Sunday 31 May

Apologies for any typos but I do not have much time and am using a French keyboard which is not qwerty - it is azerty! Any strange qs should be as!

Left Ieper and headed back into France. Showed Tina the map of NZ on the pavement in Mesen (or Messines as we call it). Also took a photo of the Irish peace tower - last time I could only see the top.

On to Vimy Ridge (backtracking nearly all the way to Arras). Such an impressive sight approaching from a distance - the last time I was here it was wrapped up in something like gladwrap for restoration.

Next was the mission I set myself - to find the grave of Anthony Wilding. It is in a tiny cemetery (Rue Des Berceaux) in the tiny village of Richebourg. TomTom did not let us down. So now I have seen the graves of 2 NZ sporting heroes who died in WW1 as last trip I visited the grave of Dave Gallaher.

Set course for Calais. Pulled over a few kms away and pulled out the hotel voucher only to discover we are not staying Calais a short distance away in Coquelles. Can`t find the hotel on TomTom so we navigate. Take a wrong turn, famished (it is 3 in the afternoon!) so stop at McDs for a meal and directions.

We settle in and find that our hotel is VERY close to the EuroStar/Channel Tunnel which we are catching in the morning. We start to read the info and think about the next few hours. We decide to get rid of the rental as this will make things easier in the morning. With the help of the friendly man in reception we navigate to the car ferry terminal and a lovely woman working at a ferry counter helps us get rid of the car and rings for a taxi. Everywhere we have gone we have found people to be friendly and helpful (apart from the Versailles guide). So, car gone, expensive (but worth it) taxi trip back to hotel and RELAX!