Day 30: Saturday 26 April 2014

Clair, you are right, it rains a lot in Bath!  Even when it is not raining it looks like it is going to.

Today was a day out and about on the Somerset downs and Salisbury Plain.  The first place I drove to was the tiny village of Fovant.  Fovant is famous for the Fovant Badges.  What are the Fovant Badges I hear you say and lucky for you I am full bottle on the Fovant Badges.

The Fovant Badges are large military badges carved into the chalk of one of the hills just outside of the town.  Most of the badges were carved by soldiers who were camped in the area during TGW but some of those have disappeared and some extra ones added.  There are currently 8 badges visible and the largest is the Australian rising sun badge at 51 metres x 32 metres.  (As I still can't post pics if you want to have a look at these badges type Fovant Badges into the google thingymabob and have a look at the website).



Fovant Badges 1917

Fovant Badges 2014

Now here's the thing, in 1917 my grandfather was camped in this area prior to going to France and he sent his mother a post card with a photo of the Fovant Badges on it.  On the reverse he has written, "That Rising Sun and other things are cut in the side of the hill just behind our camp.  The rising sun is over 22 feet wide, from Allan".  The scene from where the post card photo was taken is almost the same now as it was then, very little has changed.



Rising Sun badge on hillside

From Fovant I drove to Larkhill on Salisbury Plain.  During TGW,  Salisbury plain was major concentration point and training area for military units prior to going to the Western Front in France and Belgium.  The 3rd Division AIF including the 40th battalion spent a lot of time in the Larkhill area. Salisbury Plain is still a major military training area Larkhill is still a major depot, camp and ammunition store for British Army artillery units.  I certainly didn't stop and take any photos in this area.  If I had I would still probably be trying to explain to some beefy British military policeman that I am really only an Aussie tourist with an interest in military history.


 The Australians must have found Salisbury plain very bleak, particularly in the winter, it was bleak enough yesterday in spring.

Larkhill is also near Stonehenge so I had lunch at the Stonehenge Inn & Carvery.  Roast beef roll with horseradish sauce, gravy, chips and salad.  I am pleased that I only wanted something light!

Bath - late afternoon sun

I drove back into Bath in time for evening drinks.  All the pubs in the centre of town were very busy so I went to my local just around the corner from where I am staying and had a couple of pints of Amstel.  I also made a new friend, Oscar the black lab who was there with a patron but seemed to have the run of the place.  I not sure if Oscar liked me or the very unlikely chance that I was going to drop my bag of pork scratchings on the floor in front of him. 

The street my hotel is in - Bath

Dinner was at a restaurant called Garfunkels and the less said about that the better!

(PS I thought that I had found a way to post pics, but even if I get a pic into the draft it still won't let me post it to the blog, accursed technology!)

Day 29: Friday 25 April 2014 (Anzac Day)

I have previously mentioned that I was going to attend the Anzac day service at the village of Sutton Veny (SV).  During TGW there was amongst other military installations a military hospital at SV and there are 140 Australians buried in the SV churchyard which is maintained as a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, my grandfather spent 6 months in 1918 in SV recovering firstly from his wound and then peritonitis.  Every year since 1919 the village C of E primary school has held a service commemorating Anzac day and the men buried in their churchyard.  The story is that in 1919 some children wagged school and went and picked wildflowers in the woods, however as they had wagged school they were to scared to take the flowers home, so they put the flowers on the soldiers graves and the tradition has continued.

The church, St John the Evangelist Church, where the service was held, was built around 1850 so it isn't old by English standards but it is old enough to impress me.  The inside of the church has rows of pews divided by a central aisle with aisles on either side and further pews on the other side of the outside aisles, the central pews were set aside for the school children.  Extra seating had been placed across the back of the church to accommodate the crowd expected for the service.  By the time the service started at 1.30pm the place was full, with many parents and grandparents of the children participating in the service, also a smattering of Australians and a couple of servicemen in uniform.

The service began with all the children and their teachers filing in and taking their place in the central block of pews.  (These children range from littlies aged 5 or so up to probably 11 - 12 year olds and all up there was probably about 140 of them).  After everybody was seated a small procession of children walked down the central aisle carrying a British, Australian and New Zealand flag and a slouch hat.  The last child in the procession was dressed in a TGW Australian uniform jacket, some webbing and wearing a steel helmet.  This clothing and equipment was full size so did not fit him at all.  (I later wondered if this was deliberate to emphasize age of some of the men/boys who enlisted).   The boy dressed as a soldier stood on a low table in the central aisle facing the rear of the church, and the audience.

The minister made a short address of welcome and handed the ceremony over to the children.  The children then stood and turned to face the audience and sang a "remembrance song", I don't know what the song was, I haven't heard it before but it was about the "last soldier".

After the song Major Matt Worthington of the Australian Army gave an address providing a bit of historical background to the Anzac story.  Now I don't know who wrote the good Major's speech but there were some historical inaccuracies in it, but it would be churlish of me to go into that here and now.

