The plan

We have been talking about visiting the WW1 battlefield sites for sooooo long but never got round to actually doing it. Me and my mate Al finally decided we were going to make the trip over the spring bank holiday weekend.

We were both working on the Thursday, so the plan was to head towards the south coast in the evening, stay in a B&B, then take an early trip across the channel on Friday to start our adventure.

The plan was to visit the Somme and Ypres battlefields of the 1914-1918 Western Front, see museums, cemeteries, memorials, including beer/wine as appropriate.

We spoke on the phone beforehand and booked accommodation and ferries in advance. For my birthday I had been given two battlefield books, which included maps, so we were all set.

Al arrived on time and we set off along the M4 in my trusty Mondeo with the TomTom programmed for Sevenoaks. The drive round the M25 was a bit frustrating but all was on track. We came to the turnoff feeling a bit tired only to find that it was coned off for roadworks. The detour took another half an hour so we didn't get to the B&B until 2300. After our lecture from the Iranian owner about us being late, them not staying open all night, payment for parking and did we want breakfast (at extra cost) we went to bed. Clean and comfortable but probably the shabbiest of our stays during the trip.