Not your Typical Site Visit: Exploring Europe & the WWII Atlantic Wall

In this episode, Matt Brennan shares his unique travel experiences across Europe, focusing on his personal journey through Germany and France. He discusses the cultural insights gained from his trip, the architectural marvels he encountered, and his fascination with World War II history, particularly the significance of military construction projects. In this conversation, Matt Brennan shares his profound experiences during a trip to Normandy, reflecting on the historical significance of D-Day and the Atlantic Wall. He discusses the emotional impact of visiting the D-Day beaches, the architectural wonders of Europe, and the lessons learned from history. The conversation emphasizes the importance of preserving historical sites and encourages listeners to pursue their travel goals.

Takeaways

This isn't your typical site visit.
Travelling Europe was a major bucket list item.
The food in Europe is healthier and tastes better.
Eiffel Tower tickets should be booked in advance.
World War II history has always been a personal interest.
Cultural experiences in Paris were enriching.
Architecture in Europe showcases incredible detail.
Travelling with family adds a special touch to the journey.
The pace of dining in Europe is more relaxed.
Visiting historical sites deepens appreciation for history. The Atlantic Wall was a massive German coastal defence system.
Visiting D-Day beaches is a humbling and emotional experience.
Architecture can tell powerful stories about history.
Cultural insights from Europe highlight the importance of preservation.
Travelling can provide a deeper understanding of historical events.
Personal reflections can enhance the travel experience.
The significance of D-Day is felt through the landscapes and memorials.
Historical architecture in Europe is rich and diverse.
Making travel goals is essential for personal fulfillment.
Experiencing history firsthand can be transformative.

Sound Bites

"This isn't your typical site visit."
"The food was incredible."
"You have to go. Add it to your list."
"What a trip of a lifetime!"
"The beaches were again, humbly powerful."
"The architecture was incredible."

🎙️Website - WhattheRFI.com

🍏Apple Podcast - What the RFI?
🎧Spotify - What the RFI?
🎥YouTube - @WhatTheRFI

1:00:00

This isn't your typical site visit.This time, I'm walking through the ruinsof one of the largestconstruction projectsin military history.Let's get into it.(upbeat music)Welcome to What the RFI.I'm Matt Brennan, and thisis the podcast all about CA.So it's been a while.It's been a really long time.And I apologize becausefor the month of April,I was gone fulfilling amajor bucket list itemon my personal journey,my life and everything.Took me about 22 yearsto get to this point.So what did I do?Well, I traveled Europe, right?And I know that's anopen destination, of course,and we'll get into thedetails of where I wentand the trips and everything.But it went with my partner, Julia.The two of us beenwanting to go for a long time.I've been wanting to gofor a very, very long time.And we had an absolute blast.And that's what I'm gonna go through.I'm gonna tell you about it,but we're also gonna goabout some of the architecturethat we saw, both in Germanyand France, even in Normandy,we're just old France, of course.But in addition, I wanna discussthe largest military projectsthat was ever constructed over there.And there was lots, lots.We can take this in many different ways,but I think from the opening,you kind of know wherewe're going with this.So let's start with my little trip herebecause I wanna share about it.I wanna share about the journey,what I went on to, what I learned.And just, again, just maybe it's an itemthat you wanna check out too.So let's get into it, the start.Well, we flew intoFrankfurt, which was awesome, right?Flew in there.I think it was almost a12-hour flight from Vancouver, BC.And upon rival the airport,we met with Julia'sparents, which was great.They picked us up. It was nice.We didn't have tojump on any extra trainsor anything in that respect.And we drove to CalThis is where mypartner Julia kind of grew up.It lived in the samehouse and everything.Such a cool little smalltown, great little place.Again, had kind of a surrounding wallthroughout the city,which was unfortunatelybombed during World War II.But again, a lot of theremnants in the historystill stands there.You got kind of theroller hills throughout there,the environments, just incredible.So upon getting there, wewere kind of jet-lagged,of course.And again, it was thelongest I've ever flownand through multiple time zones.In the end, it wasn't bad.Getting there, we were a bit of a zombie.And my little tip is stay upas much as you physically can.Do not go to sleep.And I did have a littlebit of nap on the planeand everything for a couple hoursjust to kind of keepcharging the battery,trickle charging me, we'll say it.Once we got back there,I tried to stay up as late as I could,I think about 10 o'clock,and then I just crashed.And the next day wasn't so bad.And then the following day,I didn't even notice I was tired.I was in the newroutine, the new schedule.It was awesome.And it was the right way to do it.There's my little tip for you.But anyways, yeah, we justhad a great time through there,kind of visiting withthe family in that sense,taking the bikes into town,kind of seeing all thehistory that came up,where again, Julia kindof