We all then sang "I vow to thee, my country", and then God Save the Queen.  The Australian and New Zealand national anthems were also sung through the service.

The children presented a "story and drama" abut the Anzac Biscuit.  The story was about a woman and her daughter at home making Anzac biscuits for their husband and father at the front.  Two of the girls read the mother and daughter part, a boy the soldier part and the boy dressed as a soldier acted the soldier part and the rest of the children joined in at certain times. It was beautifully done.  At one stage the mother and daughter were dancing around the kitchen and the entire school started to softly sing Waltzing Matilda, not a dry eye in the house including mine.  Then the soldier was described as looking at the stars and thinking of home and 5 or 6 of the youngest students (5 year olds) dressed as stars skipped around the church while the rest of the children softly la la laed (not sure how to describe this) the tune to waltzing matilda, again very touching.

The play finished with the tin of Anzac biscuits being passed by the students around the church to the soldier with him eventually receiving his tin of Anzac biscuits from home.  The boy dressed as the soldier then sang the last part of "remembrance song" on his own to finish that part of the service.

The children all then filed out of the church, picking up a small posy of flowers as they went and each child went and stood in front of a soldier's grave and then laid their posie on the grave.  One of the children then recited "The Ode", the Last Post was played, a minutes silence was observed and the Rouse was played which finished the service.  This was all done in light drizzling rain.



We then retired to the village hall for tea and Anzac biscuits.  In speaking with the school staff and the main lady who organizes it all they are all very pleased that some Australians went to the effort to be there and they were also very proud of their students and the remembrance service that they presented.

All in all a most touching and memorable Anzac day.

Day 28: Thursday 24 April 2014

Dear reader there have been some comments that I have not been providing enough information about the food I have been eating, so I thought I would start today's blog with a description of today's meals.

Breakfast started with some freshly squeezed orange juice accompanied by home made fruit salad.  This was followed by what is quaintly known around these parts as a full English breakfast.  This comprised of fried eggs happily provided by the contended hens at Speckledy Hens of Southside Farm, the bacon and sausage came from the not so contented pigs at Sandridge Farm, the mushrooms and tomato from Hillside farm and a homemade potato cake.  This was accompanied by toast and fresh plunger coffee.  There is a choice of eight coffees and sixteen teas.  Not a bad start to the day.

Whilst I am talking about food I may as well keep on describe dinner tonight.  I decided I would go to a proper restaurant, one with tablecloths and waiters and chose Browns on the Avon river.  Upon arrival I had a G & T and decided on my entrée of duck terrine.  When I ordered this I asked the waiter  if the duck was wild and he said "it wasn't very happy sir", gosh we laughed at that.  I followed this up with a lobster tagliatelle which included half a lobster tail (small), this was probably one of the most delicious dishes I have had on the trip. This was accompanied by a Rothschild viogner.  To finish off with I spoilt myself with an eton mess.  Eton mess is a traditional English dessert and is comprised of crushed meringue, cream, white chocolate, raspberry sauce and blackcurrents all mixed up together.  It is so delicious that you continue to eat it even after you start to feel sick.

Earlier in the day I drove to the small towns of Sutton Veny (SV) and Frome.  SV has an Anzac Day service there on Anzac day as well as a church service on the following Sunday.  The area was surrounded by military camps, base depots and military hospitals and played host to many Australian and New Zealand units.  My grandfather was in hospital in SV after he became seriously ill with peritonitis.  The churchyard has a civilian cemetery but also has 140 or so Australian soldiers buried there who died at the local military hospital.  Many of these soldiers died of the Spanish flu after the war was over.  The local community have been holding Anzac day services there since 1919.

Cemetery - Sutton Veny

St John's church - Sutton Veny

 Whilst I was there today there was a guy from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and some people from the parish tidying up the cemetery and the churchyard ready for the service tomorrow.

Frome is a larger town and is where some of my ancestors hailed from.  My great great grandparents on my mother's mother's side came from Frome.  Charles Burgess was born in 1850 in Frome, migrated to Australia in 1886 and died in Burnie in 1937.  I visited the churchyard and had a look at the graves but didn't find any dearly departed long lost ancestors. 

High Street - Frome

I drove back into Bath and being thirsty after my adventures I retired to The Volunteer Rifleman Arms for a couple of well earned pints.  Dinner followed, as has been described above.

Day 27: Wednesday 23 April 2014

Time to move on from London today.  So I check out from the hotel and cab it to Paddington Station where I am to catch the train to bath.  Now here is a funny thing, when I booked online the difference between a first class ticket and economy was minimal so I booked first class, and guess what there is a first class lounge at the station like they have at the airport except not as swish.  So I relax in the lounge for half an hour or so waiting for my train, I enjoy some orange juice, coffee and pastries with a complimentary copy of The Times, old chap. Although I must admit that The Times has gone downhill since it went tabloid.

The train trip was a pleasant hour and a half through the very green English countryside, with complimentary refreshments.  Once I arrived in Bath I picked up my hire car which appears to be a larger version of a Fiat bambino, but seems like fun to drive.

