Travel Maven Blog ...... David Molyneaux posts from TheTravelMavens.com

River cruise excursion to Normandy links WWII memorials, and my Great-Grandmother Pearl’s 1944 diary

Of all the war monuments and cemeteries dedicated to North Americans, the beaches and plots at Normandy are perhaps the most haunting 

In Normandy, France, 9,387 graves are marked at the American Cemetery that overlooks Omaha Beach (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France

On an early June day in 1944, Pearl Molyneaux wondered where her boys and daughter were, as World War II charged toward deadly climaxes in Europe and in the Pacific.

As my great-grandmother wrote in her diary at home in western New York State, her son Silas, a bomber pilot, was in the Army Air Corp; son Max was in the Navy; daughter Roberta was serving in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) somewhere in England; her oldest grandson Glenn, my father (from Oberlin, Ohio), was in the Navy, training with Marines for future amphibious landings in the Pacific; and her son Evan, an Army doctor, had left a month earlier to cross the Atlantic for Europe. Evan was headed for Normandy.

Their lives, their courage and my great-grandmother’s diary were in my thoughts when I returned to Normandy earlier this year to walk the beaches and visit the American Cemetery with a group from Uniworld’s new river vessel, Joie de Vivre.

An emotional visit to Normandy

Among the excursions on Seine River cruises that start in Paris, a day at World War II memorials on the Normandy coast is the most popular, and for many the most emotional.

The intimacy of small-ship cruising

Getting to know fellow travelers aboard vessels of Windstar, Viking

Passengers on Windstar's Star Pride, top right, make a wet landing on Isla Parida, Panama, for a beach day, including a grilled lunch (Photo by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

In a cruise world where most of the advertising emphasis is on ships that carry thousands of passengers from port to port in a frenzy of activities and meals, consider that other, calmer options await.

The contemporary cruise business is not one-size-fits-all.

For vacationers who may be new to the idea of cruising and are looking for a small, casual ship, I have two recommendations from recent trips on two continents.

Aim for about 200 passengers

If you are willing to share your ship only with a smaller crowd — say, about 200 fellow passengers — consider Windstar Cruises’ sparklingly refurbished Star Pride (summers in Europe, winters in Panama and Costa Rica) or floating on Germany’s Rhine River aboard Viking River Cruises’ new Viking Hild.

These are ships without water slides, whiz-bang attractions or bartending robots.

Both, however, provide gentle reminders of the joys of intimate cruising.