grew up in that sense.It was really, really slick.Again, saw herextended family, her sister,brother-in-law, nephew,and just getting to knoweveryone in that respect.But one of the special nightsthat kind of at thebeginning of the trip,we went out for dinnerwith her family, her folks,and it was kind of an old,a place that was abarn that was renovated,best roast beef after a wow, amazing,lots of walks, lots ofdrinks at the parents.And it was just a blast.It really was, it wasawesome to no extent.And definitely, you know,sun tanning out in theback, even though it was April,it was still very warm.We lucked out onweather, which was great.And the kind of the commontheme was upgrade, right?You know, with Julia's parents,she would kind of, herparents would, you know,we would kind of eat, westarted eating in the kitchen,then we actually ate in the dining room,we called it an upgrade.And next thing you know,the china was coming out.It was an upgrade.It was a good running theme.It was a lot of fun, lots of laughs.One day we had a downgrade.We just weren't using itas a nice, you know, cutleryor whatever the case was.It was just fun.So many laughs, absolute blast into it.So then the trip kind ofreally started to take off.So we jumped on thetrain, got dropped off,and we went fromCalisheim to Paris, right?City of love, right?Beautiful place.And again, always on the bucket list.We stayed downtown on the18th, Adorcent of Paris.So again, we were right inthe northern side of Paris,if you've ever been in that quadrant.Great little place.And we got there alittle bit late, you know,and of course we werehungry and things, you know,we wanted to get an eat andwe definitely wanted some wine.Absolutely, come on, we're in France.Let's toast to that.And we, you know, thankfullyright from our place downtown,our little hotel, wejust ripped around the sideand then sure enough,there was, you know,just a nice little pub and everything.The culture, it was justbeautiful having a glass of wineand just listening,listening to the culture,listening to, youknow, just the rain outsidethat one night we did get rain.It was just incredible.It was just so much fun in that.And the next day was kind of woke up.Of course, we had ourcoffees, we went to a nice bakery,incredible food.And I just want to pause on the food sideand then we'll comeback to this a few times.The food was incredible andit wasn't just incredible,but I felt so good inside, right?And again, when I come here and eat,it's just a different story at home.So again, what you eat iswhat you're putting in youand that kind of stuff.But seriously, thefood over there is just,it's not just tastesgood, but it's really healthy,all this stuff.The additives thatare not going into therecompared to here onthe North American side.So just kind of onething I really noticed,we could eat as muchand throughout the trip,I only gave five pounds and I've lost itlike within days getting back, right?Versus if I go to somewhere, like I said,North America wise, it'seasy to throw on 10 poundslike that and it's hard to get it off.So anyways, back to where we were.So the first day, weactually grabbed a planetfrom a little planet, which was anawesome little book.Great ideas for in there.It talks about different walking tours,things to see if youwant to be a tourism.It's great, Google AI isgreat, it'll help you too.But this is just an old school wayof just kind of seeing what out there,planning some really walkabletrips that people have done.And that's what we did.And so we kind of did theNorth Quadrant where we were.And we started off, wesaw the wall of love.It was again, just beautiful,these blue tiles allthroughout and then white writingand all different languages just saying,"I love you and everything."So it was really, reallyspecial, just nice to see that.Very popular, ofcourse, crowds were definitelyheavily around it.And in conjunction with this,we just saw lots ofart everywhere, right?People were painting stuff on,they had little birds painted upand it was just a neat little area of it.We went basically up to Sacre-Couille,the chapel at the top of the North Hill.We didn't go into it,lines were really busy.But again, this is where the architecturewas really starting to shine, right?The tension, the detail, all thestonework, the cut stone,the tension details on the columnsand where we're kind of atthe top of the pilaster, like,"Wow," and it just kept getting betterand better and better.And this is themoment where we finally sawthe Eiffel Tower from afar.We could see in thedistance, took a bunch of photosand very cool.We made it down to Notre Dame.It finally reopened andbecause this was the Easter weekend,like leading up to it,they did open the doors.We got to go in there, take a look.We only waited in linefor about 15 minutes,which really wasn't that bad.And again, just themassive architecture to us.Nice to see that it was finally restoredfrom the big fires that wehad a number of years ago.And one of the columns I madelooked like all the paintingswere fake.Well, no, they were restored.They're special paintersthat were very detailedand selected to come inand restore all these photos.And it was cool to seethat just the historycome back to life, even thoughit looked like a fresh print.It's very, very impressive.And again, that's just, I've done mypainting on the side,but at the end of theday, nothing comparesto what these artists do.So kudos to that.At that point, we kept walking, wechecked out the