Menin Gate

[Arryhall]

Went to Belgium for the Last Post at the Menin Gate for the 11/11 100 years remembrance. Yes, it was a bit ago now, so not news, nor of any interest to anyone here, either come to that! Left on Friday and drove through to Dover and got on a Ferry, then went through to Ypres. Went to Passchendaele and wandered around the Museum and then went and checked into the hotel. Then went out again to look around.

Saturday, we went all over the place, but went to the Gate for the 8pm daily Last Post and silence. There were a couple of thousand people there, which for a small place, was pretty packed. It was moving and disheartening and yet uplifting.

Sunday, the 11th, we didn't go for the 11am service and poppy drop as there were estimated to be between 12-14000 people there, the ceremony being shown on a big screen in the square. It would have been lovely to go to that, BUT we had a ferry to catch later that day and with so many people there, not only would we have been nowhere near the place, parking would have been miles out of town and we'd never have been able to leave due to traffic, so instead we went to the Somme, and to Bayernwald, and Tyne Cot and Flanders Field. Then we headed back to the ferry and came home to Stoke.

It was moving and humbling and though I have been before, the scale of it all still surprises me. The wife has never been nor have my parents, so it was new to them, and Tyne Cot caused my mum to cry when she saw the rows of headstones; so many of which were unknown because the bodies were beyond recognition.

The important thing about this here? We went in the 75. Don't think I dropped below 70 (or maybe 80) on the way there, then through France and Belgium, stayed at a nice 130kph (whatever that actually is in real speed. Could have been a million mph or 25. Felt quickish though). Never missed a beat. All 4 of us were comfy and warm, and relaxed, the downloaded maps on the Navall took us everywhere we wanted to go, everybody had a nice nap whilst driving there and home, except me, of course! And once the journey was over, none of us were tired, stiff or achey as the car was literally all day comfortable. Covered 1100 miles from Friday to Sunday night, and all I did before I went was to fill the tyres with air, check oil and water and place my "Travelling through France" kit in the boot.

As an aside: considering it is LAW to carry a spare bulb set in your car, I have NEVER, anywhere in the world, seen so many cars on the road with one headlight out! So very very very strange!

Anyway. Rover 75. Noisy inside at speeds over 50mph, but other than that, no problem knocking out a thousand miles in a weekend with 4 people in it.

[trikey]

Fantastic, glad the car performed without issue, sounds like a very moving experience

[marinabrian]

Originally Posted by Arryhall

Went to Belgium for the Last Post at the Menin Gate for the 11/11 100 years remembrance. Yes, it was a bit ago now, so not news, nor of any interest to anyone here, either come to that! Left on Friday and drove through to Dover and got on a Ferry, then went through to Ypres. Went to Passchendaele and wandered around the Museum and then went and checked into the hotel. Then went out again to look around.

Saturday, we went all over the place, but went to the Gate for the 8pm daily Last Post and silence. There were a couple of thousand people there, which for a small place, was pretty packed. It was moving and disheartening and yet uplifting.

Sunday, the 11th, we didn't go for the 11am service and poppy drop as there were estimated to be between 12-14000 people there, the ceremony being shown on a big screen in the square. It would have been lovely to go to that, BUT we had a ferry to catch later that day and with so many people there, not only would we have been nowhere near the place, parking would have been miles out of town and we'd never have been able to leave due to traffic, so instead we went to the Somme, and to Bayernwald, and Tyne Cot and Flanders Field. Then we headed back to the ferry and came home to Stoke.

It was moving and humbling and though I have been before, the scale of it all still surprises me. The wife has never been nor have my parents, so it was new to them, and Tyne Cot caused my mum to cry when she saw the rows of headstones; so many of which were unknown because the bodies were beyond recognition.

The important thing about this here? We went in the 75. Don't think I dropped below 70 (or maybe 80) on the way there, then through France and Belgium, stayed at a nice 130kph (whatever that actually is in real speed. Could have been a million mph or 25. Felt quickish though). Never missed a beat. All 4 of us were comfy and warm, and relaxed, the downloaded maps on the Navall took us everywhere we wanted to go, everybody had a nice nap whilst driving there and home, except me, of course! And once the journey was over, none of us were tired, stiff or achey as the car was literally all day comfortable. Covered 1100 miles from Friday to Sunday night, and all I did before I went was to fill the tyres with air, check oil and water and place my "Travelling through France" kit in the boot.

As an aside: considering it is LAW to carry a spare bulb set in your car, I have NEVER, anywhere in the world, seen so many cars on the road with one headlight out! So very very very strange!

Anyway. Rover 75. Noisy inside at speeds over 50mph, but other than that, no problem knocking out a thousand miles in a weekend with 4 people in it.

I did the same journey four years ago, coupled with a trip to Bruge.

The experience as you say is a humbling one, especially when you realise that Ypres is entirely rebuilt, and less than 100 years old.

