Peace & Quiet on the Western Front

Four people, four days, 34 cemeteries and many thousands of graves.

Large cemeteries with thousands of graves


or small ones with only a handful - it's hard to say which are more moving.


Row after row of identical stones.


Graves of those who were decorated for their bravery


And graves of those whose punishment needed its own kind of bravery.


The Cross of Sacrifice with the downturned sword showing the battle is over.


And the Stone of Remembrance whose inscription says it all.


And still we've only scratched the surface - we've not even finished Ypres yet.  Our journey of remembrance has some distance to go.

Spring Offensive

At long last I can feel the spring is coming!  Waiting for the train this evening, it was light!  The air was much milder, the sun was poking through - and my spirits lifted!

And we're off on a sortie next week - Wilf and me, Gladys and Ernie are off to Ypres to carry on with our battlefield tour.  Dispatches to follow.

Snow Fest

So much snow!  It just doesn't seem to have stopped this week!  This was Tuesday evening



By Thursday we had a whole heap more



My poor rosemary bush was drooping under the weight!



The ruler doesn't lie!



But, by Friday it was even worse.  We woke up to nearly as much again!



The road was only just passable





Eventually the sky cleared and the sun set in a blaze of glory.  And the whole jolly lot froze!!!

Did someone mention Christmas?

Well, the past three weeks have passed in a blur of tissues, cough medicine and Christmas decorations.  Tissues and medicine are shelved, decos are still twinkling.

Talking of twinkling - we had a bit of a Christmas market fest.  First Bath (check out the ghostly lady!)



Then Lincoln.



Both were full of people and extremely cold - actually, Lincoln was more than full and much more than cold!

Somehow in amongst all this we've managed to get plenty of Christmas shopping done - and stuck to the budget.  Tomorrow is set aside for the turkey and the last few stocking fillers, then it's done!  

Back to Blighty!

Well, we're back.  And it's cold!!!  And dark!!!!!  And Christmas is in four weeks time.  Yikes!  Somehow I thought we'd be coming back to early summer here.  But evidently I was wrong!

Jet lag abounds, but we're being stoically English and soldiering on regardless, though I haven't got the composure to post anything sensible today.  You might have to wait a few days for any sense to come out of here!

Radio silence

Well, would you believe it, this has been our last day. (Picture my sad face.)

Our cases are packed and weighed (just scraped under weight). We've checked in online. Uncle Wilf is playing pool. And we're dragging out the inevitable for as long as we can.

No more posts 'til we're back in Blighty. See you in GMT!

Didn't we have a lovely time...

...the day we went to Manly!

This was possibly my favourite day in Sydney. We caught the ferry on a beautiful blue skied day and enjoyed all the views. Disembarking half an hour later we mooched around the streets and shops, which cater for all tastes and pockets.


Then we bought fish and chips and ate them out of the paper by the beach before mooching back to the ferry and coming home slightly sunburned and tired out by all the sea air.