Our family (of 6) were fortunate to have Mike van den Dobbelsteen as our guide for a full day D-Day tour of the American sites. He was fantastic .. REALLY fantastic! Mike is very personal and conversational. He is very knowledgeable of the sites and the history of D-Day. And he has a gift for sharing his knowledge with others in a very enjoyable way. His humor is great, he is also a good listener and answered all of our questions. He was able to make the tour personal, by including many stories of individual men and their courage and how that made a difference in the lives of the other soldiers as well as the local French people. Our last stop was to the American Cemetery, timed so we could watch the flags being lowered. Very moving! Our ages were varied (mid 20s to mid 70s), with varying levels of knowledge of the history ahead of time. We all learned so much! The day seemed to fly by. We moved by van from site to site … not too much walking for us old folks. We all appreciated the speaker system that Mike used in his van, which allowed all of us to hear him clearly regardless of where we were sitting. Even our d-i-l, who has limited hearing, was able to fully enjoy the tour. Thank you Mike for making the day so special for us.
