Dear reader,
I left home early on Wednesday to meet up with David at Clacket Lane Services, and then rode to the Eurotunnel. After the short crossing we arrived in Calais and managed to escape towards Dunkirk without having to stop and check the maps... and then headed for the Oud Gemeentehuis Guesthouse at Poelkeppe. It was so noticeable how clean and tidy Belgium is, having just ridden the M3, M25, M20 and French roads; God we are a messy nation.
Eventually found the Guesthouse (which was wonderful and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone either travelling through Belgium or staying, as we did to visit a few of the WWI monuments and cemeteries. The prime reason was to visit the grave of Private John Condon whom I first heard about from an album entitled 50:50 by Fairport Convention. He is reported to be the youngest soldier to be killed during the war.
So, during a relaxed day we visited Poelkepple Military Cemetery, Tynecot Military Cemetery at Passchendaele (11,965 graves of which 8,369 are unnamed). We then moved to a fantastic Museum in the Town of Passchendaele in the middle of the area known for the Third Battle of Ypres (British losses are estimated to be 240,000+. The museum is the best I have ever visited - excellent in every way and well worth a few hours if your in the area. We even managed to visit the site of the Christmas Truce and the Football match that took place - although site seems to have been taken over by UEFA... hence all the balls at the memorial.
We also located the Monument to NZ soldiers lost during the Battle of Messines and visited the small cafe and museum at Sanctuary Wood and Hill 62. It is impossible not to notice so many War Graves in this part of the world and that goes for Northern France too - all immaculately cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
This was my third visit to WWI sites in Europe and has included visits to Ypres, The Somme, Mons, and Verdun. I have a Great Great Uncle George who was in the Machine Gun Corps and he lost his life just 3 days before Armistice Day, and is buried in a small military cemetery at Englefontaine France.
One brilliant thing we noticed was just a welcoming the Belgian people are, every time we stopped on the side of the road, passers by would stop their cars and ask if we were OK.
The ride home was very very wet to start with but it brightened up later and only started to rain again once I was safely in my garage. Thank you David for your company and I do hope you enjoyed the trip as much I did - so good to get away. Crieff Cloverleaf and the NC 500 next in April.
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| Awaiting the Eurotunnel train at Calais |
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| Break for a cuppa at Calais on the return |
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| Our host at the hotel in Poelkepple |
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| Monument to NZ soldiers at Messines |
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| Tynecot Military Cemetery |
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| Marker for the site of the Christmas Truce Football Match - with EUFA footballs ! |