liver,and then we needed to call it at night.And we grabbed some dinner andwe grabbed one of our coffees,you name it.And the second day was the more the dayI think I was looking forward to.And that's because wehad Eiffel Tower tickets.And not just any kind of Eiffel Towers,we bought the walking tickets.So basically, a little tip,you want to definitelybook it way into advance.The elevators for theEiffel Tower fill up very fast.If you are willing towalk up to the second floor,which is still, the views are incredible.Yes, you can take anelevator to the top floor,but honestly, for the amount of timethat you have to wait to do that,the second floor isstill very, very incredible.So tickets go on sale 14 days in advance.For the walking tours, youcan scoop them up pretty good.You pick your time,basically walk right up,walk and get in there.And of course, it'swalking, so there's not a linebecause you just hitit and then get going.And it's over 700 steps,between kind ofgetting to the second floor.But again, even at the first floor,incredible views are amazing.Going up to the second floor,there is a glass floor atone point, scary as ever.If you're up to intothat thing, I tried it.Definitely set my nerves off thinkingabout right now, hey.But very, very slight, very impressive.Again, a piece of architecture for it.It was built for afair and look what it is.It's sticking around ever since.Now, the one thingthat we did learn that,because it's still in arain in Paris, what happens?Well, the only thingkeeping this alive is the paint.Well, every seven years,this thing has to be painted.And it's like a hundred thousand tons,or I can't remember the exact number,like seven thousand tonsof paint, something crazy.A huge amount of paint goes into thisin repainting this every seven years.And again, it's not paintinga wall where you're rolling.It's all these spokes.So if you've ever paintedyour stairs in those spindles,yeah, do that, but for along, long, long, long time.And let alone, if you'reafraid of heights, good luck.That's all I gotta say, because someareas, hey, no problem.But there's some areasthat I would, I don't know.That's the whole documentary out there.I bet you can find on Netflix, okay?So great thing,incredible views, amazing.And it was time tobasically head off, grab some lunch,and we grabbed somee-bikes, zipped around the town,checking everythingout, went to the Pantheon,got to see all that architecture.And again, that's where they cut stone.The architecture just shine.We, you know, Julian wouldlook at some of these columnsand just look at thedetails and just wonderand just imagine the hours and hoursspanning into this one little detailthat hopefully it doesn't crackwhen they hit that final piece.We go into thePantheon, it's full of statuesand everything, again,all beautiful cut stone.Incredible, again,the tension, the detail.He can't, even through pictures,it doesn't do justiceother than being there.So very cool to see theseplays, going into the Crip,you know, and saw, youknow, all that respect.And of course, back on the e-bikes,and then we just went around town,we saw the Louvre atnight, which is really special.We did see it during the day.Fortunately, we couldn't get into itjust because of the, again,you wanna buy your ticketsvery well in advance.But even in the Louvre,like, there was something likeover 33,000 pieces.So even if you stood ateach piece for 30 seconds,you would be in there forthree, four days nonstop.So like, you willnever ever see anything.You definitely gotta go and go.So next time when I get there,I'm gonna definitely, we'lldefinitely go check it outjust from the artwork side.But again, seeing justthe exterior from nightwas incredible, justagain, the architecture,the details that came from it.You know, of course, webiked over to Arc de Drome,again, the arches, we went and saw that.And again, it's just nice kinda seeingthat history of Paris.And of course, we gotta gosee the Eiffel Tower at night.So we went to the Trocadero.I'm probably butcheringhis names, I apologize.But we went there andyeah, it was really cool.It was really special to kinda see that,drop off our e-bikes, jumponto the train, the subway,get back to home and just call.And we were tired, we were done.It was an adventure.But I think thatagain, throughout all this,we would just stopand eat where we wanted.You know, like, hey,let's get some crepes.Oh, let's get a cafe, let'sget a latte, let's get a salad.Let's get a nice meal anywhere.No reservations, just walk in, done.And the service is so different.They don't expect you to tipversus what North America is, right?That's a big thing that'sreally changed over this year.And in addition to thattoo, they don't rush you.You just go in and enjoy and relax.If you're wine, you want some more,you almost have to gain their,get their attention most of the time.And I think that was,it was really special.The day of rushing, rushing, rushing,just slowing down and enjoying it.And the meal didn't have to rush.No one was, you know,trying to push you outto get the next person in.That wasn't it, because there wasrestaurants everywhere.And again, we never had to wait in line.So I think it wasreally, really special with it.So after that was time to basically,basically go to Paris,jump onto our train to see on Cannes.We rented a car and,cause we got there kind ofearly in the morning, mid day.We did spend a few hoursat the Memorial des De Canand it was, again, itwas a World War II museum.Very