Haggerty In The Hague

A little over a month ago, Lindsey and I went on a weekend road trip to two regions in Northwest France - Normandy & Brittany.  Our first stop was the city of Caen, the port city just over an hour from our hotel.  This place had a nice little harbor and a really cool looking church (as we would eventually find out would be commonplace).

Next, we headed to check into our hotel in the litte town of Ducey, which served as the perfect jumping off point for driving around the area.  The hotel was situated over a river:

The next day was our day for Mont Saint-Michel and the DDay beaches.  Mont Saint-Michel is an old monastery first built in the 10th century that is placed on an island one kilometer off the coast.

This place was beautiful when viewed from afar and just as interesting up close.  When visiting, one walks up the steep, narrow, winding streets through the village part until you get to the abbey at the top.  The abbey was very impressive and offered great views of the surrounding tidal area.

Next, we spent the greater part of a day seeing the WWII beaches of Normandy: Omaha Beach, the American War Cemetary at Omaha Beach, and Pointe du Hoc.  We saw the memorial on Omaha Beach before heading off the cemetary.  The American War Cemetary at Omaha Beach was very well kept with a museum and over 9,000 American soldiers buried there.

Pointe du Hoc was one of the few places not “cleaned up” after the war.  This is where American Rangers scaled the 100 foot cliffs on DDay to attack a group of casemates that were set up as part of the German Atlantic Wall.  This place was littered with bombing craters 15 feet deep and the same distance wide.  Most of the casemates that were occupied by the Germans were still intact and we were able to walk around in them.

After the DDay stuff, we decided to stop off for some cider tasting.  While this area is not a wine region, it is littered with apple orchards and many people making and selling their own apple products.  At one of the places we stopped, a little French boy named Louie served us cider:

This stuff was delicious and we ended up tasting the apple cider, pommeau (mix of cider and calvados), and Calvados (apple brandy from the Calvados area within Normandy).  Throughout the weekend, we also had lots of crepes, as this area is famous for its galettes, or buckwheat flour pancakes used to make crepes for dinner.  A typical galette was filled with local apples, locally famous camembert cheese, and andouille sausage.

The next day was our city visiting tour.  We visited a number old towns: St Malo, Dinan, Vitre, and Fougeres.  While every town was unique, most had the same things in common: a beautiful church with scary looking gargoyles, old houses with the timber-framing from the Tudor style, and an old chateau that was more of a medieval castle.

Saint Malo is an old walled island city.  A lot was shut down when we arrived, but looks like a nice port of all if you were sailing around the area.  Rumor has it that the nurses at St Malo used the seawater as a substitute for blood plasma during the war.

Next we headed to Dinan, a beautiful little town that we all thought we could’ve spent a whole day at.  This place consisted of a large walled city that sat about 200 feet above the river below.  After walking through the walled town we headed down towards the lively port area filled with restaurants and shops.

Next we moved on to Vitre, an older and much smaller town with a really cool looking chateau and some of the oldest timber framed houses we saw.  There was even a band of young kids playing some American rock music right outside of the chateau.

Last on our list for the day was Fougeres.  This placed boasted the best chateau that allowed visitors to take a tour inside the various parts of the old structure.  We ended up getting the audio guide with our tour and learned a lot about the history of this castle and the central role it played during the 100 Years War.

On the way home, we stopped by Rouen to check out the famous church that Monet painted over 30 times.  Unforunately the church was closed, but we were cetainly impressed with the exterior!  This was also the city where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake and we saw the monument to commemorate her life.

Overall this was a fantastic trip!

France, Summer, Travel

Lindsey and I rented a car to drive from the Netherlands to the Loire Valley for a long weekend.  Along the way, we stopped off in Giverny for the night.  After a nice stay at a quaint little hotel, we headed over to check out the Claude Monet home and gardens.  The water garden was definitely the highlight with beautiful water lilies and the japanese bridge.

Next we drove through Paris and onto the Loire Valley.  Along the way to our hotel, we stopped by Chambord, the largest of all chateaus in the Loire Valley.  This place was originally built by Francois I and was meant to serve as his hunting lodge.

We stayed in the town of Chenonceaux near the chateau Chenonceau.  This was a great location in the heart of the Loire Valley, in the region called “Touraine”.

We walked the gardens of Chenonceau at night while classical music was playing in the background.  This chateau was built directly over the river Cher.  The next day we went to Villandry, which is mostly known for its magnificent gardens.

Driving around the French countryside was beautiful - we saw lots of sunflower fields.

Chateau l’Azay de Rideau was the final chateau of our trip.  This one was a nicely fortified chateau that was beautiful from the outside.

We stopped by a few towns during our adventure, one of which was Chinon.  We went into the caves for a degustation (wine tasting).  The temperature dropped 10 degrees just after walking a few feet into the cave.  After the tasting, we walked back into the cave and observed the huge crates of wine being kept there for storage.  We also saw a few prized old bottles being kept for a special occasion.

France, Summer, Travel

This past weekend, Matt, our friends Joe and Ted, and I went into Amsterdam for the annual Gay Pride parade that was held on the Prinsengracht canal.  It was definitely an experience to remember!!  The crowds were large and the beer aplenty as we all watched over 80 boats float down the canal during the parade.  This was actually the first time that gay Dutch police and servicemen were allowed to wear their uniforms in the parade-  I feel like we are a long way off in the US from allowing that to happen and it was pretty refreshing. We even saw a group of American’s get married during the parade!  If you are ever in Amsterdam during this parade, I definitely recommend checking it out  More pics/videos here if you are interested.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, Summer

Last weekend Matt, myself, and a friend of ours went to the village of Kinderdijk (just outside of Rotterdam) to see its famous collection of windmills.  Kinderdijk is a UNESCO world heritage site and has 17 windmills dating back to the 1700s that help control the surrounding area’s water levels.  People still live and operate these windmills today.  To see the full set of pictures, visit my Picasa album!

Netherlands, Summer