The Fiat

I am staying at a hotel in Bath called The Kennard, it is in what was once a Georgian townhouse and is quite elegant but with small rooms again.  My room is in what was probably the attic which means climbing heaps of stairs to get it.  When I checked in the proprietor was showing me to the room and as we walked up the 3 flights of stairs I suggested that next time we use the lift, boy did we laugh about that.  The other good thing about the hotel is that the tariff includes a cooked full English breakfast, so I am looking forward to that.  I will provide a detailed description of that in due course.

As most of you would know, Bath is in the county of Somerset and the folk here really do have a different accent and sound a bit rural.  Imagine a Two Ronnies Sketch with them wearing smocks, straw hats and saying aaaagh a lot. The proprietors of the hotel also sound different but then again they are Italians so they would sound different wouldn't they.

River Avon & bridge - Bath

Was drizzling a bit so donned my coat, down three flights of stairs and a 5 minute walk into the centre of the town.  The whole place is very touristy with the main attractions in town being the Roman baths and the Abbey.  There are also lots of interesting little lanes with shops, restaurants and pubs snuggled away in them.  The bridge across the river near my hotel has shops and restaurants built as part of it like those bridges that you see in Florence. 

When I was in the tourist information centre I asked for a map of the region and explained that I wanted to go to Frome and Sutton Veny (SV).  Now Frome was not a problem as that is in Somerset, the same county.  However the lady in the tourist information office had never heard of SV, she had to look it up on her computer.  SV is in the next county but still less that 20 miles away.   I think she said something along the lines of "aaaaargh, that be on Mars then" although I could have been mistaken given her accent.

Centre of Bath and Bath Abbey

Anyway for something entirely different I had lunch in a pub with a pint of Best bitter. 

Dinner was at the local pub near my hotel, steak and ale pie with mash and gravy, and a couple of pints of cider.  I really must find a decent restaurant for dinner tomorrow night.

Day 26: Tuesday 22 April 2014

Today is my last day in London, I catch the train for Bath tomorrow morning.  As I haven't been into the centre of London yet I decide that will be the starting point for today's adventures.

So, after my complimentary continental breakfast I am off to the station, catch my train on the circle line and change to the Piccadilly line at South Kensington and disembark at Piccadilly Circus.  The statue of Eros is in the middle of Piccadilly Circus and there are many brightly illuminated billboards all around, maybe trying to match Times Square.  It also an incredibly busy traffic intersection with red double decker buses and London cabs whizzing through.  Unfortunately the statue of Eros was covered in scaffolding, obviously having some renovation work being done to it.

A short walk took me from Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square with Nelson's column dominating the square.  After walking around and taking some photos I realized that there was hardly any pigeons there.  Last time I was at Trafalgar Square the pigeons were in plague proportions.  I found out a little later what was going on when I came across the hawk man.  This man was standing near his van with a magnificent Harris Hawk on his arm, this is what they use to keep the pigeons away, and I tell you now, it is working. He also had an owl which he put on his arm.  Each time I tried to take a photo of the owl it spun its head 180 degrees so it was looking away from me, good trick though.  And Leanne, the man told me that he flies the hawks a "bit heavy" so they don't actually catch the pigeons, just scare them away.


Harris's Hawke - Trafalgar Square

Owl - Trafalgar Square

Another short walk down Whitehall, past the Horse Guards and Horse Guards parade with the mounted troopers on their horses on sentry go.  Further on past the cenotaph where the English hold their remembrance day ceremonies and on to Parliament House.  I seem to be doing lots of short walks today but covering a fair bit of territory anyway.  Crossed the river here and walked down past the London Eye and then back across the river and walked through St James park which bought me to Buckingham Palace.

Horse Guards

After standing outside Buckingham Palace with all the other tourists I continued my walk along 'rotten row' to Hyde Park corner where the Australian memorial to TGW and WW2 is. 

All in all I thought this is enough walking for today and being the middle of the afternoon was approaching time for a drink.  So I caught the train back to Kensington High Street and made my way to The Goat for a couple of pints of London Pride.  On the way back to the hotel I called into the station, handed my Oyster card back in, got my $5 deposit and the balance of the funds on the card refunded to me.  It really does work remarkably well!

The blog was prepared late this afternoon in the hotel bar whilst I consumed a couple of pints of cider.  I made a bit of a mistake last night when I was at a pub for dinner when I decided I would have a pint of scrumpy cider.  It was warm, flat, cloudy and had a faintly dishwater taste about it, took me a while to struggle through a pint I tell you now.

I decided to dine in again at one of the hotel restaurants and had salt and pepper ribs and chicken with black bean sauce.  Accompanied by a glass of Proseco (not sure if that is the correct spelling, but it was that Italian pretend champagne, still very nice all the same) and a glass of New Zealand white wine.

If any of the guys at the Shrine are reading this, good luck for Anzac Day, looks like it is going to be a busy one.

