Europe Week III part III/Week IV part I

Blog post 30/01/12: Lyon.
After Strasbourg, I went to Lyon, where I had a ticket to the Olympique Lyonnais-Dijon FCO game, I arrived on Friday, and I went to the Hotel to check in. After checking in I went to the nearest oL store, and proceeded to spend my (read: my parents) money on some OL gear, I bought a jacket, cap, pen, some gloves, stickers and 2 shirts, 1 Home shirt with 21 Gonalons and 1 away with 8 Gourcuff.
My home (r) and away shirts.


The next day I wandered around the immediate vicinity to the hotel, just sorting out a few things with my phone and such. That evening I had a ticket to the OL-DFCO game, so I caught the train to the Stade Gerland. My ticket was in the south stand, I didn't realise at the time of booking that it was where one of the supporter groups stood (no backs to the seats), while I loved my view (behind the goals), I would, the next time, probably look at getting a seat on the sideline as I felt I didn't really fit in with the supporter groups (might be my lack of French, hmmmn)
Goooaaall!


The game was amazing, OL opened the scoring 8 minutes in, almost immediately Dijon got a penalty, which hit the post!!! :-D then about 25 minutes in OL got a goal disallowed for Offside, I couldn't tell, but it was obviously a bad decision :-P not much else happened for the rest of the half. In the second half Dijon started much the better team, and when they finally equalised in the 62nd (approx) minute, it was under controversial circumstances. An OL player had been fouled, and everyone had stopped, (the linesman called a foul), the ref played on and Dijon scored, much to the ire of the stadium, which was ringing with boos. Dijon kept the pressure up in the immediate aftermath of the goal, and had a shot hit Lloris' right post, (phew!), in the 78th minute Gomis, had a brilliant solo run for a goal, which put OL up 2-1, and only 4 minutes later Lacazette made it 3!!!!!!!!!! I had a great night, which was made spectacular by the win.
Me outside the Stade Gerland before the match in my OL jacket.


On Sunday, I had a real tourist day, I spent the day wandering around the city, which I thought was really beautiful, great views, even though I had to walk up some steep hills/steps. I went to the ruins of the Roman theatres, and the church (cathedral?) on the top of the hill. I went all around the centre-ville and the old town.
The Roman Amphitheatre.


The view from the Cathederal.


This is an indication of the steps I walked up and down that day. (taken halfway down)


A duck on the Rhône, which was a really nice green/blue colour.


The Cathedral as seen from La Republique.


Today, I did some more wandering before I caught the train from Lyon-Monaco (via Marseilles, with a change over at Nice)


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Europe Week III part II

Blog post 30/01/12 Heidelberg
This is the 2nd of today's 3 posts, this one will cover my time in Heidelberg.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the train from Metz-Saarbrücken got replaced with bus, as a result I went to Heidelberg via Kaiserslautern, it was a really nice trip, and I ended up speaking with a lovely German couple from Kaiserslautern to Mannheim, I went from the HBF to the hostel, (an amazing place btw), and I checked in. That evening I had my first "proper" German dinner - meatballs, they were delicious. The next day I wandered around the Altstadt, crossed the Neckar river and wandered along the opposite bank, I love the city, the Altstadt is such a beautiful place, and I loved wandering around there.
View across the Neckar from the Altstadt.




After lunch I went up to the castle on the hill, the views were amazing, and I certainly was glad I'd transferred the morning pics to my iPad already, otherwise I think I might have run out of space on my camera. I wandered around for a bit before going back to the hostel.
The Altstadt from the Castle.




That evening I was catching up with a friend from the AUGC back home, and we went to what turned out to be the same restaurant I went to the previous night, no matter, as I had the opportunity to have something else, I had the curry sausages and chips, om nom nom.
The castle entrance.




I bought a Germany football top while I was there, with #7 Schweinsteiger. 1 top down, 3-??? To go.
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Europe week III Part I

Blog Post 30/01/12 part 1: Metz, Verdun, and Strasbourg.
So, it's been a while...
I last updated en route to Metz, I'm now en route from Lyon to Monte Carlo, so I should update this last week or so.
The German built Gare de Metz.


I arrived in Metz around 8pm, and the only way to the hotel was a taxi, unfortunately for me, I booked a hotel near the convention centre, nowhere near the centre-ville. The hotel wasn't that flash either, it was a modern one, and looked a lot like the kind of hotel you get in the mad axe/chainsaw murderer horror films. The next day was spent wandering around the centre-ville, which is just magnificent and I thought the town was really beautiful, despite the people working at the tourism office and the staff at the hotel giving off the impression that they couldn't give a shit about helping the customers.
A bridge over the Seille river in Metz.


