France, Spain and Portugal

Heather and I arrived at the Frankfurt Airport Monday morning April 22, 2019. After getting our rental car from Avis we headed on a exhausting three hour drive to Strasbourg, France for a short visit and then another hour back into Germany to the hotel. We had booked a room at the Gasthoff Blume in the hills of the Black Forest. After a short nap, that evening outside on the restaurant's terrace Heather enjoyed a venison salad, with Chanterelle mushrooms and cranberries while I enjoyed grilled trout, white asparagus and boiled potatoes. All the food including the venison and the trout came from the area, the trout that very afternoon. We shared a Black Forest Ice Cream Sundae for dessert.

After a good night sleep with the cool fresh late Spring air filling our room through the open windows we headed west across Northern France finishing for the night in Caen, France. Our route followed closely the main battle lines of WWI including passing through Verdun and the valley of the Somme where the famous 1916 battle took place.

The 1346 Battle of Crécy, an English victory during the Hundred Year's war also took place in the area of the Somme. Last fall and winter Heather and I had enjoyed reading a series of Bernard Cornwall historical novels on the Hundred Year's war which included this incredible English victory given that the French Army was much larger. The English longbow proved the decisive difference.

The next morning we visited Omaha Beach, including going into a very nice museum.