June 14th – It was a long drive, but it was well worth the 6-hour return trip down to Juno Beach from Albert. Because only the three Bells were interested in this adventure, we left the others to tour some of the small towns close to Albert for the day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get away as early as planned so we were a bit rushed to make it for the 2:30pm tour. We arrived just in time to have a quick lunch and then join the tour through the bunkers and down on to the beach.

These bunkers were built by the Germans and were part of the fortification of the Normandy coastline. Their construction was quite different than the ones we saw yesterday at Vimy and in some ways were flawed. Imagine building a bunker without ventilation other than a large hole through which a grenade could be launched!

The Canadians learned a lot from the failed attempt at Dieppe making the D-Day landing at Juno Beach in June 1944 well executed and more successful than originally planned. The Juno Beach Centre, which opened in 2003, celebrates the contribution Canada made to WWII between 1939 and 1945. The museum houses a number of permanent exhibits which help to explain Canada’s participation in the war, as well as occasional exhibits which help visitors to find out about contemporary Canada. We didn’t have sufficient time to see every part of the museum, but what we did see was quite well done.

German Bunker

We arrived back in Albert at 8:15pm thanks to the speed limits on the motorways here in France. Similar to Italy the speed limit is 130 kph unless the roads are wet and then you are to slow to 110 kph. We had a bit of a scare just a few miles out of Albert when George and I saw the flash of a speed camera as we passed. We conjectured as to whether 10 km over the limit might attract a speeding ticket and if so, how it might be delivered. No worries; we found out later that the car is registered in Germany and they don’t share their vehicle registration details with France!

Dinner tonight was again at the hotel, but poor George Jr was so tired from driving he skipped dinner and went straight to bed.