After Metz I went to Verdun, the train journey to Verdun from Metz is just amazing, and there are just some amazing views when on the way, I'd reccomend taking the train, not the bus, if you go from Metz to Verdun.
I encountered the same problems at Verdun that I had encountered along the front, everything closed for January, and the majority of the war sites being outside of the town, and only accessible by car, taxi, or tour, the tour not being an option (again, due to the time of year), but the Star Fort at Verdun, which is a magnificent example of military fortification was there, in the city, and while the underground exhibit was closed, the walls are free to walk around, so I did, it was a little bit spooky, but breathtaking at the same time, I then went to the old town there, and wandered around, a bit hilly, with more than a few steps, but just amazing.
The Fortress in Verdun.


After Verdun, I went to Heidelberg, but as that's part of Germany, and just so amazing, I'm giving it its own post. I will say though, that getting there wasn't much fun, as the French cancelled the train from Metz-Saarbrücken, and replaced it with a bus, so I went from Saarbrücken to Heidelberg via Kaiserslautern.
The WWI memorial at night.


After Heidelberg, I went to Strasbourg for a couple of days. I loved it, I did a canal tour of the city, which was a good way to see the European Quarter and a few of the other sights to see. I didn't know what to do in the evening, so I found a cinema that did the movies in English with the French subtitles, and I saw the new George Clooney movie, The Descendants, which I thought was really good. I met a couple of American ladies there, they're studying on exchange, we had a great conversation, and it was a nice feeling to speak to some natural English speakers, for what was the 2nd time in a week. I hadn't really considered the lack of proper conversations while I was in Europe, but it really showed me the little things that you miss more than you realised.
The Gare de Strasbourg.

Week II in Europe

Blog post 21/01/12
I'm writing this on the train from Sedan-Metz, I've been to a fair few places this week, but it's been a rather disappointing week to be honest. After the amazement of Ypres, it's been rather downhill since. When I arrived in Lille, I decided to take the 2 days I was there as a rest break (my itinerary has changed slightly from the one I've posted). I wandered around the city, and visited the games workshop, so I could see what it's like for the French. I didn't do much else there, except wander around taking photos.
A church in Lille.


Next stop was Arras, where I had 2 days and 1 night, I spent the first day wandering around the city, the Fortress was closed, which was rather annoying, but it was a beautiful city, the next day I went to the Vimy Ridge, and the Canadian memorial there, 1 word. Vast, I spent most of the day there (including travel both ways), and it was s truly sobering experience, the views are magnificent, but they also show you how easy it would have been for the Germans to defend, and why it took the numbers and casualties to capture it.
My first view of the memorial at Vimy.


Then it was time for Albert, which was so disappointing. I arrived in the evening, and when I got to the tourist office, I found out that a) all the museums in the area are closed until February at the earliest, and b) the few tourist operators in the town that did tours to the battle sights (outside the town, driving distance), would only take bookings the day before, even though the one that they tried had nothing on on that day, I was gutted, big time, I was so excited to get to the somme, and it was all closed down. Next time I'll bring a car.
A view from the memorial at Vimy.


I proceeded to Cambrai, not too bad, nice town, same problem as Albert, at least I assume so, no one in the tourist office spoke any English, or German, only French, and I was unable with my basic French, (my German is much better), and the aid of my dictionary, get any advice. (high horse time again: if you say "je ne parlez(comprendriez) pas Français, why do they still gab the sentence at you at 100mph, when they could at least try to speak slowly, or write it down for me), so another (rather shitty, I was rather pissed off about the last couple of days) day spent wandering around the city, which is really beautiful, and I'll most probably go back again, (again, with a car).
Cambrai Centre-Ville.


The nest stop was Sedan, the site of the Great Victory of the North German Confederation over the French in 1870, although the day didn't start off well. I had to get up at 06:00, as my train left Cambrai at 07:35, I changed at Lille and Hirson, with a 20minute or so wait at, Valenciennes, and there was a train from Cambrai-Valenciennes, around 8:30-9:00, which would have been a better time for me. Overall I travelled 180km approx, between 2 towns 144km apart - go figure.
When I arrived, I realised that my hotel "right next to the station" was in fact, right next to the station, but on the wrong side of the tracks, with no direct path. When I asked someone at the station, they pointed me in the wrong direction, and what should have been a 15-20min walk ended up being a 45min walk. In the rain, fun - not.
Sedan from the Medieval Fortress.


When I finally got to the hotel, I dropped my stuff in my room, and went to find the tourism office, when I got there, it was closed until 4, I got there about 2:30, no matter, I went to the famous citadel in Sedan (1min walk from the TO), and did the tour of the fortress. (you get a piece of paper if you're a non French speaker, and you D.I.Y. It) which was a great way to kill the time.

The keep of the fortress.


