Blogs from Belgium, Europe - page 7

We travelled through some heavy showers but most of the journey to Zeebrugge was dry. Shard a lovely brunch with Hannah and Michael in Oxford before heading to the coast. We arrived early at the ET Terminal and crossed sooner than planned - making up for the lost hour as we crossed into mainland Europe. The road to Zeebrugge was quick but a couple of pit-stops reminded us that public toilets on the continent can be rather basic. ... read more

After landing on Juno Beach June 6, 1944 the Canadian troops pushed up through to liberate Caen. In mid August they pushed on to Falaise and then pushed on and over the Seine River via Foret de la Londe and Rouen from the west. Fierce fighting was encountered. By the middle of June over 330,000 men and 45,000 vehicles had landed. To secure supply routes much needed to keep the troops and vehicles moving the British and Canadian troops were assigned the tasks of capturing major forts along the English Channel. The German forces knew this and fiercely defended these ports. In September the Canadian troops liberated Le Havre and Dieppe in France as well as the super port - Antwerp In Belgium. Antwerp was the largest deep-water port close to Germany and was connected to ... read more

Danielle and I wake up early on the 30th. Today is a travel day - on to Jumièges - still in France - near Rouen. We are more or less following / stopping at key cities / points of interest related to the Maple Leaf Route (thanks Nancy for lending me the trilogy). I am not exactly sure of Doug’s route taken but I am assuming he more or less followed the Maple Leaf Up and Down routes. Maple Leaf Up postings were staked along the fractured highways that pointed the way to the ever-shifting Canadian front lines in the ground battles for Northwest Europe. These routes were crucial logistic arteries extending from the Normandy beaches deep into Belgium, the Netherlands and eventually Germany itself. Scores of supply trucks (one/ or more of which Doug would ... read more

Today we have booked a train ride to Ghent in Belgium. We both think that it feels really special to be able to take a day trip to another country, which is a real novelty for us. It might be possible to do this from Melbourne, but you’d only get to spend much time in the other country during daylight hours if you happened to pick New Zealand, or possibly Papua New Guinea, and you’d still spend most of the day travelling. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s done this. I suppose you might contemplate going to Papua New Guinea for the day, if for no other reason than to avoid having to stay there overnight. Papua New Guinea is apparently a very dangerous place. I don’t sense from anything we've read that Belgium's ... read more

Okay, I know we have been home for almost three weeks and this latest (and last) blog entry is long overdue. We had many things waiting for our attention when we arrived, not to mention volunteer shifts at the library and local thrift store. Dale and Pat (Dianne’s brother and sister-in-law) arrived for a week of fun and games (and a chance to update some of my spreadsheets for scoring our card games). But now to the blog. Flight to Brussels Getting to Toulouse to catch the plane was fairly straightforward. The flight was RyanAir which went into Brussels Charleroi rather than the main Brussels airport. Mistake. The flight was what you would expect from RyanAir and the airport itself was OK. It was looking a little dark as we got ready to leave the plane. ... read more