This blog post describes the content of the video, which you can see below:
We start our Europe road trip by going to Normandy, France with our camper.
Leiden, The Netherlands
On our first day, we drive to Leiden in the Netherlands to visit Natalie’s family. It’s the 31st of March, and unexpectedly it starts snowing after we’ve just started driving. It’s funny because it rarely snows in the Netherlands, and while we kept in mind we might see snow on our travels, we did not expect it to be on our first day in our home country.
We see Natalie’s grandmother (not in the video), and then we go out to dinner with her younger brother Johan. We have a lovely evening with amazing conversations and drive back through a snowstorm. We wake up in a winter wonderland after a VERY cold night.
Overijse, Belgium
We drive to Overijse, a village near Brussels to meet up with Natalie’s sister who lives in the capital of Belgium. We catch up with her over lunch and have a nice but cold stroll through the village.
Le Tréport, France (Normandy)
After a nice few days in Belgium, we drive into France and go to Le Tréport, which is part of Normandy. The aire de camping-car is on top of a hill, and there is a free lift down to the village. We walk by the sea and check out the cute village with very pretty colourful cabins at the beach.
The motorhome spot offers fresh bread. You order it through the telephone the day before, and it gets delivered almost to your door the next morning. Such a lovely thing to start the day with!
Englesqueville, France
Marten really wanted to go to Normandy to see some of the World War 2 sites, so we went to Englesqueville which is in the middle of an area with loads of interesting sites.
He visits Maisy battery on his bike. Maisy battery is a group of World War 2 batteries constructed by the Germans to defend the French coast against the allies. This battery was built in secrecy, and the allies did not know it was there when they came to free Europe from German oppression.
Marten is impressed with how it must have been for the young guys during those years.
He also visits a German cemetery.
Omaha Beach
Our next stop is Omaha beach, which looks very pretty but has a big history during D-Day. The allies had big losses at the beach because of disrupted organisation and the batteries. The soldiers had to wade through up to a hundred meters of the sea before reaching the shore, and all officers and sergeants were injured or dead within the first 10 minutes.
We also visit an American cemetery full of losses from those first days, which really impressed us both.
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