Remembering

As I posted several years ago, I took the opportunity to go on a tour of the Normandy Beaches in northern France while I was living in London.  As November 11 is commemorated today, here are a few more pictures and stories of this experience.

This shadowed plaque reminds the reader that it took several years for the D-Day plan to come to fruition.  The amount of tanks, guns, vehicles, food and people that had to be amassed in order to cross the English channel to create an artificial port in order to defeat the Nazis is incredible.

Fifty years later the pieces of the port still rest in the sand, slowly being eroded or encrusted with ocean creatures.

An encrusted container on the beach with more of the port structures behind out in the ocean.  The sea claiming what used to be claimed by people.

Arromanches-les-Bains the heart of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.

Pointe du Hoc at which soldiers who landed did not find a beach to run across as they dodged bullets and grenades, but who found rock cliffs they were required to climb as they were shot at and bombed.  Such an incredible series of tasks in order to defeat the occupiers.  

Another portion of the Point du Hoc cliffs ready to be climbed by the soldiers.  

A sculpture called Les Braves, which was erected on Omaha Beach near St. Laurent sur Mer.

Moving to the US Cemetery in St. Laurent it is a peaceful place replete with memorials, reminders, crosses, starts and many art pieces reminding the visitor how many Americans died as the country joined in the final chapter of World War II.  This also reminded me how many more people had died from countries who had participated in the war since its beginning.  

The names of those who lost their lives during World War II.

 A water sculpture with a submerged map of the Normandy Beaches connected to a flat, extended pool of water that reaches out, visually, into the ocean from which the soldiers appeared.

A single cross in the US Cemetery.  Note the lack of a name.  A reminder of so many of the unknown soldiers, those who died but who were never identified.

Leaving a rock on a Jewish grave.  Symbolic of remembrance, God as the rock of Israel, acknowledge recent visitors, and adding their piece of rock to the ancient mound of a grave.

A copy of an old picture in one of the Normandy museums.  I love this picture as it juxtaposes the old with the young, the daily tasks of life with the task of unique events, the lack of acknowledgement by each of the main characters toward each other....just doing what needed to be done for survival.  Side by side.

Thesis Proposal

After two years of grad school I am finally ready to propose my thesis.  I was ready at the end of June but with some missed paperwork the actual presentation will be taking place at the end of this week, August 10 at 10 AM in IGAC on the second floor.  Come if you are interested in Travel Bloggers and Serious Leisure.  Come if you are going to ask me simple questions that make me look intelligent and highly prepared.  Come if you can spare the time.  Don't come if you are going to be an academic snob and try to make me look bad.  Go bug someone else.

Good practice and good luck to me!

1000 Words

This what I currently feel like:

Photograph by T. Bates

As you walk down the streets of Prague (Praha), the capital of the Czech Republic, your feet are touching the foundations of the old remnants of four town boroughs (Old Town, New Town, Hradčany and Lesser Town).  Different cities, united in the 18th century, into one urban space.

As you gaze around, your eyes will take in Charles Bridge, Old Town Square,  Prague Castle, open air markets, multiple churches, bohemian crystal, and garnets (many many garnets).

While navigating the narrow, cobblestone streets it is hard not to look up and out at the architecture of the bridges, river walk, concert halls, skinny alleys, museums, and cathedrals which sometimes date back to the 1200's.  While walking along in the Old Town you may have the same experience I had, as I gazed up, yet again, with strained neck to see a man, hanging precariously from a piece of wood.  Thoughts of a man in the depths of sorrow quickly entered my mind and I wanted to yell out, "DON'T DO IT!!!!", only to see, at second glance, that the man was made of steel and the piece of wood, a piece of steel.  I stopped.  I gazed.  I smiled at the trick for which I had almost fallen.  The seriousness and humour of modern art in the middle of decades of history.

This is the current wallpaper on my cell phone as I know how this man feels.  Not suicidal or ready to let go, but feeling that the third term of grad school is pushing me down.  I am holding on, but barely.  So much to accomplish.  Such a short time frame.  Just a quick break to let you know that my right hand is still grasping the beam that is jutting out from a wall of academia.  

Cultural History Buff!

Did you know that Canada has a Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC)?  Until I started completing a Master's Degree in Recreation Management, I was unsure as well.  It is the government's agency to increase the awareness of Canada as a tourism destination to the rest of the world, and to encourage Canadians to travel in their own country rather than heading off to foreign destinations.  As of 2011 the CTC will be targeting the following countries as major sources of vacation travellers to Canada: USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Mexico, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, India and Brazil.

Their website includes links to multiple pages that will lead you to through a labyrinth of initiatives including LOCALS KNOW; brand, experiences and EQ toolkits; you can find out your EQ (Explorer Quotient); flip through a corporate brochure; order posters featuring many of Canada's beautiful sights; sign-up to receive updated information as new initiatives are implemented.  As well, the CTC has joined all the social networking sights online.

The only thing I don't like is the branding of a country, my country.  It is a brand?  Do we want people to come to Canada because we have adopted a corporate model of marketing?  Branding and I don't really get along.

Bluestones Sarsens Druids

This winter season my sister Marcia and her husband Art decided to take the opportunity to come to the United Kingdom to have a pre-Christmas celebration.

In their ten day whirl-wind tour we decided that going out to Stonehenge would be a brilliant idea for several reasons: a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, a much speculated yet indefinable place, rumours of strange goings-on, and it was December 20 (close enough to Winter Solstice to perhaps spy some modern day Druids).

Upon further investigations the London Walks group has special visits to Salisbury (including Cathedral) and Stonehenge for the solstice and equinox occasions. They are a group of professionals who walk you for 2 hours around London and stop at pre-determined places to tell you about the architecture, noteworthy people, history and stories of the city. Quite delightful and addictive. We joined their tour and had a fantastic day.

There are many theories why Stonehenge exists, one of many arranged groups of over-sized rocks around the UK. What makes these various stone piles interesting? The stone is not often not native to the area (Bluestones, Sarsens), they are gigantic and heavy, and organized in an intricate pattern. One can deduce that they have therefore been moved to this location by people, who used technology for movement, and arranged them according to their needs. By whom? How? For what? These are unanswered and highly speculative questions with no decisive answers.

I was most interested in our Guide's statement that the two of the stones form a window in which the setting sun peers through during the Winter Solstice.  An alignment of which the makers of Stonehenge were perfectly aware.  This I was going to see! The group disbanded for some free time and I walked towards a small bridge, then stood ready to test this alignment of the setting sun. The only place to poise oneself was on a small bridge linking two small ridges over a slight dip. The bridge was squished with other interested people, but we were all so captivated by the joy of nature and history that body parts touching each other did not concern us. The employees kept yelling, "There are too many people on the bridge!  Please take your pictures and move on so others can take one as well." I obeyed after taking 84 pictures. I was in the right spot as the sun began to set and I was not moving until I had captured the movement of that sun in the stone frame, surrounded by glorious colours. There it was, the sun slowly sinking into the earth right in between the two middle stones before it hit the horizon.

The sun then moved away from the centre of the stones and completely set 10 or so minutes later. Nature added a more beautiful sky by providing clouds in the landscape. Perhaps we can thank the three caravans of Druids already camped out, 36 hours before the actual solstice was to occur. An experience I am not likely to have again, but am glad that I had at least once.