You have discovered the forte of the 75, and that is munching motorway miles with ease.

Brian

[Arryhall]

Only thing missing that I wash it has was cruise control. Very nearly went in my Dads' Saab due to the cruise control but the 75 was registered for the ferry so that made the choice for me. Did about 42mpg, which I don't think was too bad for a big girl, carrying 4 big girls (well, 2 girls and me and da, though we may be classed as girls by some!) with a 1.8 turbo motor.

Yes, much as I love that car, I do miss cruise control mightily for long journeys on motorways.

[Comfortably Numb]

Can only agree what an extremely comfortable and relaxing long-distance car the Rover is. I don't find it noisy though, - the diesel thrum disappears below the gently rising tyre hum as I enter the motorway and head for the outside lane every morning, assuming the stereo is not drowning that sound out. It only becomes intrusive again if I (accidentally) exceed +++ the motorway limit.
I've always meant to visit Ypres, -my Grandad, a young chaplain with the DLI, was at one point billetted in the basement of the Cloth Hall in Ypres. He was a keen watercolourist, and his quick sketches, often annotated with the black humour of soldiers, show the destruction, but only hint at the horror he must have witnessed. I watched much of the commemorative tv commentary and refreshed footage with blurred vision and an aching throat. In these increasingly xenophobic and anti-Europe days, even more reason for us not to forget.

[bl52krz]

iI have not been to those places mentioned, but I have been down to where mulberry harbour was ‘set’ You can not believe that men came in from the sea to gain a foothold towards getting the last war on its final episode. When you see the terrain that they had to contend with, it is eye watering. They really were brave men.

[stevestrat]

My grandfather was a dispatch rider in WW1 and was at Ypres. I was never really that close to him, I was still just a kid when he passed away. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning him speaking about what he experienced.

[Comfortably Numb]

Originally Posted by stevestrat

My grandfather was a dispatch rider in WW1 and was at Ypres. I was never really that close to him, I was still just a kid when he passed away. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning him speaking about what he experienced.

Seems like they mostly never did - how could those who weren't there really comprehend what they went through? My grandmother only found the sketchbook clearing out his stuff after he died in 1947.

[Arryhall]

The strange thing is that when you are in the trenches at Bayernwald, looking out over the miles and miles of fields into the horizon, you think, 'Hang on, I'm looking at miles and miles of open fields into the horizon!' You can see a mouse pop his head up off blades of grass from 1000 yards away! How did men charge that trench and expect not to be obliterated? The Germans held that trench from 1914 to the end 1917, and only lost it when the allies blew 19 mines below the trenches, having lost hundreds of thousands of men in pointless and unsuccessful head on charges and attacks. The idiocy, the bad planning, the fact that the officers saw that the massive bombardment hadn't done what it was supposed to, yet STILL send the men to certain death is brought to hom when you are there, in the trench, trying to imagine the Hell that the area had become.
The whole war was a learning point. At the start, the Italians and French still had bright coloured uniforms so as to be seem through the smoke of musket fire, and were generally on horses with swords. It was very much archaic and medieval battle tactics that were utterly useless against the onslaught of machine gun fire. The development and tactical changes that happened in so short a time is miraculous YET there was still utter stupidity. The bombing of No Mans Land was tactically advantageous, yet ineffective and created the quagmire that caused more losses to drowning than enemy fire. The charge into German barbed wire because the shelling hadn't destroyed the thicker German wire and even though the officers could see the wire, knew the bombardment had failed, that the Germans were safe in hideouts and now back manning machine guns, was insane, yet the order was given and off they went with huge attrition rates. Why did they simply see the bombardment had failed and NOT given the order? They could have stayed in the trenches, throwing things at each other whilst they tried other tactics as oppose to just causing massive losses and unimaginable horror?

When I go over there, the scale, the craziness of it all, the impossibility of that ever happening again really hits home.

Why wouldn't it happen again? First off, imagine todays millenials being told to go over the top into enemy fire. They wouldn't. They'd complain to Health and Safety and it wouldn't be allowed. WWI was definitely a war of its time, and thankfully that method of killing each other has passed.

Now if we could just stop killing each other altogether, that'd be just great.

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy my car until the petrol runs out and the world ends in a firey ball of pollution.

[bl52krz]

We have relations by marriage in Reil Germany, on the Mosel river. They have built a wooden tower by the side of the river, near where there used to be anti aircraft guns to bring our boys in the RAF down while using the river as a pointer to elsewhere. We, myself son and my relation went up this tower for a gander. When we had got up there, there was Canadian, American Dutch English and French people up there. I remarked that it pointed out how futile wars are, and was overheard by one of the ‘yanks’ who retorted that if we had kept our eye on the ball, it would have never happened. Germany had built an army and armour above what it was supposed to have by agreement. The moto:- never take your eye off the ball. The same thing is happening now. Oh well.