Day 25: Monday 21 April 2014

It is Easter bank holiday in London today, so I am expecting lots of people to be out and about, like myself.  I start the morning with the complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel.  When I booked my accommodation at the Copthorn Tara they offered me an upgrade to a "Club" room at the same price.  Included in the Club room package is free wi-fi and free continental breakfast.  Included in the continental breakfast is fruit salad, cereals & yoghurt (if you wish), cold meats, cheeses, toast, jam, pastries and good coffee.

The hotel was probably built in the 60's and is large by London standards.  It is very busy with lots of tour groups and airline crews staying here.  It is sort of like a proper hotel with a concierge, doorman, gift shop, gymnasium (like I am going to use that), bar and restaurants.  The location is great, near Kensington High Street station, shops and pubs.  Given that this weekend was the Easter long weekend it has been particularly busy but is a bit quieter tonight in the bar as I compose today's description of my adventures.

When I was planning this trip and thinking about thing to do in London I realized that I had never visited St Pauls cathedral, probably one of the prime tourist destinations in London.  So once more on the underground, using my Oyster card like a pro, disembark at Mansion House station and I am a 5 minute walk from St Pauls.  St Pauls is the cathedral that was destroyed in the great fire of London and was rebuilt to the design of Christopher Wren.  It really is magnificent and they charge a magnificent price to get in, $16, (remember I am using $ sign instead of pounds, and although Andrew sent me the ASIC code for pounds I can't make it work).  When I was paying my entrance fee I asked the guy if they accepted credit cards in the lord's house and he told me "of course they do". 

St Pauls Cathedral

 It was nearly worth the $16.  The crypt has many great English folk buried in it, including Wellington (who gave Napoleon his come uppance and whose tomb I have also visited on this trip) and Horatio Nelson amongst others.  I also climbed the 300 + steps to the "whispering gallery" in the dome of the cathedral but baulked at going the next 300 or so steps to the next two levels, must be getting old or lazy or something.

After leaving St Pauls I realized I was near the "wibbly wobbly" bridge across the Thames.  This bridge is a pedestrian bridge across the river and its proper name is the Millenium Bridge.  It was designed by the same architect who designed the building in London that the locals have nicknamed the "gherkin".  Anyway, what happened is this, when the bridge was first opened it was discovered that people walking across it caused it to develop a rather alarming swaying movement.  The guy who designed it said that the bridge's swaying was caused by people "not walking on it properly".  It has been redesigned to stop the wibbly wobbly bits.

I crossed the wibbly wobbly bridge safely and ended up on the Southbank near the Globe Theatre.  Apparently today, as well as being the Queen's 88th birthday it is Shakespeare's 450th birthday and the Globe Theatre was open to the public and there was about a million of them lined up to get in.  There was also a 84 gun salute being fired from near the Tower of London in honour of Her Maj's birthday.

White Ensign with Tower of London in background

HMS Belfast

As I thought, lots of people out and about enjoying their long weekend with a bit of sunshine in the afternoon.  I rounded off my day with a visit to HMS Belfast, which is the last WW2 cruiser in existence and is moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge.  I walked across Tower Bridge which took me past the Tower of London.  Crikey, am I pleased that I hadn't decided to visit the Tower, the place looked absolutely packed even at 4.00 in the afternoon.

Tower Bridge

I had three groups of people ask me directions today and two yesterday.  I must look like a local, anyway I was able to help four out of the five.  And today I saw my first gypsy in London, he was doing the ol' pea under the cup routine near the Tower.  Fun watching and trying to work out who his accomplices are and if any punters get caught.  The trick is to let your accomplices win until somebody else gets sucked in and then off course they lose their money. 

Train home and out to a local pub for dinner.

Day 24: Sunday 20 April 2014

When I opened the curtains in my twelth floor room this morning I was faced with a cold, wet, grey London day.  I have been really so fortunate with the weather and this was the first really wet day that I have had.  Talking about wet weather, since when have gumboots become a fashion statement.  The first sign of rain and the pommy sheilas, sorry English lassies, are out wearing what they call wellingtons, probably expensive wellingtons, but what we would still call gumboots.

Grey morning in London

As the Imperial War Museum (IWM) is closed I decided to have a look at the National Army Museum.  It is located in Chelsea not far from the Thames.  I caught the underground to Sloane Square station and walked through part of Chelsea to the museum.  I think that I may have been walking through a "better" part of town.  Its hard to tell what the houses and apartments are like from the outside but the cars parked out the front told a bit of the story.  Numerous BMW's, Porsches and Mercedes were parked in the street and not your cheapies.  One place had a matching pair of 4 door Maseratis parked out the front.  Now, I am not really a car person but these cars attracted even my attention.


The National Army Museum is really the poor cousin of the IWM but had a reasonably impressive array of displays relating to the British Army from the days of Oliver Cromwell and his creation of the "Modern Army" to current day. 


I have been carting my coat around for three weeks without using it, however today it earned its keep.  I had a long but pleasant walk along the Thames along the Chelsea embankment, stopping at a little pub (The Rat and Pickle or somesuch) for lunch and a pint.  By this stage it was raining quite heavily but I was comfy and dry in my coat, with my Papa Bear Adventures cap on. 

