The other DrC and I visited Normandy and toured the landing beaches. They mostly aren't easy places to land and get inland, and where it was easy the Germans had fortified. There is a really good museum of the landings - very worth your time if you get to Normandy. Much of the so-called Mulberry Harbor the allies towed to these beaches, set up and used to get men and material ashore is still there and easy to see.
The famous Bayeux Tapestry is displayed nearby. If you've seen it you know it isn't what one normally thinks of as a tapestry, isn't particularly artistic at all. Rather it is a set of what could be called cartoons embroidered on a strip of linen cloth some 230 ft. long depicting the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
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One of the curious things about Europe is that it seems small to Americans, things are so close together. When greens hassle us about not doing more with passenger rail transport, they overlook the great distances that Americans take for granted. I expect Australians feel the same way.
Flying is simply the practical way to get around our large countries, jets traveling at speeds in excess of 500 mph make the big distances manageable. Rail works for Europe's small distances, or those of Japan.