powerful, very cool.We actually started off in a bunker.This was basically a museumwas built on top of a jar,German bunker inside the hillside.We got to see that.And then one of thebig things with this tripthat I wanted to do was tosee the World War II history.I love World War II history.I don't have any reallyfamily extended familythat have been into it,but since I was a kid,since I was like, you know,I think in elementary school,I just was fascinated by, you know,by the whole D-Day experience and the warand how it happened and allthe history and the culture.Last year I was in Washington, DC at AIAand I had a free day,which I went into the Holocaust museumand again, learned a wholenew level on that respect too.Again, I knew about it,I understood about it,but it was just a whole new levelof where it was in appreciationand definitely rememberingof all that were lost from it.So World War II historyhas always been somethingof interest in my life, studying it.I've, you know, I've, yes,have watched all theHollywood specials, you know,saving Private Ryan, you know,Band of Brothers andall that kind of stuff,but always very interested,very curious about it.So part of this trip wasdedicated just to kind of seein this part of history.So we went from, youknow, after that museum,it was really powerful.Again, there was aportion of the Holocaust,I was talking about that too,and just seeing howwar and basically evento the Berlin Walland that kind of historyand it was just, yeah, very goodand seeing it from this side of the worldversus from the North American side.And our bed and breakfast where we stayedfor the majority of thetime when we were in Normandywas in Coursera Sur-Mure.And that's basically Juno Beach.That's where theCanadians landed on D-Day.And there is anamazing museum right there.And the nice thing aboutthis World War II museum,it's actually hosted by Canadians.So Canadian exchange students, you know,individuals basically are working there.I really did want toget to take a look at it,but seriously, we kindof only dedicated a dayfor this whole experience.You could dedicate aweek and not even do it.There's about close to 30 museumsthat are World War IImuseums out there in Normandy.So good luck trying to dothat in two days, even a week.Two weeks would barely crack it.So lots to see and do, plan accordingly,but we try to do it in a day.And I'm gonna get into that.But our bed and breakfast was incredible.Again, old exposed walls.This is one of the originalbuildings prior to the war.And what an incredible place.And, you know, cause wewere tired after the kind ofthe museum and the drive, you know,do I want to do some reading?And at that point I wentfor a walk along Juno Beach.I just wanted to see it,I walked along the pier and everything.And the moment I did that, Ikind of caught a corner eyeand I saw my first World War II bunker.And it was kind of, it was on the otherside of the channel.So I had to kind of walk back and retractand go to it.And it was, yeah, it kindof, it hit a little hardcause it was, wow, thisis the history, right?It was sunken in, went in, got to see it.And yeah, just had to pause.And this brings me to thetopic about the Atlantic wall.Right?We're gonna talk about this.This was one of thebiggest military projectsin military history.That how this, youknow, what came of thisthrough World War II.And of course theconstruction administrationthat went into buildingthis massive, massive project.So what is the Atlantic wall?Well, first off, it was the massiveGerman coastal defense systemspanning from Norway to France.Okay.They knew, the Germans knew that theywere gonna invade itat some point.They knew it was gonna happen.They knew the invasion.This was the, if anything,this is their line of defensethat they had to protect.And they understood thatgiven all this scenario,even, you know, the attempts from theBritish side of things,you know, from, fromChurchill and so on, big, you know,that's what the reality was.And the historic contents between this,this was all, this Atlantic wall, right?Was built between 1942 and of course 1944by the Germany, of course, to defendagainst the invasion,like we talked.Okay.So get this, here's some fun factsof the whole feature of this.There was a total of15,000 to 18,000 bunkers built.Holy smokes.And yes, I know they were prettystraightforward designs.They were a concrete little box,couple of different variations.Some were holdingartillery and that kind of stuff,but 15,000s of these things, right?Just everywhere,littered the whole coastlinelike we talked about in theinland as well too, right?So keep in mind.So this whole, thiswhole wall, we're calling it,these bunkers was built atotal length of 2,600 kilometers,which works out to be 1,600 miles, right?Massive, massive there.And like I said, this went from Norwayto the Spanish border, okay?So huge amount of capped areato capture this, to make sure.And the timeline, of course,here was the construction schedule.It was roughly two years.And again, the real workkicked off in 1942, okay?And I remember even reading about thisin the few museums that we did checkoutand how they did change hands.And they were worried thatthings weren't gonna be done.And when it got into,I can't remember the general's name,but one of the generals that he knew itwas gonna be a problem,they were still exposed and stuff,and they wanted to be even beyond.And of course, the labor force,who came in and helped this?Well, hundreds of