Arrived back yesterday from the tour and what a great tour it was. The hotel was very good but really too remote from the areas we were to visit. It was over an hour each day to get to our starting points and we would have been stuck in the hotel in the evenings if it hadn't been for the coach drivers who took us into Ypres Tuesday & Wednesday evening. But never mind....it was great.

We travelled through the areas finally captured during the last 100 days of the war and it was so easy to see how difficult the terrain would have been with so many ridges and sunken areas. The highest areas gave such a vast view of any advance from almost any direction. It was almost unbelievable to think this ground was captured in days and sometimes hours yet had been virtually impossible to take during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The comparisons throughout the tour with previous events right back to the first shots fired painted a picture of the war almost from start to finish and showed that the end was as fiercely fought as the start.

The cemeteries as with all CWGC were immaculate but far less frequently visited than those on regular tours. In every one the roses were in bloom.....predominantly red but in Dury they were all yellow. The picture of the flowers against the white marble headstones was beautiful. On one headstone I saw the inscription:

 'Forgotten by men. Remembered by God'

How wrong they were. We all remember them and the sacrifice they made. Tours like Advance to Victory and all the others only make the remembrance stronger. Long may they continue.

Keith as usual was a superb guide and I think I speak for everyone when I say a huge 'THANK YOU'.

Here's looking forward to The Old Contemptibles again with Keith in September. From one end of the war to the other !

For those still to travel on this tour....look forward to it. You will not be disappointed

RMA

Talking of travel writing I forgot to mention in my 'write up' we were joined on the tour by a travel correspondant from the Daily Mirror ! The write up and photos from the tour should be in either next Saturdays (5th July) or the following Saturdays Mirror.

Well.....15 mins of fame at last (or 15 seconds knowing my luck!).

As for the red wine.....well Harmat tried to buy me a large red wine on the last night and I wasn't in the bar. Never mind...have to have two next time to make up for it !

RMA  

As with all the trips with Leger you end up needing a holiday after coming back, visiting so many places of interest. The most memorable for me was the great architecture at Villiers-Bretonneux. Such a vast and grand monument, very much worth the visit. The serenity of the some of smaller cemeteries were just thought prevoking and really stirred the emotions.

I liked the hotel alot, it was a little way out but evening meal stops were kindly dealt with. RMA you will have to wait until November before you can finally get a drink off me, it was great to meet you though. I should imagine the report in the 'Mirror' will be this Saturday (12th July) as it was not in last weekends paper.

If the trip could be improved upon then you could possibly incorporate another museum into the trip as you do tend to visit alot of cemeteries.