The 2019 Tour of Belgium and France Battle Fields.

A visit to Ypres (Ipre) was the starting point, Linda had arranged to meet up with her niece Caroline who works at the EU HQ in Brussels. She was bringing some of Linda’s stuff from her dad’s house where she had been clear out after the funeral (bobs). We had a load of poppies, crosses and a wreath for two war graves that we were visiting.

We arrived in Ypres, found our campsite, set up and waited for Caroline to arrive (with her dog). She had brought some excellent Belgium Pastries, we made a pot of coffee and chatted for a couple of hours, we decided that we would pop into town, lucky enough to get a nice parking spot only about 100 Mtr from the Menem Gate. We decided to walk into town to the main square, hoping to go through the War Museum, alas we were too late. So we decided to go for a pint right beside the Gate. We had thought that the evening ceremony took place at 18:00 hrs, again wrong this time we were 2hrs to early. Caroline had to leave to get home to her daughter, we said our fond farewells and Caroline head off to Brussels.

This left us with 2 hrs to kill, we decided on a meal, when we were last in Ypres we had dined in a very nice Italian restaurant, we diced to again eat there. The name of the restaurant Vivaldi, if you are in Ypres well worth a visit. I had the Flemish beef stew excellent choice and Linda chose the grilled prawns in a garlic sauce. I had a nice glass red and Linda a pink to wash it down. 

We then went to the gate, got an almost front row place and watched the laying of the wreaths and the playing of the last post. We then went back to the campsite, got things ready for the night.

Next morning, we set off to find my Great Uncle Tom.

My great Uncle, Thomas Armstrong Mordue, who was my mother’s Uncle, is buried in a small CWGC cemetery on the road out of Ypres, along the Ypres Canal, it is called Bards Cottage and unlike many, is quite small, but never the less well cared for.

After a bit of a search we found him Gunner M. A. Mordue, Royal Field Artillery, Died 6^th November 1917 aged 26. I placed a poppy cross, bowed my head and said farewell.

Poix de Picardie.

We travelled at quite a sedentary pace forced on us by a SAT Nav that started to play up, in fact it locked up, so it was back to steering by charts. We missed the turning off the motorway and had to travel a good 50km before we could leave it. We did and travelled along country roads through small villages and towns until we arrived at Poix de Picardie. We stopped at the Church, this is a very nice church standing on a hill in the centre of the town, we climbed the steepish steps to the main entrance of the very well-maintained Church Yard. The people of Poix have given a plot of land to the CWGC to use as a burial ground for Allied Airmen shot down during WW2.

Linda’s Uncle Norman, Bobs brother (Linda’s Dad). Norman, was a Navigator in the RAF, but had been retrained to be a glider pilot, who while on a mission to land troops on the North flank prior to the D-Day landings, was shot down over France.

We found a nice campsite just about a kilometre distant, we got set up, it is a very busy little campsite, with lots of Brits and Dutch, the Brits I suppose on their way down to the D-Day beaches and the Dutch just touring around as they do all over Europe.

Next morning, we hitched up and headed off further South, down to the Normandy beaches, we first went to “The Pegasus Bridge”. The Bridge was named after the winged horse, which is also the insignia worn by the Parachute Regiment. This bridge was taken and held prior to the D-Day landings, the original bridge has been dismantled and is now part of the Pegasus Museum, well worth s visit and if you are heading to the beaches not far off the beaten track. After our visit to the museum we headed down to Ouistreham at the mouth of the small river, we then followed the coastline with its landing beaches Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. We didn’t visit any of the museums (there are many) as we had done that all before. We headed for our campsite above the Omaha beach at the town of Port en Besson again a wonderful campsite.

The original "Pegasus Bridge"

A mock up of a Hosa Glider

The remains of the Mullberry Harbour 

Our homage and respect paid to those brave men who fought to free Europe from a despotic maniac, we headed South in the direction of Mont- Saint-Michel.

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 [RS1]