When I got into the tourism office, (with my list of places to go, thanks to Sir Michael Howard's book on the Franco-Prussian War), I got a map, great advice on the order to do my things, as well as a great museum. The lady there also helped me to book a bike for the remainder of my time in Sedan, helped big time. I got the bike, went home, watched some Simpsons with French Dubbing, so bad, I lol'd most of the time anyway.
Random house in Sedan, thought it looked nice.


The next day (the day of writing), I got up,mad breakfast, checked out of the hotel, left my backpack there (big help), and followed my map.

Sedan from the Artillery Position.


I started by going to a hill above the village of Frénois, where Sir Michael writes that Wilhelm I and Bismark (amongst other dignitaries) stood in "...a Clearing on the wooded hills above Frénois, south of the Meuse..." and they had a magnificent view of the battle, turned out the hill I ended up on (thanks to the help of a local with no English, dictionary to the rescue again), the hill was the site of some of the Prussian artillery, but a magnificent view nonetheless.

The Château Bellevue.


After the hill, I went to the Château Bellevue, where Napoleon III signed his surrender, unfortunately it is now someone's home, so I've only managed to get pics of the outside, and the field next to it where he surrendered his sword.
I then went to Floing, a village west of Sedan, where there is a memorial to the war there.
The memorial in Floing.


Then I went through the city (stopping off at a bakery for some lunch), to a museum in the inn where the Marines held off a couple of assaults of Bavarian infantry, finally surrendered, there is a room in the museum, that is as it was after the battle, bullet holes, peeling wallpaper, holes in the ceiling.

Being the duffer that I am, I forgot to take a photo of the outside of
the museum. Here's a painting of the battle taking place.
It's in the Museum itself.


My final stop was the "Cross of Mac-Mahon" which is just on a hill above the village of La Moncelle, the cross is on the place where a shell fragment wounded the French Marshall MacMahon, and the fighting around La Moncelle in the Battle of Sedan happened on the fields around the village and the cross.

The Cross of MacMahon.


I then was feeling pretty tired, so I called it a day, returned the bike, picked up my backpack, and went to the station. I found out my mistake about the hill at the museum, where there was a map of the battle, I also missed out on going to the Bois de la Garenne, which, at the battle of Sedan, was a forest that the French retreated into, and the Prussian artillery ranged on every square foot of the forest, and the moment a unit of French tried to escape the forest, all the artillery would hit the edge of the forest they were at. The first case of precision artillery in European warfare. I also missed on going to the railway bridge where the marines tried to defeat the Bavarians before falling back on the inn, both were uphill from my location after the cross of MacMahon, and my legs were similar to lead at that stage, so I decided I'd go to those places the next time I was in Sedan.


All-in-all, a very good end to a rather disappointing week.


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The Ypres Salient, including Paschendaele and Langemark

So, it's been a while. I've been busy lately, and now I've got an afternoon/evening free, I've decided to update you with what I've been up to. On Tuesday I woke up in Brussels, I hired a bike (low countries my foot), and I went to the Military museum at the Cinquantenaire Palace. The palace was built to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Belgium's independence. The museum was really interesting, although they closed up for 75 minutes for lunch, which was a bit inconvenient, especially as I had no cash, and the cafeteria didn't except card, so I just read my EBooks on my iPad until it reopened. I then proceeded to the gar-midi, and caught the train to Ypres.

My first full day in Ypres I rode around. I went to the Hooge Crater cemetery and the Crater itself (now a lake in the grounds of a hotel). I proceeded to the Sanctuary Wood cemetery, then Hill 62 and the "Museum" there. €10 will get you entrance to some preserved trenches, and a converted house with a conglomeration of artefacts of the war. From there I rode into Ypres proper, through the Menin Gate, and then I rode around the Ramparts as far as they went, via the Lille Gate Cemetery. Then I had lunch near the cloth hall. I rode around a bit more, and then went home via the Menin Road South Cemetery, and the Birr Cross Roads Cemetery, just seeing the amount of graves in each cemetery really drives home how many people died in the war.

My second full day in Ypres, I paid for a full day (2 half days in fact) Tour of the Ypres Salient. It covered Hill 62/Sanctuary wood again, Polygon wood and Black Watch Corner, Tyne Cot cemetery (the largest commonwealth war cemetery in the world), then, via Vancouver Corner, to Langemark German Cemetery. Now please allow me to get on my high horse for a moment. The commonwealth war graves are looked after by an official, government funded body, the commonwealth war graves commission. That is the norm for the whole of the Western Front. The German Cemeteries, on the other hand, are only funded by voluntary donations. The German government pays nothing to the upkeep of the cemeteries, as a result, they are not very well maintained. As my (English) tour guide, a very good and informative guide btw, says, it's a national disgrace. Mrs A. Merkel is going to be getting a rather rude shock in the near future, as I am going to send a strongly worded email in her general direction, with a letter in the snail mail, as I believe that, as they are German citizens, the German Government should give them the cemetery they deserve. Now off my high horse. After Langemark cemetery, we went back to Ypres for Lunch. From Ypres we went to the German Trenches at Bayernwald, from there to Ploegstreet, Hyde Park corner, Spanbroekmolen, and we finished up at Hill 60. Today I didn't do much, although I did buy a couple of German medals as souvenirs.

