Gipatik: 11.08.2019
Stage 5 Pont-Audemer -> ΓtrΓ©ham 114 KM (Total 953 KM)
The Normandy region showcases beautiful landscapes - gentle hills, yellow fields, green forests, and the blue sea.
Unfortunately, 75 years ago, this landscape experienced something very different.
In the dawn of June 6, 1944, German soldiers saw a huge armada of ships on the sea from their positions. What followed was a human horror - within 2 months, approximately 500,000 German and Allied soldiers were killed or wounded in this frontline area.
It is terrible to imagine the emotions that Allied soldiers must have felt in the landing boats, knowing the firestorm that awaited them on the beach.
The feelings of the German soldiers, who had to shoot their opponents en masse on command, only to be shot themselves afterwards, cannot have been any better.
Regardless of nationality, the soldiers believed that they were fighting for the right cause - but surely none of them willingly wanted to die for it.
The fact is that the Allies brought freedom and peace to Europe and Germany.
If anyone thinks they can solve conflicts with wars, they should take a look at the war graves in Normandy - hopefully, they will think differently afterwards.
Today, we once again experienced the challenges of French cycling routes. Today, the route led us to a wheat field, right to the edge of the 30-meter high cliffs by the sea π³. Further on, the route abruptly ended in a cornfield π - we had no choice but to push our bikes through the cornfield for about 1 km. Adventure live, and someone was slightly annoyed ππ
On the way back, in the middle of nowhere, we see a farmer who offers self-made cider. We spontaneously buy 3 bottles - he also tells us that we should let the bottles rest for 24 hours after transport. We did that, but apparently, 24 hours were not enough...
The next evening, we opened a now well-chilled bottle in our motorhome and there was no holding back... the entire bottle emptied in a rush like Ahoy fizzy drink.
It was a huge mess!
Now we still have 2 bottles and we thought π€« that we don't necessarily have to drink them ourselves, but can also give them away as gifts after our return πππ.