Author: John Martin

  • Day 4 – Ypres War Memorials pt2

    Day 4 – Ypres War Memorials pt2

    Post Views: 48 Today was another day of visiting the Belgian War Memorials around Ypres. In numbers, very stark numbers, 200,000 Commonwealth men (it’s almost exclusively men) lost their lives in the 1914-1918 war in Belgium. A further 500,000 were lost in France and of all those 700,000… 300,000 have never been found, let alone…

  • Day 3 – Memorials Around Ypres pt1

    Day 3 – Memorials Around Ypres pt1

    Post Views: 31 It’s been a poignant day today. We’ve spent the day cycling around the memorial graveyards to the east of Ypres. The campsite we’re staying at is a two minute cycle ride from the Hooge Crater Museum and Memorial. The Hooge Crater was created early WWI when the allies dug a 60m tunnel…

  • Day 2 – Northants to Ypres

    Day 2 – Northants to Ypres

    Post Views: 31 Today has been a travel day. We set off from Northamptonshire at about 10, Chunnel at 15:30 and set up camp by 18:30. A pretty uneventful day, drizzling until we got past the bottom of the M11 but beautiful now here in Belgium as we sit with a beverage. Thurrock services were…

  • Day 1 – Still in the UK

    Day 1 – Still in the UK

    Post Views: 100 Ok, so this is a bit of a cheat. We’re still in the UK. We’re taking the opportunity to swing by my (John’s) parent in Northamptonshire for a night, before we head off properly on the trip. But we have started and we are fully packed, except for the stuff we’ve forgotten,…

  • Summer 2024 Drive to Greece – Overview

    Summer 2024 Drive to Greece – Overview

    Post Views: 122 So… we’re driving to Greece… as you do! We have a villa booked in Corfu for 10 days in the middle of September, and in some Cliff Richard-esque Summer Holiday vibe, we decided to reduce our carbon footprint and drive instead of flying. Unlike Cliff though, we had planned to do the…