sorry , repost ignore this post
Now now girls, you\'re both pretty!
Play nice together!
Thanks for the welcome back BECG, and to answer the questions I know everyone has, I spent 2 weeks over on that side of the pond, visited London, Edinburgh Scotland, Omaha Beach and Paris. What a trip!
Trying to drive in France was fun, the people are completely nucking futs around the traffic circles.
It\'s all good, the French are very nice people to deal with, very helpful. Just don\'t let them drive if you are nervous in a car. :lol: We had to drive, it was the only way to easily (cheaply) get out to Normandy\'s beaches.
Wow. That\'s all I can say about Omaha Beach. The German pillboxes are still there and even several of the smaller underground emplacements, and even a subterranean barracks that you can walk into. All are un-restored, the connecting tunnels are still visible but have filled in most of the way. One of the pillboxes has a slight \"redecoration\" mark in one wall, the addition of a 2-foot wide window that I\'m sure wasn\'t in the orginal German design. Interestingly enough, the walls had lots of \"S\" shaped lines imbedded in the concrete walls that had clearly-imprinted impressions of fabric or canvas wrinkles. Det-cord boobytraps maybe? They were everywhere, but would not have been enough to demolish the pillbox, but they would have made a big mess of any troops or weapons. The acuracy of the American shots is amazing, the blast craters are still there, one was about 20 feet across and 10 feet deep in the grass, and the shells that hit the pillboxes left big dents or new \"windows\" for ventilation.
Scotland ROCKED, I am definetly going back there someday soon. London was great too, but their decision to shut down about 50% of the tube system during a major holiday weekend was a bit dumb. Half of western Europe was in the city at the time, since every university on the continent had spring break during the Easter weekend. No more travelling during a major holiday for me!
UK and the USA: Two very similar cultures, separated only by a common language. Read the papers over there, and you read about the punters (avg joe lunchbucket) griping about taxation and traffic citations, the boffins (smart people, profesionals) talking about problems with the war, healthcare and labor politics... Sound familiar?
I\'m looking forward to doing a London semester during my grad school in the next few years, so I am going back soon.
Lots of fun, and the Irish girls are HOT! :drool:
--Jim
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