As we had to fly to Germany in January we still had the Eurotunnel tickets to use up, so we had planned to go this week to Europe. It is a good time to go with the Euro doing so bad, the rates had improved and of course there is no oil slick to worry about. Although in Southern France they have had severe flooding - but we had bright sunshine.
On Wednesday we left home at 0430 ish and made our way towards Folkestone. we didn't get very far as the A1245 (old A130) was blocked, by the local Constabulary due to an incident, of course they don't block it off at the A127 junction or the A130 - they let you get right on the road and then you stop, a good start to the day. we were held up for about 10 minutes, when fortunately the block was lifted.
We then made good speed to Folkestone and the Eurotunnel and managed to get an earlier train, 0720 - which meant we would arrive in Calais at 0900. Fortunately, we had time for a sandwich and coffee before we boarded the train. I had a snooze for 35 minutes and then we were in France. There a football signs around, although after today's result they will soon be coming down!!
I put Ypres (leper) in the satnav and then followed the directions, very slowly as there were road works on A26 from Calais and so traffic was reduced to one slow lane. Eventually we were on the open road and arrived in Ypres about 10.30, it was time for coffee. Linda was hungry by now and had an apple tart with her tea. We then had a look round the town, Linda found the chocolate shops and that was it - "Simon have you got any money?" and so I ended buying her some chocolates.
We wandered around for a couple of hours and then bought some cheese and bread to make a sandwich, although the theory was easier than the actual event. I made a bit of a mess, bread crumbs everywhere - but it tasted nice.
After that we went to visit some of the war graves. Linda hadn't been before and didn't realise there was so many, over 750,000 solders in World War 1 which is a lot of graves - although we didn't see them all. We went to the Menin Road area and the Tyne Cot cemetery. Linda said 'Its very nice round her, peaceful and there is a town nearby' - very useful when you're dead!
it was interesting walking around the graves, seeing who the soldiers where and their regiments, although sadly there was a lot of unknown soldiers. They are still finding bones even today - and when they do they re-bury them in the nearest cemetery. Linda found a coffee shop so we had to stop for a cup of tea.
After this we found the Hotel, a Best Western just outside of town. We needed a rest after the early start so we did some reading and watched the football.
Since 1928 the Last Post has been played every evening by buglers of the local Last Post association at the war memorial at Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium known as the Menin Gate, commemorating the British Empire dead at the Battle of Ypres during the First World War. The only exception to this was during the four years of the German occupation of Ypres from 20 May 1940 to 6 September 1944, when the ceremony moved to Brookwood Cemetery in England. On the evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres, the ceremony was resumed at the Menin Gate, in spite of the heavy fighting still going on in other parts of the town. You can read other details here
We went to the ceremony and tonight there was a Scottish piper there, playing the bagpipes which made it more interesting.
We had a meal in town, Linda had four cheeses pizza and I had a pasta dish, which was very nice. then it was back to the hotel to watch some more football and sleep.
Today, we had breakfast and left about 9.30am. It was back to Calais and a visit to Cite Europe shopping centre for Linda. It wasn't very busy and unlike previous visits there were not many UK cars in the car park - must be due to the state of the Euro. we bought some cheese, wine and bread (and more chocolate for Linda) before catching the 1350 train back to the UK.
It was meant to be a leisurely drive back, no hassle at that time of the day - how wrong. There were signs that the M25 was blocked in the direction of the tunnel, but as we got nearer the signs disappeared and the motorway signs talked about the closure of the A20 overnight. So we though the traffic must be moving on the M25 but as we found out when we joined it, it wasn't! So we were stuck on the M25 and ended up coming off at the next junction and going all the way into London and through the Blackwall tunnel to join the A13.
Traffic was quite slow on the A13 and so we stopped at Lakeside for a drink and a rest form the driving. I found an Apple sotre and had a look at the new Ipad - and now know what I want for my birthday (Linda please note!!)
You can see some photos here
You can see some photos here