Obligatory photo of London pub

Obligatory photo of London double decker bus

I continued my walk up Vauxhall Bridge Road, past the block of flats where Clair lived when she was in London in the swinging 60's and onto Victoria Station.  I had previously booked my train ticket to Bath, on the internet, but I still had to print the tickets out at a British Rail station so I did that whilst I was at Victoria station (why am I still surprised when things that I have done on the internet actually work).  Then hop on the underground and train back to Kensington High Street and the Copthorn Tara.


There is wi-fi all through the hotel and dear reader I am sitting in the bar drinking large glasses of Heineken as I put this all together.  Contrary to previous experiences this is actually a hotel bar that has a bit of character and people drink at.


Dinner tonight was in one of the hotel restaurants.  They have a couple of restaurants and one of them, Bugis Street, specializes in Singapore/Malaysian dishes.  So dinner tonight was in Bugis street and very nice it was as well, accompanied by the appropriate bevies.


I am back in the land of television in a language I can understand, so after watching a couple of episodes of Family Guy I was sleeping the sleep of the innocent.

Day 23: Saturday 19 April 2014

Caught the Eurostar train from Lille to London this morning.  Its a great trip, you spend about 30 minutes travelling through the French countryside, about 30 minutes going through the tunnel under the English Channel and then about 30 minutes travelling through England to St Pancras station in London.  The train gets up to about 180 mph (and whatever that converts to in kph) but there is no great feeling of speed.  And of course your journey ends at a station in the middle of the city and not at an airport in the middle of nowhere.  High speed train Melbourne to Sydney anyone??

While I am talking about public transport.  Some of you may have heard of London's Oyster card, it is the equivalent of Melbourne's Myki card, with one small exception, it works!  In a transaction that took less than 2-3 minutes I bought my card for $5 from the man at the counter at the local station and had it loaded with $25 to use on either trains or buses.  (I don't have a pound symbol on my keyboard so I will use $ instead, & Andrew I know that the pound symbol is hidden away in the ASCI symbols somewhere but I can't be bothered looking for it).  Anyway back to the Oyster card, at the end of my time in London I take the card back to the station and get my $5 back plus the unused amount on the card, what could be simpler than that, and how much did we spend on Myki.  The other thing about the Oyster card is that they encourage people to use it quickly so that passengers move through the turnstiles quickly and efficiently.
  
Anyway, after checking into the Copthorn Tara Hotel, just off the Kensington High Street I decide it is time for the tradition pint of bitter and cod and chips for lunch, so off to The Goat pub. After two pints of London Pride and cod, chips and mushy peas for lunch I was ready for a bit of a walk.

Copthorn Tara Hotel - Kensington

This brings me to another early observation about London.  Walking along High Street, I heard hardly any English being spoken, I still could have been in a foreign country somewhere.  The barman who served me in The Goat was Sicilian, the staff at the Copthorn are either Asian or Eastern European.  Another pub I went into I was served by a young Pole.  A few years ago all the laboring and service jobs were being done by Poles, I get the impression now that it is Eastern Europeans that are doing this sort of work.

Deluxe Suite - Copthorn Tara Hotel

Squirrel in Hyde Park

Lady Di memorial fountain, Kensington Gardens

I ended up walking through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park and being a nice afternoon, although a bit coolish, on a bank holiday weekend there were lots of people around.  I ended up at Hyde Park corner where there are a number of TGW and WW2 memorials.  The combined Australian memorial for TGW and WW2 is there, it is very well done with a sweeping wall with the names of all the towns that Australians enlisted from, in both wars, etched on it.  Whilst I was there there was some maintenance work being done on it and some witches hats were in the way of a good photo.  Anyway,  the guy doing the maintenance offered to move the witches hats for me, turned out he was from Mitcham in Melbourne and had been in London for four or five years working on and maintaining the Australian memorial.  He was cleaning the memorial in preparation for the Anzac day services in London.  He was telling me that the Anzac day services in London have been getting bigger over the last few years with 3 - 4,000 attending the dawn service there last year.

Bomber Command memorial - Hyde Park Corner

Walked back to the hotel, past the Albert Hall and Albert memorial and had a couple of drinks in the hotel bar.  Cold and wet outdoors so had room service for dinner and a reasonably early night.

Day 22: Friday 18 April 2014

Today is Good Friday and it is not a public holiday in either Belgium or France.  This is surprising given both countries are strongly Roman Catholic.  I thought that although it is not a public holiday that there might be some evidence of the religious aspects of the day however that is not the case.  Both Ypres & Lille appeared to be business as usual. 

One of my many Belgian friends told me that Monday is the public holiday in Belgium but that day has no religious significance at all.

I checked out of the Albion Hotel in Ypres this morning.  It really is a very nice hotel and the included northern European breakfast (bread, cheeses, cold meats, eggs etc) set me up nicely for the day.  I drove the 60 or so kilometres from Ypres to Lille and after a bit of mucking around I found my hotel, a Novotel Suite hotel, and checked in.  A nice modern hotel in that anonymous Novotel sort of way.  However the room is very big (by European standards) with a fridge and microwave.

