Ypres and France May 08 ........

[Rusty]

I've done the Wales pictures so here are some of our trip to Ypres, the cemetries and a bit of France .... if you havn't been it is worth a visit ... just to see for yourself the sheer size of the cost to human life and the extraordinary way in which their deaths are celebrated and kept alive for future generations ..... moving stuff.


  Memin Gate at Ypres ... a memorial to all those British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the WW1 and have no known graves ... the names start at the bottom and go all the way up and round, around the entire monument. Some who had been identified by their mates and moved for burial to a hosp yard that then gets shelled and a day later it's all gone .. and so are they .. blown to bits even in death. Every day since 1926, some years after the end of the war the last post is sounded by the local fire brigade and every day there is a different representation at that last post from a different Regiment or Corps .. when we were there it was The Royal Irish ...


On a lighter note this is Verdunne ... a major place in the WW1 where treaties were signed and top brass relaxed ... oh how differently it was done in those days. Lovely place as you can see .

  And another ... much the same view ..........


.... Now on to a lighter note .... the camping ! Excuse the ape in the middle ! Great fields and facilities with a bit of warm sunshine .. lovely stuff. There was a lot of rain that evening and I was pleased that my tent with held the deluge !


Some of the bikes lined up in the evening sun ........


No Top Box or luggage .. bag it up and sling it on !!!!


Back on a serious note .... all graves kept in pristine condition. The War Graves Committee work full time and are just so busy ... one of the guys was looking for his wifes' great uncle at a close by cemetry .. we had all his details .. a 19 year old Private killed in action ... they told us the cemetry, the row and the place number .. and there he was.. after 80 odd years.

And lastly ... one of those quiet empty well kept French roads with nothing on it !!!! 


Hope you liked the piccies.

[Mogster]

Lovin the Honda  .... reminds me of Touring BHL...... Before Hard Luggage...

[pembsgtr]

The Menin Gate, I balled my eyes out there when watching the 2000hrs last post ceremony and I'm not ashamed to say so   

[O.C.]

More great pics from the Rusty library 

Me and some biking chums from Northern Ireland are touring the Battlefields in France etc in September this year,  I'm really looking forward to the trip

[Lonewolf]

More excellent photos. I find memorial sites like that very emotive. I've visited a few when we lived out in Holland. Very sad.

[Essex Boy]

Guys,
An absolutely brilliant weekend is:-

Put the GTR on the chunnel train and turn right when you get to France. Head for Mimoyecques, Eperlecques and St Omer. 3 amazing WW2 sites that cover the V1 , V2 AND V3 weapons. V3 I hear you say ! exactly get over there and discover/walk the tunnels that the Nazis dug to locate their rocket powered mortars. If successful 20 mortars an hour into central London....and nobody knows about V3.

Head for Ypres that Saturday night and spend the 8pm last post thinking about the lads lost in WW1. Spend the night in one of the hotels in Ypres square. 40 Euros a night sharing with a mate. Try the Hotel Old Tom for cheap lodgings in the perfect spot. Next morning do the Ypres museum of WW1. Then head for Sanctuary wood and the trenches still in place, but 5 euros spent walking around the ragtag collection of bits and bobs is money well spent without the tenches.

Then head for one of the Paeschendale cemetries before heading back late afternoon.

Magic, and thought provoking.

Funny (?)story. When last there my mate said could we go to the Irish cemetry at Peschandale to find the grave of his uncle. As far as he knew no-one in the family had been to see the young lad's grave since he died in 1917. We got to the cemetry and there were approx 2,600 graves.

So we opened the book kept in the box in the archway to see what grave row/number he was. After 90 years of not being visited I opened the book anywhere and my thumb was actually on his name.

Like he was saying "Come on lads, 'bout time'. Spooky but really moving.

Go for it.

Essex Boy.