Heads up...I've added the last days in Dubai to this page and re-published
Wednesday Sunny again
Our last full day in France so we've hit the road again to a National Park, it's near a thermal spring which in the past many of the well heeled of Lille visited for their health. There is still a therapy centre on the site. St Amand des Eaux is the town closest to the park.

Abbey at St Amand des Eaux

Once again a town with a lot of it's historic buildings intact. There is an archaeological dig happening in the market square in front of the Abbey ruins. They are relaying the cobblestones and I imagine there would always be an archaeological investigation beforehand.

National park

There are some trails though the park, and one that takes us up to the top of a hill, which is interesting as there are very few hills in this part of the world. Up we go...round and round the paths getting steeper as we go, in the end I took a break and Rick went to the top of what is actually a re-forested slag heap left from the mines that stopped working her in about 1900. The views are pretty far, as I said not many hills in the way.
We came home late via Roubai, which is a very ordinary town, the Town Square is impressive as most of them are but it's a hard working town by the look if it.

Roubai Cathedral getting a clean up

We hadn't figured out anything for tea and in the end picked up a couple of frozen meals and even though they were Lapin Chasseur and Beef Borgingion (sp?) I did feel a  bit embarrassed to be walking through a French city street with frozen meals.
Home means packing up again ready for the off tomorrow.

Thursday travel day
So when I left you we were getting ready to leave Lille, which turned out to be really simple and hitch free, even if I did get a bit anxious waiting for our train to arrive.
As it was a 'Feast Day" public holiday there was no traffic, at last and we made it into the Avis car drop off easily, then on to the station.

Beautiful Antwerp Station.

Our first train took us to Antwerp, which is a truly beautiful station (which is something not often said of railway stations). After an hour we hopped on board another on to Amsterdam. We were sitting next to a young American couple and we chatted all the way to to our stop at Schipol Airport station .Arriving at 4.30 pm it took another quick train from the airport station to our hotel. After a long day doing not much on trains we decided to stay in and have a quiet night, after a couple of beers and a huge GnT.

Friday Amsterdam. sunny.
Well it's been 40 years since I was last in Amsterdam (and then only for a day or so as I remember) and for Rick about 30 years too. I'm keen to see how much has changed as much as I am to see what I remember.

Amsterdam Railway Station

The old part of the city is pretty similar to the one I remember and any changes seem to be improvements in view of the massive number of tourists here everyday. Because of this we've decide to go straight to the Rijksmuseum, in case the line to enter is too long. We have pre-purchased passes so it's not too much of a problem getting in. The last time I was here it must have been a day the museum was closed as I never managed to see it then.

Rijksmuseum

I'm kind of glad I've waited as I think I really appreciated the splendour and magnificence of the collection much more now. It's four floors of Dutch art and artifacts from the middle ages to 1950 ish.
Luckily for us there we've managed to be here for the last week of the 'Alle Rembrandt' Exhibition. All of Rembrandt"s drawings and many of his paintings on display for the 350th anniversary of his birth.
While his paintings are well known, the sheer volume of his pencil and paper drawings on display is fantastic, it quite a feat that so many still survive in such wonderful condition.

Rembrandt, Night Watch

We had a couple of hours to wait between visiting the main museum and 4pm when we could get in to see the Rembrandts, so we  had waffles for lunch and then took a canal tour. Our museum tickets let us come in and out again  (very civilised)
Of course there is also the odd Vermeer and Van Gogh as well.

Such a favourite Vermeer of everyone

As we left at about 5pm Rick said ' If you'd said I would spend all day in a museum, and enjoy it, I'd have laughed at you. But it was brilliant'
Afterward, we headed into the 'Red Light District' which while still there, isn't quite so down at heel as it once was. And the girls in the windows don't appear to be quite as conspicuous as they were. However the stale smell of dope fills the air from all the smoking 'Coffee Houses' along the street.
After we've found somewhere for tea, we're heading back toward the shopping area as I still need to find some bathers for the rooftop pool in Dubai...Trying to find my size in a pair of bathers when I feel like shopping is a pain, made worse here as I really can't be bothered trying them on (but I must as the sizes are nothing like those I know). Anyway after more disillusion with what I think might fit and feeling like one of those well upholstered Russian ladies at a hot Spring Spa, I finally have found a pair I can finally be seen wearing in public. So happy days I can swim in Dubai...😃
Rick gets a shirt and I also find a pair of shorts. Then it's back on our train and home, tired and pleased with ourselves.