thousands.And of course, therewas forced labor, right?And that respect.And it was a massive projectto get this going, to do it.But there was a lotof unfinished elements.They didn't complete this projectin time of June 6th, 1944 D-Day, right?And a lot of segments weren't complete.They were lightly fortified by 1944because they realizedthey weren't gonna be ableto finish these.So they did what they could to make itlook like it was doneor just put that mainartillery gun in there.Lots of critical gaps in Normandy,which of course resultedfor the D-Day excess, right?That was kind of the thing.Project Overlord was theoperation that they called it.And the shortage of concrete.This kind of sounds liketoday's culture right nowin our building.Shortage of concrete, steel, labor,hindered the full completion.And again, keep in mind,these aren't concretetrucks they were doing.They did have trucks,but it was a much different element.The roads and everything.And again, it was a different day and ageback in 1944, 1942 comparedto what it is today, right?So much differentchallenges that we had with that.And they were prefabricated bunkers.They had set designs a lot.Once you kind of saw a few,but they all had alittle bit different variants.They had their purpose in mind.And of course theywere designed to landscapeto basically protectand defend from whateverinvasion could have been, right?Again, some of these were radar towers,observation points, posttank traps, anti-air defense,you name it, right?And definitely some heavy artillery.We did see it in TAC,which was quite interesting.And so some of thesite visits that I took onand the observationsthat I saw from these,the bunkers that werestill standing today is,the walls alone wereanywhere from kind of two,three feet of concrete, pure concrete.These things were massive, the rebar.I grabbed a few books thatkind of showed the guys doingand putting the rebar,like they were buildingthese as to be these solid tanks,as you can imagine,because they were totallyexpecting to get bombs droppedon them and to defend the coast.So of course they had todo everything and they can.A lot of the littlearchitectural details that stood outwell was the way thatthey looked at the landscape,how they built it into.They had the alcoves,they had a bunch of kind oflittle hiding area points.So again, for cover, if someone was onshore that you could,or even if someone got close to itand they had to come throughthe, down the bunker there,well, again, there wasthat protection point,how they designed it.Again, very similarto what a castle would,again, why is the sprousestaircase going reverse?Well, again, from theindividual going down,they have the way thatthey can swing their swordversus the opponentwho's going against his hand.So just those detailsof just combat historyjust played a big roleinto that designing of it.And of course they had allthe little keyholes againfor the guns and whatever the case was,basically to protect, protect, shoot,again, do whateverthey could in that sense.And you would see allthose details in place.How was the environment worn today?Well, again, it's beena lot of years, right?In that respect, our 80 years.And what we're, you know,you're definitely findingthat the concrete isstarting to deteriorate,but it is concrete.It will last forever in that respect.Some of these bunkersare definitely sinkinginto the ground.You can see that someare buried by the sand,again, just the naturalchanging elements to that.Some have been deemed unsafe, of course,and they don't allow people in,but a lot of them youcan go in, take a look,touch the walls and just bepart of what that history wasand just see it.And we definitely sawthings slip through the crackswhen it came to the CIA execution.Like I mentioned kind ofearlier about, you know,a few generals came ontrying to restart, you know,trying to get thisproject moving and get goingbecause they realized thatthere was some critical areasthat weren't being done.Unfortunately, it was too late.It really, really was for these.And the constructionwas an extreme timelines.And of course, thegeopolitical side of things,given the status of what it was, right?It was quiteinteresting once you read intothe deep down history of it.And even like being part of this historyand going throughthese bunkers, you know,one of the areas I'mgonna talk about in a secondat this point, due to walk,you could see the coastline, right?And once you get into like,I was standing at oneof these artillery areasand I apologize, Ican't remember the nameor what it was, it wason our way to Omaha Beach.And I just stood there, just, you know,leaning against the gun,just looking at the coastand just pausing and going,imagine just being, youknow, a German in that casewhere you see, I just,you wake up one morning,it's nothing, wake up the next morningand oh my goodness, a fleet of ships.Just incredible, like not incredible,but just howfrightening that would have beenfrom both fronts, right?And then of course, you know, the US,the British, the Canadians coming overand seeing this massivewall too for the first time,just words cannot expresswhat that would have felt like.So kind of a takeaway, just the legacy,the preservation of this wartimearchitecture is there,you can go see it, Iencourage you to do that.And this kind of tiesme into my D-Day beachesand how one of thosekind of bucket list thingsI wanted to do.And like I said, we dedicated a full dayto the D-Day beaches.Well, first of