Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Route ideas from Caen to Hirtshals

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Originally Posted by pebble35 (Post 516796)

Apologies - I may have done Belgium a disservice ! What I really meant was that the roads up from north west France through Belgium to south west Holland were boring ! I agree that the stuff over towards the eastern side is much more fun !

And I should add that the abandoned village of Doel, just outside Antwerp, is worth taking a look around

I have been playing around with an alternate route after visiting all the ww1 & ww11 sites in France and Belgium.....to take some good riding roads, using Michelin Scenic routes I thought this may be a very nice ride...basically from Belgium through the Ardennes to Luxembourgh, to Bingen on the Rhine then head north along the Rhine taking in the castles to Koblenz, then twisting roads to Hannover, working my way to Hirtshals....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simo (Post 516625)

Amiens ( Australian war memorial)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simo (Post 516905)

As well as see the town of .../Oradour-sur-.Glane untouched since WW11....., there is certainly a lot to see...

Ah, now you are going south to go north.
Oradour sur Glane has both a new village that also has a substantial museum + the original village that was declared a national monument by Gen De Gaulle at the end of WW2 and left as it was left by the 10th SS (Das Reich) Panzer Division in 1944; it's a longish, quite complex story and a number of books have been written about events on that day and leading up to that day.

To take in all of it, including the museum, needs most of one day I suggest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walkabout (Post 516908)

Pozieres is worth visiting.
There are a number of Australian memorials in that area.
World War One Battlefields : The Somme : Pozieres

I took lunch at Tommy's cafe in 2013, during my last visit to that area.
Le Tommy, Pozieres - Restaurant Reviews, Phone Number & Photos - TripAdvisor
Although named after the British "Tommy" it does have a lot of pictures, and stories, about the "Diggers".

Ah, now you are going south to go north.
Oradour sur Glane has both a new village that also has a substantial museum + the original village that was declared a national monument by Gen De Gaulle at the end of WW2 and left as it was left by the 10th SS (Das Reich) Panzer Division in 1944; it's a longish, quite complex story and a number of books have been written about events on that day and leading up to that day.

To take in all of it, including the museum, needs most of one day I suggest.

Sorry I meant to say I'm visiting this town at the tail end of my Journey on my return to the UK from the alps , not detouring south from Normandy at the. beginning...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walkabout (Post 516744)

Belgium has the Ypres salient where you could spend a week viewing the various sites of the 3 battles fought there between 1914 - 1918.

Ypres is a town that is worth visiting IMO. It always has a good ambience with lots of visitors; every evening at 8 pm there is a last post ceremony at the Menin gate ( World War One Battlefields : Flanders: Ypres ) with a two minute silence, and the road is closed to traffic for that period.

In the vicinity of Ypres there are many memorials etc including Essex Farm cemetary where John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields.
World War One Battlefields : Flanders: Essex Farm

Across the top of that WW1 website you can find many areas of the war and down the left hand side are the details of each area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walkabout (Post 516913)

Excellent link you sent me....definitely worth a visit. To see these structures in the actual battle fields will no doubt be surreal....thank you