Next Saturday - 1st September

[O.C.]

I'll be off to France on the GTR with some mates from Northern Ireland. In total there'll be 6 of us, 4 are travelling to Liverpool on Thursday and staying overnight on the outskirts of London, where they plan to visit a military museum during Friday.

Another mate of mine will be arriving at my place on his GS on Friday afternoon. We are setting off early on Saturday morning to travel to Kent and the channel tunnel, and then on to the Somme to meet up with the rest of the posse, it'll be a long ride in one day but nowt I haven't done before.

The plan in France is to visit loads of museums and WW1 related sights, we'll be there for a week, travelling back on Saturday 8th of September on the overnight ferry from Zebrugge to Hull.

Hopefully the weather will be kind to us, but if not good clothing should help keep us dry and warm

I'll post pictures and a brief report when I get back (it won't be anywhere as good as Kevins reports)

So its just a case of packing ready for the trip

[Rusty]

Sounds like a plan OC ... I have "done" some of where you are going ... you won't be disappointed, there is so much to see and much of it well preserved by the locals and of course the bigger associations that have been preserving these places as best they can since the big surrender. Very moving some of it I can assure you.
Enjoy.

[Gonome]

Have a good 'un and a safe trip OC, look forward to the pics.

[Lonewolf]

Roger, have a great trip.Totally agree with Rusty, these sites are very moving. Haven't been to any for years but did visit some when we lived out in that neck of the woods. 

[Essex Boy]

When you say France OC I wonder if you mean Northern France by the Belgium border, because you really should find time over there too. I can thoroughly recommend Ypres (Ieper) for the 8.00pm Menin Gate Ceremony. Been happening since 1918 (even through WW2) everynight when the local fireman usually supported by a British band play the last post for the Lads lost to unknown graves.

Close by is Sanctuary Wood, the nmuseum (higgledy piggledy thoughit is) is brilliant and still has some of the Trenches out the back to clamber around.

You have Passchendaele of course and so so many cemeteries. It is very moving.

If you are staying in France then you really have to see La Coupole, where the clever ol' Germans built their underground V2 factory, Mimoyecques and Eperlecques. 2 more amazing WW2 sites and all 3 within 30 minute drive of the channel Tunnel.

Have a great time.

[Rusty]

EB is spot on with all that he recommends ... although he made a typing error .. probably late at night .... he meant to say " since 1927" ...

[O.C.]

Thanks guys. 

We are staying at Hardecourt-aux-bois, and plan to visit as many sites etc as we can in the 6-7 days that we sre there 

[2kwacks]

qoute... 4 are travelling to Liverpool on Thursday and staying overnight on the outskirts of London.. scouse land on the outskirts..!! thats a 200 mile ride
either way wish I was going.. ho!

[patrick]

I did the WW1 sites in France and Belgium  in 2009 and the Menin Gate ceremony is not to be missed.

I found the experience of visiting the cemetaries and memorials to humbling.

P

[100milesaway]

Roger enjoy your holiday, Please feel free to have a blubber for me. It is all unbelievably moving. Safe journey .

[O.C.]

Thanks all,

Panniers have yet to be packed and top box to sort which won't take long, my mate is arriving this afternoon, so we'll have a nice steak for tea and plan to be on the road at 0600 hours tomorrow morning,............. and the weather forecast is good, which is great cos its a long ride in one day   

[Essex Boy]

Hope it's warmer tomorrow morning than it was today. At 6.00am it was ruddy parky to say the laest. Thermal vest required......and tHAt was in bed 

Going over to Mons with my office muckers in 4 weeks time. I always like to have something/someone to be a focusing point on my trips to the WW1 cemeteries. This time round, my colleague's great grandfather (my colleague is only 24) was the first British VC of the 1st war. Protecting a bridge in Mons from advancing Germans he held them back with a  machine gun so his mates could get to safety. When he was eventually relieved he had been hit by 5 bullets and died in the field hospital. Age 24 too. There is a placque to his valiant behaviour and he is in the local cemetery.
Thats our goal, to leave a Poppy by young Maurice Deace's grave.
EB

[O.C.]

Got back early this afternoon after a superb week visiting sites and museums in the Somme, which I know isn't everyones idea of a holiday but believe me if you haven't ever visited this part of France and experienced the effects of the memorials etc from WW1 then it is something you really should do.

I'll post more over the weekend when I've recovered from the trip, and sorted out all the pictures, there is about 170 of them, and I reckon you'de all be asleep by the time you get through the first 30 or so 

In short we had a great time and the weather was very hot 25 degrees and upwards every day. The bike was brilliant, but then I'd expect nowt less

More later 

[Lonewolf]

Well I'm looking forward to seeing them.

[O.C.]