City square - Lille

Not much of a reason to come to Lille apart from it is from where I am catching the train to London tomorrow.  (Lille was an industrial city with coal mines in the region around it, since the closure of the mines and the associated heavy industry it has tried to reinvent itself, similar to Glasgow, but hasn't quite got there yet).  I dropped the car off and had a walk around the town and lunch in the main square, including a couple of beers with bits of lemon floating in them.

Lille

As the hotel is a bit out of the centre of town and is surrounded by railway stations and other railway station hotels I have decided to have a dining in night tonight.  I visited the supermarket and bought some ham, cheese, bread, some delightful creamy thing for desert and some beer and a half bottle of champagne.

I maybe off the air for a few days from tomorrow as I am not sure what the wi-fi arrangements will be like at the hotel I am staying at in London.  (Last time I was there they were charging about 50 quid per ten minutes of internet time).

Day 21: Thursday 17 April 2014

Bit of an admin day today.  Spent a couple of hours this morning doing some laundry and sorted out my suitcase and backpack.  Also cleaned out the car as that is being dropped back tomorrow, hope they don't mind a bit of mud and dust.



Market square - Ypres

The run of good weather continues, lovely spring days, coolish in the morning turning into pleasant warm days.  Warm days to your dutiful correspondent anyway, some of the readers in FNQ might disagree. 



Ramparts cemetery - Ypres

For the first time on the trip I had to apply the five minute rule and in effect it was closer to the ten minute rule.  This is the amount of time that you allow yourself to wait before being served, if you are not served in this time you get up and leave.  I was only going to have a drink but after about 8 minutes had elapsed and I hadn't been served I got up and left.  Found a nicer little bar on the market square and even had a chat to a nice Belgian fellow and his uncle, they are not bad folk after all.

I visited the Menin Gate in the afternoon.  This is the large memorial in Ypres that stands where the city gate used to stand in medieval times.  This memorial spans the Menin road and has the names of 54,896 British soldiers engraved on it (including Australians) who died in the fighting in the Ypres salient and have no known grave.  There are 111 names of 40th battalion men who died in the salient and have no known grave.  The Menin Gate is also the scene of the last post ceremony which is held every night and has turned into a major tourist attraction.  The other interesting thing about the Menin Gate (or I think so anyway), is that it is the only place on the Western Front where it is known that all 60 battalions of the AIF passed through.

Menin Gate

Inside the Menin Gate

And then disaster struck at dinner time.  As this was to be my last meal in Ypres I decided to have the prawn croquettes and the regional specialty of mussels.  Now the first disappointment, no mussels, out of season I was told.  So I ordered something else.  Now the second disappointment the waitress mucked up my order and I didn't get my croquettes, very disappointing all round! (And she had attitude, no tip from me).

Anyway back to the hotel, and there is a large tourist bus parked out the front with a group of kids and adults milling about.  Guess what, a school group from Australia and their teachers.  I made my way through them pretending not to speak English and took to my bed.

Day 20: Wednesday 16 April 2014

Sometimes, after making a sweeping generalization about an entire nation something happens that makes you reconsider your ideas about that nation.  Today was one of those days for me.



Passchendaele battlefield looking towards the "high" ground

Today I walked the 3rd division role in the battle of Passchendaele, which all up was about a 10k walk some of which was uphill.  Anyway when I got to the village of Passchendaele I was a bit thirsty and as it was a bit early for a beer so I thought a coffee would hit the spot.  The only place open in town was the Passchendaele pub, so in I went and ordered my coffee.  The coffee was beautifully served with a little complimentary cup of advokat and a biscuit and a little easter egg.  The lady proprietor noticed my maps and guidebook and started talking to me (in reasonable English) about my interest in TGW and Passchendaele and then after we had been talking a bit she called her husband down from upstairs and we had a grand time talking about the war, maps, research and so forth.  The husband, Francis, is a bit of an amateur historian and was very interested in my copy of the Passchendaele trench map, so I promised to send him a JPEG copy of it when I get home and also some links to sites that I use for my research. 




Passchendaele Pub

After a while, and I am sure that I could have stayed there for the rest of the day, it was time to be moving on, I still had a 5k walk back to my car.  As I was leaving they presented me with a Passchendaele cap and refused to take payment for my coffee.  How can I think poorly of the Belgian people after an experience like that.


I had another pleasant experience when I met a young Canadian military officer at the Canadian memorial at Passchendaele.  (The Canadians eventually took the town, at horrendous cost, after the AIF failed).  This guy was in uniform although he was travelling around in a private capacity.  He was trying to find his way around the battlefields using what looked like a road map of Western Europe.  So I helped him out with a look at my maps and some directions and a chat about various aspects of the campaign.   


