he described as his greatest masterpiece, are indeed impressive.

Here is some of the art in the house, along with views of the kitchen and dining room (I don't think I could eat in a room that yellow):

And here are a few shots of the gardens, including one taken from the house, which do not do justice to how extensive and beautiful they are:

But, perhaps the best part of the visit was seeing the water-lily pond that inspired the many paintings: 

It was especially impressive having seen the Water Lilies in the L'Orangerie Museum previously, and was driven home the next day when we returned.

For some context, here is one of the Water Lilies from the L'Orangerie Museum. While you can clearly see the inspiration in the pond, Monet's effort to display the changing light makes it impossible to truly see what he saw, except in the museum version:

Frankly, as I look through these pictures, I am amazed that Shana was able to get so many with so few people in them. Given the number of people there, a truly impressive feat.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana