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Route Planning Where to go, when, what are the interesting places to see
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 28 Sep 2015
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Lots of interesting WW1 stuff around Amiens/Northern France - take a look at the Lochnagar Crater or the Plugstreet (Ploegstraat) memorial to the 1914 Christmas Truce First World War football match remembered with 'Plug Street' Uefa memorial - Telegraph

Belgium is a bit boring but I've always found good food, great architecture and even better in Antwerp

If you want to dodge the motorway run through Hamburg look at getting the ferry from Wischafen to Gluckstadt

If you are into military history then the Northern end of Hitlers Atlantic wall ran up the western coast of Denmark - plenty of interesting bunkers and militaria to explore. Over in Kristiansand Battery Vara is worth a look.

Bottom line is to chill out, take your time, stay away from the motorways and take the back roads wherever possible !
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Old 29 Sep 2015
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Originally Posted by pebble35 View Post
Lots of interesting WW1 stuff around Amiens/Northern France - take a look at the Lochnagar Crater or the Plugstreet (Ploegstraat) memorial to the 1914 Christmas Truce First World War football match remembered with 'Plug Street' Uefa memorial - Telegraph

Belgium is a bit boring but I've always found good food, great architecture and even better in Antwerp

If you want to dodge the motorway run through Hamburg look at getting the ferry from Wischafen to Gluckstadt

If you are into military history then the Northern end of Hitlers Atlantic wall ran up the western coast of Denmark - plenty of interesting bunkers and militaria to explore. Over in Kristiansand Battery Vara is worth a look.

Bottom line is to chill out, take your time, stay away from the motorways and take the back roads wherever possible !
Thanks for the info,,,, I was going to the underground museum in Albert, it would have been a shame yo miss the crater, being so close...I will check out the Battery vara as well when I get up that way...
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Old 29 Sep 2015
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Belgium is a bit boring
Canada is the only nation which purchased land, from France, at the site of a WW1 battlefield = Beaumont Hamel, in the Somme area.
They have preserved that site as a memorial to the Newfoundland Regt which was wiped out in one day (and Newfoundland was not part of Canada at that time).

The other very significant Canadian site is Vimy ridge which was taken by the Canadians in 1917.

Both are well worth visiting; there will be plenty on the internet about both sites.


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

SE Belgium has some pretty good roads for riding - the Ardennes - also known for the WW2 battle of the bulge.
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Old 29 Sep 2015
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Verdun
By the way, the battle of Verdun ran more or less throughout 1916 (Feb - Nov) so there is another 100th anniversary for next year.
I've made two days of visits there and haven't yet been to all of that area.
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Old 29 Sep 2015
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Canada is the only nation which purchased land, from France, at the site of a WW1 battlefield = Beaumont Hamel, in the Somme area.
They have preserved that site as a memorial to the Newfoundland Regt which was wiped out in one day (and Newfoundland was not part of Canada at that time).

The other very significant Canadian site is Vimy ridge which was taken by the Canadians in 1917.

Both are well worth visiting; there will be plenty on the internet about both sites.


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

SE Belgium has some pretty good roads for riding - the Ardennes - also known for the WW2 battle of the bulge.
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
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Old 1 Oct 2015
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Originally Posted by pebble35 View Post
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....
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Old 1 Oct 2015
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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.
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Old 2 Oct 2015
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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.
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
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