all, westayed at Juneau Beach,which was really nice.And we actually, before we left backheading on our trip,we just got up in themorning and just relaxedand took it in and sawit with the tides out.So we started with our first beachthat we actually went to on that day,where we actually wasdedicated to the beacheswas the Amrochle Bensand that was Gold Beach.And upon arriving toit, it was very humbling.And I didn't know howI would react again.I've studied this, I've readit, I've watched the movies,every day I remember, I'mthere, front and center,rain or shine, it doesn't matterbecause it's really important for me.And when I got to there,right away, we kind of,hey, park, not a big deal.And once we kind ofgot close to the beachand we were kind ofgoing through the townand seeing that and thenthe beaches were there.And I think it just hitme like a ton of bricks.And we saw right away theartifacts that were leftfrom the British troopsthat basically made thisfull seaport, so we sawall the individual kindof docking systemsthat they had in place.And a fair amount ofcourse was taken away,but there was a fair amount left too.And just seeing that thewhole thing just hit meand it was very powerful.And I've heard that,I've talked with othersin the same thing, theydidn't know what to expectand just very humbling tobe at that moment and see.And yeah, like I said,it was very emotional.And so we stayed intown, we did grab a coffeeand we definitely dida lot of reflecting.And that's where wewent to a couple otherWorld War II bunkers on the way, justkind of took a look,got some photos, saw thetrenches that were still there.And then we finally madeour way to Omaha Beach,bloody Omaha, the worst onewhere the US took action to,to try and take that.And we went to, we parked at bunker WN65and there's lots and lotsof photos kind of showing it.And it's kind of the bunkerwas on the hillside, right?So we looked at the bunker,we started walking up the hilland then there was a beach, orthere was a bench, excuse me,up on the hillside.And I actually had tosit and just kind of lookedand just in awe of just going,this is what happened on D-Day.This was why this was theworst one, the worst invasion.There are over 3000 men,lost their lives in that,those few hours, justbecause of the complexityof that scenery, of thelandscape that it provided, right?All the other beacheswere pretty laid out,minimal lives were lost.It doesn't matter ifit's a life is a life,but it definitely nothingcompared to what Omaha Beachencountered in that sense.And just, yeah, sat andreflected and just seeing,and just like I said,analyzing the challengesthat they could have faced with all this,let alone all the traps and everything,get into that in a second.And because we're on top of the hillside,we kind of went along the ridge.And again, just theviews and saw more bunkers.And the next thing youknow, we're walking on topof a bunker that's buried, right?Just what a challenge that these men facesoon as they came up to that.They had no idea, right?And again, most ofthem were underage, too.We walked down and wegot down to the beach.Now the tide was in, whichwas a little unfortunate.I really wanted, we shouldhave got there a lot earlierwhen the tide was out.And then just to kind of experience,because that's the thing on D-Day,they got there superearly, I think like six o'clock.That's when they landed andthe tide was way, way out.And of course, thereason why they wanted to beon low tides was becausethere was so many trapsout up along the wholebeach, everything from minesand the barricades and everything.Like you couldn't get a U-boat up there.And it was just a nightmare for it.And that's why theydefinitely landed before,from my understanding.So we got there, it was higher tide,but it was still out enoughthat we could walk along it.And I took a knee on it,put my hands in the sandand just stood, kneeled, reflected.Again, it truly sucks.It's sad that this had to take place,but I'm thankful thatthe Americans, the British,the Canadians did do it.And because who knows what today'slandscape would have beenif someone didn't doit, we just don't know.So very powerful.And like I said, wewalked along the beach,walked in our sandals and our bare feetand saw the monuments and just reflected.And again, reading all the names.And we didn't make it tothe cemetery for the U.S.,but I heard it's beenvery, very incredible too.And we kind of, finally,we had a few hours leftin the day, so wezipped up to Point Duhok.And that was, again, itwas kind of on the edgeof the walls, the cliff.These cliffs are 130, 150 feet tall.And this was where amajor artillery site was,where they were massiveguns, tons of bunkers,and just blasting out to sea to basicallystop the invasion that was happening.And yes, this area was bombed to death.You can see thecraters when you got there.We also had the rangers,that's what they call themselves,who basically repelledup that massive wall,got up there, captured the site as well,in a big team effort to basically allowfor more ships to come to shore,to basically carry on the invasion.Everyone was doing their part.There was no way in team, and of course,everyone was doing their part,whether it was air from the land, right?Everyone was doing their thing.And very, very important,again, how it all came out.Hey, and that really kind of concludedthe beaches and the bunkers.We went through a lot, a lot of bunkers.And there wasrepetitive, a lot of it was same.But again, given