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Tours
Tour Two ... Three days in the
trenches
This is our
introductory visit to the Western Front - incorporating a full day on
the Somme and a further full day in the ‘Salient’. Hotel accommodation
is split between Arras and Ypres, allowing us ample time to
explore the perimeter of the latter town - particularly with regard to
the fighting of 1914/15 and 1917, which culminated in the bloody
assault on Passchendaele Ridge. The outline is as follows:
Thursday
Leave Edinburgh for Hull late morning. Pick-ups en route. Check-in
around five. Sail at seven. Video, audio and hamper on bus.
Friday
Zeebrugge. Leave ferry at 8.30. Same itinerary as Tour One - the
awesome spectacle of Vimy Ridge, followed by Roeux Cemetery and the
city of Arras, where we will check into our hotel and have lunch. Free
time in the evening.
Saturday (Somme day)
Early start. Arrive Albert. Morning coffee at the Royale, followed by tour of
underground museum. Then off to Beaumont Hamel and Newfoundland Park -
start and finish of the Battle of the Somme. Lunch at Pozières.
Later we’ll visit Lochnagar Crater, Gordon Dump Cemetery, Contalmaison
and the South African Memorial at Longueval. A pint with Thierry,
proprietor of the 3 Pigeons
in Albert, then it’s back up to Arras for dinner and a free evening.
Sunday (Salient day)
Check-out of hotel and set off early for Ypres, stopping at Kemmel, the
newly excavated German trenches at Bayernwald and the vintage trench
network at Sanctuary Wood (Hill 62) en route. Lunch in Ypres,
followed by check-in at city centre hotel. In the afternoon we’ll visit
Essex Farm (of John McCrae fame), Solferino Farm Cemetery, Yorkshire
Trench, Poelcapelle, St Julien and Tyne Cot. Then back into Ypres
in time for dinner and one of the high points of your trip - the
nightly sounding of the Last Post
at the Menin Gate Memorial to the
Missing. Free evening thereafter.
Monday
Check-out at nine, then drive to the rearward town of Poperinghe, home
of Talbot House (’Toc H’). Returning to Ypres, we’ll visit the
spectacular ‘In Flanders Fields’ museum in the Cloth Hall.
Lunch at Le Miroir, then time
for shopping. We leave for Zeebrugge just after four and sail at
seven.
Tuesday
Arrive Hull at eight in the morning. Leisurely drive north - dropping
folk off along the way. Back in Edinburgh shortly after one.
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