So dear reader, you would be aware that I have spent a lot of time in the countryside, and what do European farmers do in the countryside in spring?  They spread fertilizer, crikey you should smell it!!!  A rich rural earthy odour that smells like it has been fermenting in the farm cesspit for the winter.

Young man in British uniform at Passchendaele museum

While we are on generalizations, a little about Belgian cyclists, if you please.  I have identified three different groups of cyclists in this country, they are as follows;

• The everyday cyclist who rides for transport and shopping, often seen riding down the middle of the road laden with groceries, building materials etc.
• The cycling clubs, riding in a group laden down with back packs, thermoses and sandwiches and probably singing traditional bike riding songs as they also ride down the middle of the road.
• Finally, the Tour de France wannabe's, they are the lycra clad middle aged males riding flash bikes with clothes advertising various European banks and they also ride down the middle of the road.

However as always I have been treating all the above cyclists with patience and respect, because they have their rights on the road as well.


For dinner tonight I thought that I would dine at the Hotel Regina, where Flashy and I had grandly dined, however their dinning room is now reserved for hotel guests only.  So to plan B, and it is not like there are no other restaurants in the area.  So across the market square where I found a nice restaurant and had, wait for it, prawn croquettes and a most delicious pork knuckle with mustard sauce.

Whilst I am on observations here is a final one for today.  It is interesting that the people here seem to identify themselves more with the region of Flanders than they do to the country of Belgium.  Even as a tourist the feeling is that you are in Flanders more so than Belgium.  (When overseas visitors are in Melbourne would they identify their location more with Victoria or Australia?)

Day 19: Tuesday 15 April 2014

Early start today, for breakfast anyway.  I was on the road and driving out to Polygon Wood at about 9.30am, it was about 9 degrees and another clear cool spring day warming up to about 15 as the day wore on.


Polygon Wood was another in the string of attacks by the British to break the salient around Ypres The part of the battle that interests me was conducted by the Australian 4th & 5th divisions with the 5th division advancing through the wood or what was left of it at the time.  The cemetery at the end of the wood is also the site for the 5th division memorial.  So I have managed to visit all 5 division memorials on the Western Front on this trip.




View of Polygon Wood

The Buttes Cemetery

The Buttes Cemetery from the buttes

This is a good battle to walk as you get to walk through Polygon Wood (now grown back) visit some German bunkers in the wood and the walk finishes at a bar/café called aptly enough the Anzac Rest Café.  Flashy will be interested to know that Johannes the owner of the café is trying to raise money and interest in his "Brothers in Arms" memorial.


As I was walking through Polygon Wood I heard an aircraft flying overhead, on looking up I realized that it was a vintage bi-plane, not TGW vintage, but reminiscent of the aircraft of that time.




 
One of the brigades involved in the battle of Polygon Wood was the 15th Brigade.  The 15th Brigade was commanded by one of the "characters" of the AIF, Brigadier - General Harold Elliot, also known as Pompey Elliot.  Elliot like most of the senior officers in the AIF was a citizen soldier before the war and was a solicitor by trade.  He was raised and schooled in the Ballarat area.  At one of the brigade parades the men turned up wearing a variety of head gear.  Pompey told them that at the next parade they had to all be wearing their slouch hats or they would be put on charges.  Anyway on the day of the next parade Pompey's slouch hat disappeared and he appeared without his hat, the cry went up from the assembled troops, "hey Pompey where's your hat"?  For many years later whenever Pompey turned up at a reunion or meeting of his old soldiers they would still call out "Pompey where is your hat".  Pompey also threatened to shoot any British stragglers during the British retreat in March 1918, of course he had no authority to that, and this order was countermanded by a higher authority.  A final story about Pompey, during his brigade's advance on Peronne, Pompey was crossing the Somme on a makeshift bridge and he fell in.  The 5th division communications network went into meltdown and jammed with the signalers telling everybody "Pompey has fallen in the Somme".


Sadly Pompey carried a huge amount of bitterness over being overlooked for command of a division and committed suicide in 1931.  There is a memorial to Pompey in the main street of Ballarat.

Tyne Cot Cemetary

In the afternoon I followed the battle of Broodseinde ridge.  This was another of the battles to break through the salient.  I was able to closely follow the progress of the 3rd division and the 40th battalion.  This battle was a great success for the AIF with all of their objectives taken, but at a cost of 8,000 casualties.  (Remember, the term casualties refers to all the soldiers who died, were wounded and/or missing and taken prisoner).


Sergeant Lewis Mcgee of the 40th battalion was awarded his VC in this battle, Flashy's great uncle Wally was awarded his MM in this battle as well.  Mcgee died shortly after in another battle, Wally survived the war and made it back to Australia.





German cemetery at Langemark - graveyard of "The Innocents"

On the way back to Ypres I called in the German military cemetery at Langemarck.  There are 10s of thousands of Germans buried here, many of them in mass graves.  Even on a bright sunny day it has a dark and somber feel about it.  As I was walking back to my car I passed a group of English people and overheard a woman saying "they do like Germanic emblems, don't they".  Strange that in a German war cemetery.

