the howmany that were being built,they weren't designing this.It wasn't an architectural feature.It was a defense thing.So they had to pump theseout like crazy and do that.And like they said, there was gaps,and that's how the invasion founder was.That was the weak link in the area.And it was probably one of the easierways to get across too,because of the English channel.And so that night we went to Bay U.And the nice thing aboutBay U is it wasn't bombed.It really was.All these buildings wereoriginal back pre-World War II,because nothing was touched.Lots of photos, lotsof World War II photos.We actually took a photo of one building.And then when we got home, we saw,I think on one of my feeds,I saw someone take aphoto of showing the shouldersin front of this one particular building.And then we were thereand we were taking photos.So it was really neat to see that.Hey, we were there part of that,that history and seeing that too.And just in the town that we are,just everywhere, thearchitecture is so different, right?All paved stones all throughout, right?Pavers, I mean, pavers all throughout,individual stonework and just incredible.And we eventually, after kinda,we went back to Seattle, we drove there,we dropped off the rental car.We just hung out there for the day.And I think it was oneof my most favorite days.We went to one of the abbeys there.And again, again, even though we thoughtwe were getting awayfrom World War II history,we're still involved in it.Sian was bombed over90% of the structures.You know, like there was a few abbeys,the cathedrals that stayed intact.There was the castle,Sian Castle in there.And then a couple of other things,but a lot area was just destroyed.There was Old Town, thatwas part of the original,that that did survive.But the rest of it wasall really new lookingbecause of the factthat the war took it over.And even with the bombing,it wasn't like it wastotally unannounced.Like the bombers prebombing basically droppedhundreds of thousandfliers through the air.The abbey was painting the church,painting everything theroof read with a crosssaying, "Don't bomb here,this is home base, right?We're not," you know,for kind of injured.And everything, and the sick.And thankfully they didn't do that.They protected that building,which was a massive structure on its own.From there, we just, yeah,we hung around, we shopped,we enjoyed ourselves.We had a beautiful romanticdinner, three course meal,just incredible, best food ever, wine.The wine was incredible too.Like, oh, it was so good.It was so cheap too, come on.It was like anywhere fromfour to nine euros, right?And that was an expensive bottle, right?It was really nice.Like I said, it was my favorite day,seeing everything, being part of it,just a day relaxingand yeah, I don't know.I just have to put, it was just aspecial, special day.So eventually we got back on the train.We made our way back to Germany.We got back home with Julia'sparents and we just relaxed.We celebrated Easter and lots of food.We went for a hike in thewoods where by surprise,at the end of the hike,there was beer and everythingand there was this full restaurant.It was really special, really unique,jumping on stones across seven rivers.What a cool place.So many laughs everywhere we went.And that was, I think,the absolute best part,just felt like a newhome in a way, right?So it was really cool.And of course, after manyEaster eggs, oh my goodness,we eventually started goingto the South side of Germany,we were stopped at home.And this is where thelargest, tallest cathedralin the world lives, right?And we went to thatcathedral, we climbed it,again, more stairs.Why did we do so many stairs?I don't know, but itwas really something.And eventually went to Rijnhosenand that's where one ofJulia's friends lived.And it was kind of coolthat we got to hang out thereand the two of them gotto connect and just see.They actually purchaseda passive house into it.So we got to see the function,the triple planewindows, all the details,the energy that they used.It was really cool.Again, just kind of seeinghow Europe is so forward that.And even with sustainability,like even 30 years ago whenher parents house was built,it was done with solar.And they're actuallymaking money to this dayon that contractsthat were built with thatbecause of the solar.So again, they understood it.Still seeing a slow adoptionin the North American side,being out of BC, lots ofincentives from the governments.I'm seeing it.I would have done it mylast place if I didn't sell it.It needed a new roofand I thought it'd be a perfect time.But again, life changed.And then we basically soldthat and went from there.But yeah, we basically, westayed down there with friends.We said goodbyes, lots ofhugs, and again, more laughs.And we traveled down to theNuschlöschenstein Castle.I'm sorry, I said I butchered it,but we went down there.Very interesting, very cool, very cleanlines and everything.The King that was builtand then eventually drowned in the lake.Lots of mysteries of why.Was it suicide?Was it a murder?What was it?But only a third of the castle got built.And still very beautiful today,very popular from thetourist side of things.And just seeing his history and all that,but to me, the places in Normandywere way morespectacular than this crazy castle.Like we'd taken afarmhouse over the castle.It just might takemuch different settingsand what it was, but it wasstill neat to see in that.And again, the landscapes,and