Here you are Steve, and everyone else. I hope that the pictures are enjoyable, as there's a lot of memorials and graveyards within them.

We stayed here and the accomodation was superb, plus we are an organised bunch so we were able to get to the intermarche supermarket for provisions as it was only about a 15 minute ride away, that meant that we each contributed 60Euros each to the food/drink kitty for the full week, and believe me we ate and drank heartily 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT1XzgWFPII

[/My GTR and my mate Rob (from Northern Ireland) R 1200GS in the 'Rev Shed' the night before we set off, the other 4 Northern Ireland guys travelled overnight to Liverpool the day before and visited Duxford (I think) aircraft museum en route



Rob and I at the Chunnel waiting for the train, having set off from Cumbria just after 6.00 am, making it to Kent in time for a snack before catching the 12.45 pm train



A crater at La Boiselle were 60,000 lbs yes 60,000 lbs was used to explode under the German trenches on 01/07/1916 the resulting crater was in the region of 200feet deep !



Poziers British Cemetary, the scale of loss of life is beyond comprehension, and the monuments and cemetaries are absolutely immaculately maintained, it is truly a very, very moving experience which puts so much of todays relatively minor problems into perspective



Me inside the cemetary at Poziers



My great friend Bonesy outside the monument at Thiepval...he's a big lad with a big personality to match





A Roadside rest for us all



The Ulster memorial dedicated to the many from Northern Ireland who lost their lives in the great war



There's not much to add to this



This is known as the "Danger tree" and is at Beaumont-Hamell where many of the Newfoundland Battalion lost their lives, It was called the "Danger Tree" because it sits in 'No Mans Land' and upon reaching this tree you would have been in very great danger from enemy fire



A stark reminder that even after almost 100 years it is still unsafe to stray away from designated paths



Each night we returned to our accomodation and enjoyed good food and just the occasional drink (or two)



The memorial at Albert



This is delville (Devils) Wood where the South African memorial is situated, it is absolutely stunning and like every other memorial visited carries a very noticeable aire of tranquility



The site of the last remaining Hornbeam Tree from the 1914-1918 conflict



And the tree itself



Back at the Ranch enjoying early evening sunshine..the weather was hot and dry throughout our visit and suntans even emerged amongst the fair skinned members !



Another day and we visited the very well known Vimy Ridge Memorial....now I have to explain that the sheer scale of this monument is mind warping and it is nothing short of spectacular, of course its also extremely moving to be there where the loss of life within the Canadian Forces was colossal and a total of 11,285 names of missing soldiers are inscribed upon the memorial !





And to try and demonstrate the sense of scale of Vimy heres's a pic of some of my mates sat on the steps, my picture is taken from the steps at the bottom ! The stone used for the construction being imported fro Croatia



The bikes parked in the Vimy car park whilst we waited for a guided tour of the preserved trenches and underground tunnels



A look out/sniper post in the preserved German trenches at Vimy



The trench formations are exact, but for safety purposes sand bags have been replaced with concrete rivetts, which are approximately 1 - 2 metres lower than they would have originally have been !...its possible to see from the image of this German trench that the German army were in fact much more organised as they had trenches that twisted like a snake thereby reducing the possibility of firing gunshots down a straight trench and much reducing the chance of injury through passage of shrapnel.



In general tunnels were about 7 -8 metres deep which reduced the possibility of artillery shells breaking through , but in some cases tunnels were as deep as 30 metres as seen here at Vimy



Another day saw us at Albert where the church underground tunnels play host to a fantastic exhition of trench life



In the Albert tunnels









Rob with an appropriate helmet, in the shop at Albert where lots of trench art artefacts are available for sale...well he does ride a GS after all !



There was a lot of flies around the place



To me this place made me feel very sad as it was the only graveyard memorial we managed to find for German troops who, it must never be forgotten , also made a massive sacrifice in WW1, and this place to me really showed the other side of the coin, many if not most of the crosses bore the names of two German soldiers 



Back at the ranch again for another eating session plus a few drinks of course



The final leg of our visit saw us visiting Leper formally known as Ypres, which is a beautiful place, and once again we enjoyed the lovely weather



Leper is of course the home to the world famour Menen Gate where tens of thousands of names from all regiments across the globe are inscribed into the stone work



The inscription at the Menen Gate



Finally after leaving Leper we travelled to Zebrugge to board the overnight ferry to Hull. Great food is available on board so it would have been rude not to participate now wouldn't it 



In total I covered a little over 1000 miles in the week, and the GTR performed faultlessly, well you wouldn't expect owt else would you ?

The whole experience was a very interesting one and not at all morbid. I hadn't previously been fully aware of the scale of loss on both sides and in particular the environment in which these horrific battles took place.

I would recommend that if any one hasn't visited this area that you do so its a beautiful part bof France with hospitable and friendly folk  b]