Saturday is Heineken Day 25C and sunny.  The Dockers Beat the Pies!

Your favourite thing that happened today. @ Heineken

Now we've seen how beer's made a few times now so I was just along for the ride really. Well the Heineken Experience is not just about how beer is made, there's some of that of course but along the way there's fun and games too. By the time we made it to the bar at the end we're ready for a beer.
The bar's great, the beer's good and with the funky 70's playlist in the background all they need is a dance floor! We left there a giggly couple of kids. Needless to say the footy result helped the beers go down too.

After lunch (and a little lie down in the park) we visited the Van Gogh museum, more brilliant paintings and drawings. I've always liked Van Gogh and the originals are brilliant.

 The Sunflowers is so wonderful the yellow is golden and it absolutely glows. I have seen the Irises at Perth Art Gallery years ago, and I always loved that but I think now Sunflowers outshines it, pun intended.
( Unlike most other museums we weren't able to take photos in the Van Gogh Museum.)
More wandering the city and enjoying the sights then home again to put our tired feet up.

Sunday, 30c hot and sunny

Windmills

Along the Zaan

Last full day in Europe today, we've walked our feet off, and seen more old buildings than I can remember, so we took a ferry ( two actually) to Zaandam, and it's Windmills, where there is a living museum of Old Holland, people actually live full time in the village as they would have hundreds of years ago. This was a timber mill town and so the houses are all timber but the architecture is very decorative, most homes are dark green and white or black and red, all gardens and farmlets are very neat and tidy. They all butt on to canals, so within the village transport is either walking or boating. Sunday is fair day, there's a book market, masses of free activities for kids, the usual touristy stuff and of course the windmills, all 6 of them. Each has a different purpose, a grain mill, timber mill water mill etc.

We had thought we'd do another canal trip to fill in the afternoon, but by the time we returned to the city, home was the better option. Our last night we wandered to a nearby hotel to have dinner and home to make sure the cases aren't too heavy....it's close.
It's a very popular place on a sunny Sunday in Amsterdam and surrounds. After we returned I put some pics on facebook, immediately a reply came back from Bob Riebe. He and Wendy had been there this morning too, and were now at the airport on their way to Iceland. It's a shame we didn't catch up with each other, but honestly we would have been very lucky to see anyone we knew in that crowd. Small world indeed.

Monday, and we are off to Dubai this afternoon, it's overcast and cool, so time to move on to the sun.
See you in Dubai.

Tuesday 2am  Dubai, hot hot hot
Checked in to our palatial 'junior suite' at the Park Regis and fell into bed.

Rather more space than we are used to 

 It was a good flight, we had three seats so could spread out a little and the 6 hours went by quite easily.
So breakfast at 10, a swim on the roof for about an hour. I had to laugh, you'll remember my comments on buying bathers? Well there were a few Indian ladies in the pool, we got chatting and one asked if I was ....Russian. Apparently, I am well upholstered 🤣

We took the train to Dubai Mall, OMG words cannot do it justice, Huge Glittering, Outrageous I could keep going. Anyway we hung around here doing a bit of gawping, at the Aquarium, The Waterfalls (2) and The Ice Skating rink, and a bit of shopping. It's also air-conditioned so no point going anywhere else ( the temp outside must be close to 50C). After dinner we took a night bus tour around the city, new and old, to the Palm complex. Dubai is a bit like a massively huge Las Vegas
 ( without the alcohol and gambling) totally over the top, but more real somehow.

The Skating Rink and Mini Golf

The tour ended back at the Mall which was heaving with people ( mostly young men) as it's Eid, the end of Ramadan today.