because this is in the Alps,it kind of felt like BC, Vancouver BC,because we had allthe mountains back now.We had all the Alps there.So definitely next time we go back,we'll be doing theAlps and doing the hiking,because that's why I'mlike outdoors all the time.And basically we had lunch at Efossenand we went to lots ofshopping and it was just fun.It was good, good times.Headed back and we justkind of wrapped up our trip.These were the final days.We got to do the Audubon.What a cool system, by the way.Simple, get in yourlane, go as fast as you want,get the heck back over,unless you're passingsomebody, really simple concepts.There's an accident.Everyone pulls over tothe right or the left,keeps the little main lane open.What a simple concept.They get it.And what a way to clean up a highway.We actually, on our way back,when we're trying to fly home,there was a big accident.We thought we might miss our flight.In the end, we were fine because theaccident got cleaned upreally quick, very efficient,and just a different way of how it is.And yeah, and ofcourse, wrap up before we hitthat final flight there, wewent out for a nice dinner.It was just fun.And we both didn't want to come home.We really didn't.It was a very incredible place.The culture, the food, justthings are different there.It really is.So my encouragement, ifyou haven't ever been,you got to go, add it to your list.And on the flight, andwe got unfortunately,I had to transfer andeverything, do a connecting flight,but it was still fun.We had a great time.We both watched DirtyDancing on the plane,something, an old classicthat both of us haven't seen.Great movie, it was fun.And we got to back toVancouver at midnight,and in all, in heightof the amazing trip,we capped it off with anice dance in the parking lot.It was just special.It was very cool.And so many moments ofreflecting over the trip,and just laughs, everything, the history,the architecture, again,the World War II history.Absolutely incredible.So perfect, so beautiful.What a trip.And wrapping this up, itwas a trip of a lifetime.It was something, likeI said, I really wanted,I had this on my list for about 22 years.I had a friend that didthe Band of Brothers tour,and ever since then, satwith me for a long time.So my encouragement to you,if there's something onyour list that you want to see,do it, because time is limited, right?And I know all this costs money.I'm not going to disagree with that,and you got to do what you gotto do, but make goals, right?We've talked about this on this channel,even though it's about CA,but make your goals, right?Whether it's in yourworkplace or wherever, do it.Everywhere we went, thememories are going to be there.We took lots of photos on the iPhones.Again, what an amazingcamera, the power behind it.Seeing that Atlantic wallin person was very humbling.It was a reminder thatthe architecture still,it was a reminder thatarchitecture tells stories,even if it's dark ones.Even if it was dark ones.The beaches were,again, humbly, powerful,moving from what it was, right?A true honor, a hugereflection of all the men,the one who served,sacrificed in this dark war,less we forget.And like I said, the Europeanarchitecture was incredible.The stonework, likeParis, was in just phenomenalwith all the stoneworkaround and the details,even Notre Dame with all,or any of the cathedralsfor that matter, just thecrazy heights that these were.And again, the stonework andthe detail around the gargoyleand everything in thetongue, like, oh my goodness,like it just didn't end, right?Everywhere you looked, there's no bad.And too, even with Paris,you couldn't even do allthe restaurants either.It was just, there's no way.Every corner had itsmoment in history and time.And there was onebuilding being retrofitted,fixed, so they had thebrace between the two buildingsand took us to a few photos.And again, just looking athow they did constructioncompared to somethinglike downtown Vancouver,similar concepts, butagain, trying to maintainthe architecture that was there,that what made Paris what it was, okay?So like I said, I highly, highlyrecommend you take a trip,you know, shoot me a note ifyou're doing a habit of chat,share our places and everything,but what a bucket list item to check off,definitely will begoing back sooner and later,definitely not in 22years, probably next year.So incredible.So coming back to whatthe RFI and everything,I appreciate you kind of joining mefor listening to kindof a little journey,my personal side, but again,I just wanted to sharekind of that architecture,the construction administrationthat went into that Atlantic wall.So where are we going back in here?We're full back intothe swing of things here.We've got lots of guests coming up.We've got lots oftopics to keep coming on.Next week, I will be atAI national and Boston.So if you're there, comeby, see me and let's do that.So, you know, in thatcase, last but not least,architects keep designing,contractors keep makingthose blueprints a reality.We'll see on the next one.(upbeat music)

travel,Europe,architecture,World War II,personal journey,Paris,Germany,cultural insights,military history,construction projects,Normandy,D-Day,World War II,Atlantic Wall,historical architecture,travel,personal reflection,cultural insights,

Not your Typical Site Visit: Exploring Europe & the WWII Atlantic Wall

Related Episodes

From Luggage to CA Logs: AIA Aspire 2024 Recap

Navigating the Challenges of Construction Administration Travel