Late afternoon tea was a éclair from the little shop down the road from the hotel and dinner was at a restaurant on the market square.  (Prawn croquettes and entrecote steak with beer & wine).

Day 18: Monday 14 April 2014

Today was my first day out in the field in the Ypres salient.  What's a salient I can hear you all say, so I will explain as briefly and simply as possible.  In military terms a salient is where your lines bulge into the enemy's lines.  In the case of Ypres, the British held the town of Ypres and a bow shaped line of trenches around it.  The Germans also held a bow shaped line of trenches around Ypres but a little further out.  The Germans had the advantage that their trench line was also on a series of ridges so they looked down on the British trenches and the town of Ypres.  Holding the high ground is very important for observing the enemy and lobbing artillery shells on him.   Neither side really like a salient, for the army on the inside of the salient they are sorta surrounded on three sides, for the army on the outside of the salient they have enemy lines bulging into their front lines.


Both the Germans and the British made various attempts to straighten out the salient, generally unsuccessfully and at a huge cost of men and material.


So for my first foray into the field I decided I would have a look at he battle of Messines.  Messines was the first of a series of battles undertaken by the British from June  to October 1917 in an attempt to straighten the salient and force a breakthrough of the German lines.  The attack at Messines was a victory for the British and vindicated a new tactic of "bite and hold".  Our old friends the 3rd Division AIF, including the 40th Battalion, played a big role in this battle and contributed to the British taking the town of Messines and the Messines ridge.  Using the guidebook "Anzacs on the Western Front" and the 40th Battalion history, called strangely enough "The Fortieth" I was able to follow the battle and the battalion's part in it very closely.  The New Zealand division also played a big role in this action and they have a couple of memorials in the area.

British cemetery in Ploegsteert Wood - 40th Btn forming up area

Restored German trenches and pill box

Although it was cold early in the morning it was a great day to be tramping around the Belgian countryside.


Talking about Belgians, they haven't got any better since last time I was here with Flashy.  They are still dour, humourless and close to rude.  They seemed to have missed out on the sense of humour of the Dutch and the personality of the Germans.  They also don't appear to have suffered to much in the GFC.  The whole place looks very prosperous, I'll bet they weren't contributing much to bail out the rest of Europe!  And don't get me started on Belgian bike riders!

Cloth Hall and market square at night - Ypres

Dinner tonight was, wait for it, prawn croquettes (delicious again) and roast chicken (a whole little chicken) with the inevitable fries and a green salad and a couple of local beers.  I haven't had mussels yet so there is a delight to look forward to.

Day 17: Sunday 13 April 2014

A short drive today from Bailleul to Ypres via Poperinghe.  Poperinghe is a small town just over the border in Belgium, so the language, food, people change in the matter of a few kilometres.  The town is about 10km from Ypres and during TGW it was just out of the range of all but the biggest German guns.  Consequently it became a major staging point for British (including the men of the AIF) soldiers who would move from there to Ypres and then on to the front in the Ypres salient.  We are talking about 100s of thousands of troops.  So, even though most of the civilians of the town had been evacuated enough remained to provide the types of services that men on active service would be looking for.

Two British army chaplains decided that they would set up a house where men of all ranks could try and take a break from the war, where they could get a cup of tea, a quiet place to write letters, have sing songs around the piano, leave messages for friends and relatives and walk and relax in the gardens.  It was called Talbot House after one of the founders and was often referred to as Toc H (army signalers alphabet at the time).  (I won't go on too much about this but have a look at Talbot House on the intynet thingy, it is really very interesting).  Anyway Talbot House is now a museum and very well done, when you turn up at the entrance you are given a tablet and you can follow a self guided tour with commentary etc on the tablet.

The other claim to fame of Poperinghe has a different feel about it.  There is a courtyard in the town hall where at least four British soldiers were executed for various crimes such as desertion.  The courtyard now has a memorial to the soldiers executed there.  You can also visit the cell where they were held the night before their execution and there are some information panels about the men and the reasons or their execution.

Execution post at Poperinghe

 Anyway on to Ypres.  Driving in through the winding back streets of Ypres I came across the natural enemy of the GPS......road closures.  There was some sort of festival on in the market square so a lot of the roads in the area were closed.  Eventually I found my way to the Albion Hotel, familiar to myself and Flashy from our previous stay in the town, and guess what, I got Flashy's old room, if only these walls could talk (only kiddin).  For Flashy's info the Albion is undergoing huge extensions an extra three stories going from the back of the original building to the next street.

Flags - Albion Hotel, Ypres

Eventually got have a beer in the market square and watch my second most favourite form of entertainment, after karaoke of course, street theatre.  Has there ever been a more pointless form of entertainment than street theatre?

Market square and cloth hall

Delicious Belgian beer

This evening I attended the last post ceremony at the Menin gate.  I will talk about this a bit later as it is getting close to drinky time and I have a voucher for a free "regional beer".

Suffice to say that the day finished with dinner of prawn croquettes, Flemish stew and a couple of beers.  I slept like a babe.