Mosque

Honestly the crowd would have been 95% young men under 25, very few women. The crush to get to the train at 9pm was unbelievable and I was a little bit (read quite) anxious, until we saw that the crowd control was letting women ( and husbands and families) through first. They literally stopped the young men, and let us all through to the train. As massive as the crowd was, everyone was so very respectful. On the train a couple of women made sure we were able to get off at our stop, the crowd just parted and let me through,( Rick had to push a bit).
We had hoped to be back in time for another swim tonight, that'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Wednesday, Hot hot hot again.
To keep out of the heat as much as possible we set out early-ish, for the Mall, Rick has a ticket to ascend the Burj Kalipha a tower of 148+ floors, he's going up to 124, and I'm wandering around the Mall, hoping not to get lost. This is a Mall like few others, I don't need to shop to be entertained, as I said there are Waterfalls,

 an Aquarium,

 a Souk, a Skating Rink

 and a mini Golf course.. Amazing
There are five floors of every imaginable high end shop and then some. Honestly just waking through the department stores is entertaining. The clothes, the colours, the shoes, the jewellery, the people. There's all kinds of everything.

It's a long way down.

As for my time at the Burj Khalifa. I took the express elevator all the way to the viewing platform on floor 124. It took less than a minute and several ear poppings. As the lift doors open you stare out to a revolving door which leads to the open air. As the air is above 40, it's more than a little breathtaking. As with everything in Dubai's tourist areas, it's quite packed. The viewing deck is in two parts, one outside stretching about a third of the way around, and the rest of the circle is inside, with a cafe (of sorts) and the ubiquitous souvenir shop. The view is a little clouded as the air at this time of the year is 'dust-filled' with sand being blown from the surrounding desert, but it does allow you to see this city is planted right on the edge of that desert. It was difficult to get close to the windows to get some photos, as everyone was standing in several different poses while either using a selfie stick or waiting for the partner to get the right angle. I eventually got some film and some photos though and then headed back to the Dubai Mall to try to find Karen. 

Our 20 floor hotel is the white building to the right and up from the golf ball in this picture.

I tried to text her to find out where she was, but for some reason I couldn't get through. Same when I tried to ring. Now what to do? This mall is bigger than huge and it's spread over 5 floors with honeycombing avenues of shops and people. Lots and lots and lots of people. Luckily I texted Brett to send a facebook message to get a message. Phew! It worked.

Spice Souk

We did go out to the Gold and Spice Souk in the old town but as it's still the Eid holiday, there wasn't much open.
After an incredibly hot walk to the next bus stop, we hopped back on the bus and continued the tour to almost our front door. It was two very hot bodies who hit the pool late this arvo.
Rick had booked us a special dinner for tonight so we spruced ourselves up and had a lovely meal on the 19th floor overlooking the display as the lights came on in the city.
The view always reminds me of the drawing we used to see of people's idea of the future city. It's quite 'space-age' in a way.
Dubai is a fabulous city and I urge everyone to spend a few days here, it's been a perfect end to our epic.

Not sure what to call it but I love it.

Dubai by night

The view from our table.

Last Day.  hot again 47C apparently.
Took and early morning train to city and then a Dhow down the Creek for about an hour, more of the same as the bus tours, but life along the creek is as it always was in some areas. Dhows transporting freight to and from the port. Water taxis transporting people up and down the creek.

We check out tonight so it's a quiet day indoors till it's time to head to the airport.
It's been a fabulous 2 months of adventures, and while we are happy to be going home, it will be no time before this will seem like a dream., that is except for the masses of photos we've taken between us.

Sunday morning.
Late start and it's sunny, so we go up to Wazeemes market for breakfast. It turns out that today, as well the day all of Europe has to vote in the EU elections, is also Mother's day in France.

Mother's Day Flowers

The market is awash with colour and fragrance of the many and various flowers for sale this morning. We have moved in to the apartment next door as this one has a washing machine, the old one didn't. The reason we booked here was to use the washing machine and to have secure parking. The owner was very helpful in allowing us to move from one to the other, particularly as he was on holiday in Greece at the time. So we spend the rest of the day, lazing around while the washing gets done. I think I only went out again to see if anything was open for me to buy something for tea. There was, we didn't starve.
Just something we've noticed is the shopping hours, late starts and closures as I expected, but weekends in town, supermarkets are open for shorter hours early and big surprise, most of the fuel stations in town close at 6pm every day. We were very nearly caught out with that one.

