Sunday 28th September, 2008 Not an early start to the day as we woke up about 10 o'clock. The sun is shining again! and the weather is great, the air is a little cold but, certainly T-Shirt weather. A gentle drive heading towards Arras, was the plan for the day. We stopped the Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery containing approx 8,000, another beautifully kept and picturesque site. This was the cemetery from which the Canadians, removed an unknown Canadian soldier, to be re-interred in their Unknown Soldier memorial in Ottowa. We visited the Vimy Ridge trench system in the park beq [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, 27th September, 2008 Left Ieper this morning, with a general heading of Bethune. Around lunchtime we stopped at a supermarket and had a coffee. Passed by many War Cemeteries and stopped at four - Trois Arbres Cemetery 1705 Burials Le Grand Beaumart Cemetery 552 Burials Vieille Chapelle New Military Cemetery ? Several hundred Zelobes Indian Cemetery 105 Burials Paid our respects at each of them and signed the visitors book when found. This really took up most of the morning and we arrived at the Bethune Premier Classe approximately 2 o'clock. We used the auto [View Full Entry]

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PM Thursday 25th September Left the Premiere Classe, having sorted our gear out all over their car park and drove about 10 metres to the Carrefour Car Park. We had two cafe au lait's each to start the day and moved on to Dunkirk proper. Managed to find the Dunkirk Memorial and cemetery. Column 153, showing the name of Meadows W, which was the first monument on right, immediately from the entrance. This was the name mentioned in my grandfather's travel letter of 1961, in which he says that he was part of the Dunkirk evacuation, and that he had found [View Full Entry]

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1410 hours Wednesday, 24 September, 2008. As I write this blog entry, we are sat in the shuttle train at Folkestone awaiting departure. Having heard on the radio on the way down that a Eurostar had broken down in the Tunnel this morning, and there were two hours delays, we arrived to be told by Tunnel staff, that this was only affecting Freight Trains. So, having had a very pleasant journey down - ignoring the weather, because of course it was raining, we only ended up with enough time to buy a couple of sandwiches and coffee, before joining the embark [View Full Entry]

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PM Wednesday Well,we arrived safely in St Pol Sur Mer and found the Hotel, a premiere classe at 36 Euro's a night, good value. Newish, clean & tidy, shower - that travelers on the Fred. Olsen Cruise Ships would be very familiar with. Went looking for a quaint little French Restaurant to celebrate our first evening in a fine food country. However, after walking quite a few kilometers through a town type area, we eventually made the decision that we had gone far enough, and our first meal was at a kebab shop “Snack Pol Delice” and availed ourselves of the [View Full Entry]

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Steve: Well the Euro tunnel is booked; 1420 hours Wednesday, 24 September, 2008. So the adventure is about to begin. The original plan was for us to enjoy a British summer before we left, giving ourselves time to sort out various things. Well, the British summer hasn't arrived yet! We aren't going to wait for it. We have been slowly arranging everything for our departure. We picked our new car up, 22nd August - a Toyota RAV4 - after completing 6 different vehicle test drives. Driving the Freelander 2 was good fun, but a little outside our price range. We drove [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Well this is our Travelblog. Steve and Pat. We have recently retired and are currently planning our trip. We should be leaving the UK, late 2008, and travelling through France, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. We have a few idea's of what and where our journey will take us, but essentially, the travelling itself is one of our dreams. [View Full Entry]

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