Ypres Tours

Do plenty of research before you go - long, cold, dark winter nights are the perfect excuse. And buy a good map of the area, as it is probably easier to work with than a delinquent computer screen - well I think so, but hey, I'm a proud Luddite!

 

There is plenty to see around the Ypres Salient - given that there were 6 major battles there from 1914 up to 1918.
Obvious places to visit are The Menin gate and Tyne Cot visitors centre and cemetery.
This site covers most of them - http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/

 

I had a look at doing this recently and checked out battlefieldsonabike.co.uk
Yes, I gasped at the prices too.

 

Hi Watty, you don't need to pay someone to show you round mate, it's not that difficult. You could always buy yourself a book ??

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_s...918&sprefix=The+1914,aps,188&crid=AXWTEHPD9YG

Assuming you do go to Ypres (leper), whatever you do DO NOT miss the last post ceremony every evening, at about 8pm. The traffic stops, people come to pay their respects and a lone cornet plays the Last Post. - Sends chills even just remembering it.

It'll be an adventure for you, don't spoil it by following a tour guide or you'll be on someone else's agenda.

https://www.google.fr/maps/place/Yp...3f40!8m2!3d50.8492265!4d2.8779388?hl=en&hl=en

 

Defo do by yourself or with a friend. Have been 3 times now with a fellow rider. We always stop off on our way through or on way back from tours through Europe. As mentioned last post ceremony is very humbling ( take a hanky) Plenty of accom available at all kinds of budgets. If a short tour would suggest Leper then back through France, visiting war graves or beaches. Booking . Com for accom ( usually reservations made with no deposit until a couple of weeks before trip) Euro tunnel brilliant for biking ( we use Tesco club card discount vouchers for our crossings - reduces cost by anything up to 60% dependant on season) Where is Dorridge anyway?

 

If you are prepared to take advice from ‘a former moderately senior sort of Army bloke’ who has done quite a few battlefield tours of various antiquity...
This: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Endeavours-Fade-Rose-Coombs/dp/1870067622

is about the best book to pre-read and from which to plan your own tour. The author was an Imperial War Museum WWI specialist and no mean authority.

Just remember when you visit Ypres and its ramshackle buildings that it was completely rebuilt post WWI. You might struggle to believe it!

The broader issues of strategy and tactics and why it unfolded quite as it did need to be separated from popular fiction that mostly dates from the 1960s. The biggest myth to get out of your head is ‘Lions led by donkeys’ a phrase probably invented by late Tory MP Alan Clark which he claimed came from a German aristocrat. The most objective modern history is any of John Terraine’s books on Haig and/or some of the campaigns. However, for your likely purposes of ‘what was it really like?’ I suggest John Keegan’s Face of Battle. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8...d=kwd-300301275570&ref=pd_sl_6dlhq3s6cp_e_p28

The book covers Agincourt, Waterloo and The Somme......funnily enough all in NEFrance/Belgium. Skip Agincourt (nothing to see) but Waterloo is worth a trip to see how utterly war had changed in 100 years......just as it has since WWI.

 

Here I would imagine -
https://www.google.com/maps/place/D...x142319a7e86a2c17!8m2!3d52.370734!4d-1.761667

 

That's sort of up norf then? If you ever need anywhere to stay before the tunnel, let me know, we have room & only 70 miles from Chunnel

 

Ye daft bugger Ken, 'up north?' it's not even north of Birmingam !!!!

 

That's up north to me, Watford gap is nearly in Scotland isn't it?

 

Glasgow is Central......when I lived in Southampton, Winchester was North!

 

Central!! Next stop North Pole

 

Fantastic place to go, be early to the last post thou, there is a rather nice bar, just across from the gate, where you can sit and watch the people go by, then make your way across about an hour before it starts to get a good viewing spot. Ypres is really worth a day or 2, just to have a look around, and enjoy the place.. be warned, some of those restaurants are pricey... 180euro's for 4! although us blokes took the blame, apparently it was our beer....