Monday, sunny again, some clouds though.

Another day at home, after our very busy week and lots of driving, while not long distances we have covered some territory. The WW1 battlefields cover about an 80 mile radius form Lille. Today we walked across town to find out where we catch the train to Amsterdam on Thursday and to see where we drop off the hire car as we will be coming into the station from a different route from the one we left. At the Euraille Centre, as well as trains, there is a fabulous three story shopping mall.

Roubai Gate in old city ramparts

 Do you think I could find a pair of bathers to fit...not on you life. Now I'm sure nude bathing will be frowned upon in Dubai so it's pretty important that I find a pair soon. Oh that I were a size 6. (not that I ever was.)
After lunch here, we walked home....the long way. We walked around one side of the perimeter of the city. Not that we were lost, just misplaced. We did discover that there's a fabulous park along the canal at the other end of our street, so it was a good walk.

Lille Canal

Tuesday...so it MUST be Belgium
Yes today we were, In Brugge
What a beautiful city, it's only a 50 min drive from Lille, so we left late, parked outside the city and walked in.
We'd had a recommendation to have lunch at one of the breweries. The Half Moon, and we didn't need to see beer being made again, so we skipped the tour and had a great lunch with a couple of good beers.

The very best Waffles ever.

We then hopped on a canal tour, which took us around all the old town and was fantastic, the beauty of this town can been seen everywhere. There are shops selling all the usual tourist tat but amongst that there is some delicate lace, delicious chocolate and good beer. Rick says 2 outa 3 aint bad!

Bottle shop and Chocolate shop, side by side, someone's happy 😃

We are almost at the end of out time in France and it's been so good. Being once again in a smaller city makes it easier to feel more comfortable as we go about the town.

The Euraille train leaves from St Pancras Station, it's almost like an airport lounge. We leave about 11am Saturday morning
The train is fast...and I do mean fast even through London and the immediate country side.
The train stats for those interested
Average speed 290kmph
Fastest speed 332kmph (we went just over 300!)
Tunnel lenght  50 km
Tunnel depth 75meters
Trip London to Lille 2hours

We found our apartment without too much trouble, dragging suitcases over cobblestones on the way.

Rick at the front door.

We are quite central between Place de Republic and the Grand Place (town square).
After getting some food for tea we had a quick wander around our area.

Sunday, drizzley today,
The hire car is ready for collection so we wander back to the railway station to collect it. Peugeot auto with sat nav 😊. And as she sends us home to our parking garage without a hitch that's a big plus.
The rest of the day is spent having a look around the old town in the Grand Place area. It's quite beautiful.

Lille, Cloth Hall

 There are a lot of people out this evening, it turns out that it is a celebration for the museums and they are all open tonight and free, also there is a demonstration against the European elections (I think) and there are heavily armed (machine guns , the lot) riot police alongside the Prefecture of Police at the end of our street. It turns out to be a quiet night.

Monday, Sunny and bright and our exploring of the Somme begins.
Our tour of the WW1 battlefields begins, we are both following in family footsteps, as both Rick and I have ancestors who took part in these events.
First stop is the town of Villers Brettoneux and The Sir John Monash Centre which has only been opened in the last couple of years. As we walked up through the cemetery toward the SJM centre I was quite taken by the wonderful sculptured flags along side the gate posts...then I saw the thousands of names along the walls between the gate posts. These are the missing Australians who have no grave as yet. There are about 10,000 on these walls. between those and the very moving museum films it has been an emotional morning.

View from Tower at Monash

Le Hamel monument

Next we visit the Australia Corps memorial at Le Hamel and Albert Iles grave at Crucifix corner.
(Family Tree Note; Albert Henry Iles KIA 8/7/18 was Jack (Grandpa) Iles uncle, brother of John Edward (Pop) Iles)
Back to Lille via Dernancourt.

