Day 37 - Ypres Battfield's ride - ride total 2,889 k, 18,677 m

We took a walk around Ypres this morning looking for a breakfast venue and ended up back at the bakery opposite the Hotel! We then took our croissant back to the room and it went well with my cup of tea.

After breakfast we got stuck into some administration as we had accommodation to book along with a ferry across to the UK. This time we began working back from our end point which is going to be Cirencester in the Cotswolds at which time Peter and Stephen will head off to London and home and I'm not sure what I'll do at this stage.

We could only get one night in the Hostel in Cirencester so had to split that two night stay with another and for the day before that we know we will be in Bath so went ahead and booked that.

Then we looked at our route through to the ferry and decided if we did a touristy day ride here today we could then straight-line it through the the beaches at Dunkirk for our last night here on mainland Europe. That decided we found some accommodation in Dunkirk and booked ferry tickets for the 8:00 a.m. sailing to Dover.

It was then time to go and give the bikes a clean and service and have some lunch.

After lunch we headed out on a "Battfield's" tour circuit that our new freind's Alex and Renz sent through the file for. Stephen had modified the route a little so that we could take in the places his Grandfather fought at (and lots a finger and leg). On our ride we stopped at each of the War Cemeteries we came across took pictures and reflected a litlle - unfortunately with some 750,000 Allied forces lost here in the War there are many cemeteries you come across even if you don't go out looking for them and this meant that we would either be late back in to town or not so, if we cut our ride short and straight line it back. As we had ticked off the visits Stephen wanted to make  we decided to straight line it back and leave the remainder of that route for another time maybe.

We passed the New Zealand monument and then again at Polygon Wood where I visited the New Zealand Cemetery.

We spent some time at Tyne Cott Cemetery where 10,965 service people are remembered, It was there I was able to finish my Austen Deans part of the journey as I stopped at the Apse and panel where his Father's name is engraved as he was killed on the 4th Octber 1917 - his body was never recovered and the inscription on the panel as with all similar servicemen and "Whose graves are known only to God". 

















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