Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend - (i.e Monday Long weekend). We decided to visit Northern France and parts of Belgium.
We headed off Friday night and drove to Dover (~ 4 hours) and stayed the night there. The next
morning we caught a (car) ferry to Calais across the Channel (La Manche), it takes about 2 hours (incl. loading/unloading). This is where the fun began, as I had to drive on the right-hand side of the road (in a right-hand drive car!! - its ok Dave, the car survived unscathed! and so did we!). I think it was probably more unsettling for Kristin sitting in the passenger seat and watching cars coming at her and unable to do anything about it! After about an hour I think I adapted pretty well - the worst was when there were no other cars on the roads to give you a guide!From Calais we drove to Villers-Bretonneux ( we avoided the tolled motorway, this let us see lots of little farming villages and plenty of French farmland).
At Villers-Bretonneux (VB) we first stopped at the Adelaide Cemetery on the outskirts, west of the town. This was the first of many cemeteries that we would see over the next few days (apparently there are 410 scattered around the Somme containing 129,237 soldiers , just from WW1). The Cemetery was meticulously kept and immaculate (as were all the cemeteries and memorials we saw - this a credit to the French and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). This cemetery contained over 200 Australians. As with each cemetery there was
the Cross of Sacrifice, a Stone of Remembrance (engraved with "Their name liveth evermore" ).From here we went into VB and stopped at the Town Hall (we think we ran into the mayor) and then onto the Victoria School (built by donations by Victorian school children after WW1). The school houses the Anzac Museum. The school motto is "Noublions Jamais L'Australie" - "Do not forget Australia".
Next stop about 1 km north of VB is the Australian National Memeorial. The memorial is at the back of another cemetery and has a tower as a part of it. Luckily the tower was open and at the top it gave commanding views in all directions for many miles. There were many wreaths at the memorial (Anzac Day was the weekend before). At each cemetery and memorial there is a visitor book and register for the graves.
Next stop was Le Hamel, about 4 km NW, here is the Australian Corps Memorial Park. This site has two main references: The Red Baron was shot down here; Monash's excellently planned battle (which changed how the British forces approached battles). Also here were the remains of the original trenches from WW1.
From Le Hamel we headed across the Somme river to Sailly-Le-Sec where was the Australian 3rd Division Memorial. Next was Pozieres. At Pozieres there was the Australian 1st Division Memorial, The Windmill site, The British Tank Memorial and the Mouquet Farm Plaque. Nearby at Theipval is the British Memorial. This is the World's largest war memorial with the names of 72,085 British and South African troops missing in action or with no known grave.
Next stop was about 20 km away to Peronne (we passed many other sites on the way - Sth African, NZ, Indian, etc...). At Peronne there is the 2nd Division memorial at Mont St. Quentin.
From here we went to our accommodation near Amiens. For dinner we went into the city of Amiens (the local capital) and admired the Notre Dame cathedral and the canal.
Sunday morning we headed North towards Belgium. We went through many French towns, including Albert, Bapaume and Arras. Next stop and well worth the visit was the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge. Here there is a huge Monument, cemetries and preserved battle site with trenches and bomb craters.
Fromelles was the next stop (although we nearly missed it - and it would have been terrible if
we had as I think this was the best of the Aussie sites) and about 150 m apart is the Cobbers Park and the VC Corner cemetery (the only All Australian cemetery in France). Next was Ypres (Ieper in Belgium) - a medieval town in the middle of the region of Flanders. Ypres has a wonderful square, cathedral (as do 
most of these towns!) and the war memorial- The Menin Gate. From Ypres we went to Zonnebeke (5 km) and just outside of the town is the Polygon Wood Cemetery and the 5th Division Memorial.Our next stop was the largest Commonwealth cemetery on the Western Front - Tyne Cot. This cemetery was massive! In the middle, the Cross of Scrifice is built over a German blockhouse captured by the Aust. 3rd Division. From Tyne Cot we drove about 50 minutes north to the magnificent medieval town of Brugge (or Bruges - English).
As Ralph Fiennes said in the movie "In Bruges", everybody should visit it once in their
lifetime! It is like a Fairy Town!! 
We did a canal 
ride, wandered around and 
absorbed the 
atmosphere at the main square, the Markt.We spent Monday morning in Brugge, then headed to
Ostend (a beach resort of yesteryear) on 
the north Sea - nothing spectacular. We headed South to a small medieval town called Veurne and then we went through Dunkirk (nothing to see here folks!). We then decided to drive to the South side of Calais, to a beach town called Sangatte (The Channel Tunnel goes under the town). To the South is a large cliff called Cap Blanc Nez, where there are magnificent white cliffs - not as spectacular as Dover. 
There is a large obelisk as a monument from WW2. You could see the English coast and the Dover White Cliffs from here. Finally we caught the ferry and drove home to Cardiff - another busy but rewarding trip!Cheers, all photos are on the Web Albums.
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