I pinched a Poppy from roadside in Villers B

Tuesday, another sunny day.
A visit today to a wonderful little museum at Bullecourt. Most of the memorabilia has been collected by the late Mayor of Bullecourt. He was a farmer and found most of the collection in his own fields. He and his wife had put together the museum themselves.
What I particularly liked is that he didn't discriminate and there are German and Allied artifacts here.
On our way again and next we find the Lochnagar crater, another private exhibition (this time owned by an Englishman who bought the field as the crater was part of an English army action)

 .
It's not far from Pozieres, where we have a picnic lunch overlooking Mouquet Farm (called Moo Cow farm  by the irreverent Australians). Mouquet is still a working farm, although the buildings are all new.
That's one thing that I thought curious as we drive through the villages, that they aren't the quaint 'chocolate box' prettiness of the English countryside. Then it dawned on me, not one of the buildings in any of these villages and towns is more than 100 years old. So many were rebuilt after WW1 only to be once again smashed to smithereens in WW2.
Our final call for the day is the huge and very moving Thiepval monument, it looks toward Mouquet Farm. The monument recall the names of 72,000+ missing ( no known grave) Commonwealth soldiers.

The whole area of the Somme is quite flat, there are rises and dips but it is not hilly, so I can imagine any wood, forest, or farm building would provide essential shelter as did Mouquet Farm for both sides at various times.


Wednesday sunny again
For a change of scenery we head for the coast, to Dunkerque, (and a change of war, WW2). Here is where the allies were evacuated from France to England in thousand of little private boats over the nights of  May 26 to June 4. Over 300,000 servicemen escaped by waiting several days for their turn, while a war was going on behind them.

We had lunch on the edge of the wide flat beach and explored the old part of town that is still intact as it was before either war. Cobblestones and all.
On the way home we called in to Poperinge, to see a wonderful RnR house for mostly English soldiers in the area.

Talbot House

Talbot House garden

 It's called Talbot House and its here behind the lines that the soldiers relaxed, put on music hall shows, caught up with friends etc. It's a really restful place for we travellers too who have had our emotions rattled for the past couple of days. It has really peaceful feel and the garden in the back is quite a treasure within any of these towns.
Ypes is also on our way home and it's here every night of the year that, buglers play the Last Post at the Menin gate.

I feel I can't tell you yet again that the Menin gate is a memorial to soldiers with no graves  as it's all we seem to have seen. That's not strictly true but the cemeteries appear everywhere. I do mean everywhere, every village or towns has at least one if not multiple Commonwealth War Graves. It turns out that in many cases these arose out of necessity. They began as Clearing Stations, Medical Stations and Military Aid stations, which all required small cemeteries, which became CWGraves in the time after the war.
For instance the cemetery where Alby Iles is buried has about 1000 graves and is quite small and almost hidden by raised main road, we nearly missed it altogether

Thursday, sunny
We've decided to take day off. We'd lost our camera so that had added a level of frustration as it has on it some photos we needed for further investigation.
So we each did our own thing this morning, I went shopping ( of course, I'm in France!) decided that nice shoes and cobblestones don't mix. So after a bit of shopping and a bit much hobbling on cobbles I came home to a much happier husband, Rick had found the camera in the car.
Now that we are all happy again off we toddled to the other end of town, where I sniffed out the Wazeeme market. Like most markets there's a lot of junk but there as also great fruit, veges, meat, bread, cheese etc.

Palace de Beaux Arts

Tonight the art gallery at Beaux Arts is open till 6pm so we wandered over and had a look. There's masses of religious art ( as you'd expect) which is not to my taste at all, however there were a number of good little portraits and a lovely room of impressionist, in particular some Edouard Vuillard still lifes.
The gallery (palace) has only recently been completely renovated and  after being damaged in WW1
The Grand Place, (town centre) has a wonderful clock/bell tower so we made it in time for the 6pm bells, which Rick recorded for a guy at work who is a bell ringer at the bell tower in Perth.
I made some soup for tea and we had an early night.

