Tour One ...  Three days in the trenches

Thursday
Leave Edinburgh late morning, bound for the ferry terminal at Hull. Possible pick-ups en route. Check-in just before five. Comfortable cabins, cold beer, good food and good company. The ship sails at seven.

Friday
Wake at Zeebrugge. We’re off the ferry and on the road by 8:30. Spend the morning at Vimy Ridge and search out the hidden cemetery at Roeux on the way into Arras. Check-in at the Mercure and lunch, then a tour of the city, including a visit to the subterranean cellars and passageways. Free time in the evening. There’s lots to see and do.


Saturday
Start early for the Somme. Morning coffee in the Royale at Albert, followed by a tour of the underground trench museum. Then it’s off to the battlefields - Beaumont Hamel, Newfoundland Park, Thiepval, Longueval, La Boisselle and Contalmaison. Lunch at Le Tommy in Pozières, then later back to Albert for a pint at the 3 Pigeons before we hit the road. Another free evening in Arras, and a chance to seek out (or avoid) all the friends you made the previous night.

Sunday
Early start for Ypres. We’ll visit the restored German trenches at Bayernwald on the way up, then head for Essex Farm, where John McCrae wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’. They named the magnificent museum in the Cloth Hall after his poem. We’ll see the museum, too, and finish with a visit to the Menin Gate. There’ll be time for lunch at Le Miroir and a chance to do some shopping. Belgian chocolate, perhaps? We’ll leave for Zeebrugge just after four. We sail at seven.

Monday
Arrive Hull at eight in the morning. Leisurely drive north - dropping folk off along the way. Back in central Edinburgh shortly after one.


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