I've got a word limit on the blog app for my iPad, so that's the reason behind the short(ish) blog, I intend to update when I return to the Uk (and my Pc)

This picture is from the AIF memorial at Polygon Wood cemetery, it's been a harrowing few days.



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Location:Ypres, Paschendaele, Langemark, the Ypres Salient, and more

Brussels, day 0.5-1

I've arrived in Brussels. I arrived on the Eurostar last night around 19:00. I spent last night finding the hotel and getting acclimatised to being in Europe. Today I started to wander around the city, I bought a map for €7(!), and went up to the cathedral, then I went past the parliament, through the Royal Park, to the Palace. At the palace there was a sign describing how it had inspired Hergé (the creator of Tintin) in the story "King Ottokar's Sceptre. I wandered on from there, found a tourist office and I bought a "Tintin tour map" which had a route to follow around Brussels, with various Tintin related destinations, mostly murals or, like the palace, what provided inspiration. I spent the entire day doing that, before I got home around 19:30. Tomorrow I plan to go to the Cinquantenaire before I head off to Ypres. I'll be doing photos when I get back to England, as I didn't pack my laptop, just my iPad (a great deal lighter), and uploading photos from the iPad to blogger and Facebook is quite arduous and time consuming. I'll look at what I could do when I'm on the train around places, but no guarantees. Next blog will be from Ypres tomorrow night.

Location:Brussels, Belgium

Pompey Naval Dockyard and Hull

Historic Naval Dockyard and Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth.

On Friday 30/12/11, I caught up with a friend from back home, and we went to the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth.  For those who are unaware, Spinnaker Tower is a lookout tower on Portsmouth Harbour, it has 3 levels that you can view from, the lowest of which is 100m above sea level has a glass platform that you can walk over. The last time I did that, I all but shat my pants as I ran across the platform, due to my massive fear of heights, but since the last time I did that, I have done the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb.  Twice.  This time I was determined to stand on the glass, in the middle of the glass, not holding on to the rail, and look down while counting to 10.  I managed that, still felt like I shat my pants, however, it was a whole load of fun.

After we went up the Spinnaker Tower, we went to the Historical Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth.  The dockyard has, amongst other things, the H.M.S. Victory, the Flagship of Lord Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.  The H.M.S. Warrior, the first steam powered, completely Ironclad warship, which was Queen Victoria’s equivalent of the modern-day nuclear deterrent, the Mary Rose (well the side of it that still exists), and a few naval museums, as well as the foremast topsail from the H.M.S. Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, the one remaining sail from the battle. 

I had a great day doing all of these, even though I’ve been there a fair few times before, and with a fair few more times to come.

Kingston-Upon-Hull

On Monday 02/01/12 I caught the train from Portchester station up to Hull.  I got up at 05:00, and got to the station at 06:15 for the 06:23 train.  (cue yawn here).  I went to Waterloo station, Kings Cross station, Doncaster, then Hull.  I arrived around midday, checked in at my Hotel and went to the stadium, where I picked up my ticket and spent a bit on merchandise.

Hull were hosting Derby County, and even though Hull are a better team, and played better, they lost 0-1, Derby were better when it came to shooting at goal, all the Hull players kept taking 1 touch too many.  Needless to say I was gutted, so I went back to the hotel and ended up watching NCIS re-runs on channel 5 before I went to bed.

Next morning, I wandered around the city, went into the maritime museum, which mostly focussed on Whaling and Fishing, which wasn’t too bad, just a tad repetitive, there was also an exhibit on the Polish in WWII, which was interesting.  After that I wandered around some more, and came across the spot where the City Council told Charles I to “Bug Off” as the local information office put it.  I still had 4 hours to kill, so I found the local cinema and watched “Sherlock Holmes, a Game of Shadows” which was great fun.

Due to rather rough weather north of Newcastle, there were delays on the trains, so I arrived at Kings Cross 30 mins late, and I just got on the train from Waterloo, that headed down south.  I had a great couple of days in Hull, the people were great, and the atmosphere in the stadium was great, even though we ended up playing like arse and losing, but hey, shit happens.

Off to Europe tomorrow.  Also the Humber River is much wider than I was expecting.