Friday, still sunny, (they keep promising rain)

Ypes Cloth Hall. We climbed the clock tower!

Back to Ypes to have look around the town, we climbed the bell tower. I don't know how I did it as it was quite scary. Though not as terrifying as when we had to go out onto the battlements, which even made the men a bit nervous. I'd like to say I enjoyed the view, but I doubt I saw much (and that was the only way down btw)

On the Bell Tower, holding on tight

On the way down Rick and I stopped on the carillion floor to catch our breath just as the quarter hour bells chimed. OMG!! Lucky we were safe inside as we both jumped and took off in fright. Man it was loud.
Ypes has been rebuilt as it was before WW1 after some discussion. It seems as not everyone wanted to look back and many rather wanted to take advantage of new homes and town centre. The centre market place and ancient Cloth Hall and all the buildings close to the town centre have been built as they were and I have to say they are magnificent.

A town close by is Zonnebeke which has a lovely wooded park and lake. From here we walked out to see the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world ( has the most actual burials) and my god it's big.

Can't show how big it is

But can show how well they are looked after

More Australian are buried here than at any other war cemetery in the world. There was a woman on a tour who I over heard say " That's it, no more cemeteries for me". I know how she feels, it's quite overwhelming, but that is why we've chosen to come to this part of France and it has been quite fascinating, otherwise. We had walked to the cemetery and memorial along the roads but found an old railway line ( now a walking/ cycling trail) back to town which was much nicer and settled the mind after the cemetery.
We'd also had enough by then and after buying some steak for tea hopped back on the road to home, along with all the workers at peak hour, it took us over an hour to travel about 5kms home. We'll be back at Zonnebeke tomorrow though as I left my phone at the cafe where we had afternoon tea!

Saturday drizzle early sunny later
Today is the last day of our tour of the battlefields etc. First of all though we had to return to Zonnebeke to retrieve my phone that I had forgotten after we had afternoon tea yesterday. Then on to Polygon Wood, just out of town. It's early, drizzly, quiet and the only sound is the birds in the wood and our footsteps on the gravel.

Behind me is the monument to the Australians

 It's here that a cafe owner recently ( last five years or so) found the remains of five Australians and as we were having a coffee at his cafe he began re-counting that experience to a group of contributors who are financing the next step in their recognition/reburial.

Polygon Wood Cemetery and monument

It's not far to a little known "museum" at Hooge crater, it's in the grounds of an hotel and quite eerie as it's been left much as it might have been in 1918. Most other places with trenches have lawns and gardens surrounding them but here there is a mess, makes it a bit more real in a way.
Hill 60 of the Australain movie fame is next down the road.( It's very surprising just how close to each other all of these places are). Hill 60 is another memorial that has been left much as it was (ie no cemetery or headstones) and nature is reclaiming her own, so though it is a memorial it's also a wooded walking area for the towns folk.

Anzac Rest Cafe

Toronto Road now all Australian graves

One little cemetery that we did find (eventually) was a small Australian one from quite early in the war, Called Toronto Road as the Canadians first used it. It's very near to the place where both the German and the Allied soldiers celebrated their first Christmas with a truce and a game of soccer. Though it's so well hidden, we took two days to find it.

These sticks German trench/ those sticks Allied trench, soccer in between!

The cemetery is hidden away in the wood behind the soccer game memorial and took some finding. As to the Christmas truce, there are rebuilt trenches to show where both sides were at the time and, honestly they could have almost reached out and shook hands without leaving the trench. So close.

The last port of call and one I had been waiting for was Fromelles, the Australian's first engagement in with the Germans. The town itself is very small and indistinct from many others.
There's a monument  called The Cobbers and a cemetery, VC Corner, here also with no headstones, which after acres and acres of them is somehow a easier to take.

We drove through Armentieres, no madamoiselles to be seen so we have come on home.
We'e quite done now with this part of our French adventure and now on to some cultural exploits...
It's been an interesting and some times tough week as our emotions have taken a battering, but I'm really pleased to have finally been able to put places to the names I've read about for so long.