The Last Post

M&D War Stories

Dave has been really looking forward to boy time looking at war stuff in Belgium and N. France - first stop Bastogne where he got all excited when he spotted a tank in the Square where the Battle of the Bulge was. Mogs tried to get him to climb up on the tank for a picture but he didn't want to join the 6 year old girl that was already up there!!

Tank at Bastogne

Waterloo battlefield - wet!  We went there but the pic is too gloomy and wet to put on!  We also tried stopping in Brugges but it was underwater and we couldn't get out the van!!  So moved on to the coast.

War Tour

Raversyde Atlantikwall - North Belgian coast

Over 60 bunkers, observation posts and artillery positions and the 2km of open or underground corridors make this one of the best preserved parts of the infamous German Atlantikwall.  Built by the Germans during the second World War from the French-Spanish border to Norway.

We had a 'war moment' - it was a great outdoor museum with underground rooms and trenches and corridors.

We were the only English people looking round:

There are 3 things not to mention when with Germans - World War 1, World War 2 and 1966 World Cup

Walking round the museum:

D: "Mogs - don't mention the war"
M: "Is this the part where we won?!"

Glares from the Germans just in front of us!!!

Here's a few (quite a few!) pics from the War Tour - we loved it and learnt a lot.

Soldier Boy!  D queued up with the other young little boys to try on the helmet!

 



Atlantic Wall from the outside

Anti aircraft gun

In the trenches

Original Bunker - inside it was all reconstructed

Plan of how the Wall and Barracks looked

re-enactments of the underground rooms - Pay day

Below - there's a uniform from an actual soldier who's bed it was

Boys and Toys

We are trying to put on a recording from the Tour about Rommel - not sure if it's gone on!

Dave has loads more pics on his phone if anyone is interested!!

M: No....not one bit but she did enjoy it.

Belgian Choc

Dave is in heaven - every other shop is a chocolate shop!  The only choc Mogs likes is Belgian posh choc so we treated ourselves to a small box of chocs that cost over 5 euros. Mogs had to hide the box as in 2 minutes Dave had eaten half of them!!  Sulky D throwing his toys out the pram and searching for the chocs :)

Ypres

Ypres city is lovely with reconstructed medieval buildings and the entire cathedral was rebuilt as shown below.

 

The Cathedral - before and after

 

 

 

Menin Gate

The Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres is dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of WW1 and whose graves are unknown.  There are 54,896 signatures on the wall - stairs go up each side and are covered in signatures. Each night at 8pm the traffic is stopped and The Last Post is played - we didn't stay for the evening ceremony but it must be very moving and is quite appropriate to this blog post as it will also be our Last Post.

 



Dunkirk

Dave really wanted to visit Dunkirk but this was all that was there. 

Moving on.....

Calais Beaches

We're not really impressed with the North French coast - the places we have been this summer have been so awesome, Calais and the surrounding coastline isn't great.  Especially living in Bude as well - the weather has changed here and is a lot cooler and cloudy so instead of staying in this area for a final bit of sunbathing as we'd hoped to do we have decided it's time to head home to the white cliffs of Dover.  We could see them just across the sea.

After loading up Vannie with wine and beer at the Calais hypermarket we headed for the Channel Tunnel.  Dave had looked up prices on the internet and found the Tunnel to be 65 euros where the Ferry was 85 so with our budget well blown, we decided to go under the sea and not over it.

BUT....queued in the 'no ticket' queue - being a Saturday in August it was well busy - got to the kiosk only to be told the price was 330 euros - EEK! We can't afford that! So we had to have an EXIT ticket and go to the reject aisle with everyone watching - Oh Look - those people are not allowed back into England!!  Bugger...

In the Tunnel queue - we had to exit off to the right with 15 rows of people watching!

So off to the ferry we went - not quite 85 euros either but half the price of the tunnel

Au Revoir France!

 

 

 

Final Route - Austria to Calais

 

 

 

Hello England!

 

 

Duty free bags in hand!

 

 

 

We've reached the end of our European Tour - what a great time we've had - the World Tour starts next.....

This travelling is hard work - we need a holiday now!!!