This is Trey and I talking to Wild Bill at Brecourt. The sound is kind of low in the beginning, but picks up at the end.

I didn't really have time (or power, in some cases) of writing down my thoughts every night during our trip. It was all very planned out as far as time goes. So I figured I'd spend time in Europe experiencing Europe, not writing about it. Ask Trey about the German disco we went to one night at like midnight. A drunk guy named Bernd (who was hitting on Tracy earlier in the night) convinced us to go. The disco was under a McDonalds. Odd.

I'm putting the , and annotating them with my thoughts. I'm about halfway done.

One thing worth noting is that Tracy and I got our picture taken for a French newspaper. We were featured in the 9/15 edition of Ouest France. We rolled up to the new museum at Dead Man's Corner, and there were all the guys from the press there. Shawn and I were poking around in the gift shop (I bought a pair of boots and a jacket) and this guy from a local newspaper started interviewing Tracy. He said he wanted a picture, and as we were leaving (and getting more than a little grief from Ray the tour guide for making everyone late), he snapped a pic of Tracy and I with Bill Guarnere. It was one of the highlights of my trip. I'm definitely going back to Normandy. I want to poke around the museums more, too.

9/12/2006

Sitting in the motel room in Portsmouth. It's 3:39 AM, and I couldn't sleep anymore, but that's OK as our wake-up call is at 5am this morning. We have to get on the ferry to Bayeaux at 6:45. Went to bed at 9pm (some folks hit the pubs after dinner), but we had to fall out.

The flight over was uneventful. We had a fun time in Philly, even though we weren't there for long. I did get to talk to Babe Heffron for a little while in the airport. Doc really, really should have come on this trip. Uncle John would have liked it too (a few folks are Vietnam vets, and even more are pretty much right in his demographic).

We arrived in London on time, got the rooms at the Strand Palace (a shabby place, BTW), and I forced Trey and Shawn to go see London with what little time we had (we left the hotel around 2pm, and had dinner at 7pm). We managed to get to the London Eye, and then walked around outside Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We stopped at a pub and had a pint as well. Shawn dug it.

Yesterday we headed out at 9am for Aldbourne. If you imagine a quintessential English country village, this was exactly what you'd picture. About 1/4 of the houses even had thatched roofs. It's surrounded by little hedgerows, pastures with sheep grazing, etc. No bugs, either. I guess even the insects are too polite to come out and bite you. I half expected to see Hobbits.

We pulled in around lunchtime, and were met by some very enthusiastic WWII re-enactors. I was initially a little reticent to even bother with this thing. I thought it was a little cheesy at first. But after talking with a few of them, I quickly changed my mind. These dudes were really into it! They were doing it because they felt they owed folks like Bill and Babe their livelihoods! A few of them told me that they can't get enough of the stories and such, as they earnestly felt that with the sacrifices of the GIs, they'd all be speaking German. It was a strange perspective on the war, and the people here still feel it.

The afternoon ended with tour members and re-enactors all hanging out together at the Blue Boar pub (frequented by Easy Company when they were here). It was odd walking into the pub and seeing the entire bar occupied by GIs. It was like stepping into a movie.

Babe held court at the Blue Boar, but Wild Bill stayed at the Crown Palace, which is where we had a ploughman's lunch. Basically, the entire town came by at some point to say thanks to Bill and Babe. They're like rock stars here.

We headed out to Littlecote Manor, which is where the 506th Regimental Headquarters was based. We got to see room where Col. Sink had his office. It's also the place that Wild Bill and the rest of Easy's NCOs turned in their stripes. Bill gave us a little speech about it, too.

We toured the grounds (Henry VIII lived there, and smoozed one of his wives at the place), and saw these really cool Roman ruins. There wasn't much time, since Tracy and I saw the bus pulling away far off in the distance. We had to run back to the manor.

We pulled into Portsmouth, found a pint at a pub, had dinner and crashed.

Pictures to later as I get them uploaded.