Early start this morning. Woke up just before 5am so figured I might as well just get up. The drive to the ferry was quick and straightforward, the wait painless and I was the fifth car on. Sixth car on had a Polish licence plate and four men in it. They sat near me at the front of the boat but didn’t buy anything from the restaurant. I had a coffee.
Then a large black man and two ladies that looked like his daughters joined us. The Poles literally just stared, completely enthralled, for several minutes, barely even blinking. Are they in for a culture shock when they reach Birmingham 🙂
Two passport checks to reach the ferry. The French lady checking my passport was bright and full of smiles, and I was through in seconds. The British bloke was sullen and made me wait, and had also only opened up the lane for left hand drive cars, forcing me to get out of my car and walk around to him. He did though catch me by surprise with a cheery “have a good trip and enjoy the rest of your day” so I responded (with my back to him, as I was walking back around my car) ‘Thank you, you too’. I fear he misheard, I got a, “What was that?!” and had to repeat. So the ferry ride was spent wondering if I was going to be greeted in the UK by a customs official keen to dismantle my car.
As the ferry left the dock I got to experience vicariously the excitement and joy of a first ever boat ride. The 20 foot high windows have a sill running about 10 inches above the floor, and the girl stood on it by my table staring raptly at the dock as we left still only reached my shoulder – while I was sat down. Then her parents picked her up and whisked her upstairs for an open air view, and the trip felt a little less fun.
I was thinking it’s a shame, I’d have really enjoyed her reaction to the spray breaking over the bow 40 feet into the air. Then they returned! Sadly her response to it was a quiet disappointment that she couldn’t see out of the window any more, and going to find fun things to do with her mother (who’d been laughing at the way her daughter stood staring at me in fascination. Small children do this. I’m really not sure why). I didn’t dare look ten minutes later when mother and daughter walked past and back again to the happy sounds of, “woooooooo oooowwww eeeeeeeee.”
Waiting to disembark in Dover I told my satnav to take me home. It got confused.
It’s been a fun trip. Really can’t recommend this style of holiday to most people, far too much driving and walking, too little time in most of the places and very little rest and relaxation. Arnhem and the surrounding area is worth a week’s holiday by itself, and I can recommend that. Xanten would be a great long weekend away, although a taxi from Weeze airport wouldn’t be cheap. Koblenz, Cochem or Trier would be ideal bases for a week’s holiday (or more – we had long holidays there when I was young). Some people make Verdun a three day visit; I think that’s overkill but it’s now on my ‘must see’ recommendation list for anybody. Agincourt, Waterloo, Nijmegan and Ypres are really only for people with an interest, not sure they have the broad appeal of the other places. Overloon I do recommend, but you can nip down one day from Arnhem.
If I was planning the trip anew I’d probably stop for the first night in Belgium, then head up to Overloon on the way to Arnhem. That first day was too much. I’d take a shorter route to Koblenz and then to Trier, so that I could enjoy both cities more. I’d spend more time at Verdun, and explore what’s there in more depth. And I’d absolutely make sure I reached the Menin Gate on Anzac Day on purpose, rather than fortuitous accident. But overall I’m quite content. Everything met my expectations except the parts that exceeded them by a large margin.
Museum ratings (in order of date visited):
Overloon – excellent, even if they have moved most of it indoors
Openlucht Arnhem – excellent, if it’s your sort of thing. Too expensive for the time I spent there, but they price it for a full day
Airborne Museum – very good, well laid out, but I maybe didn’t benefit fully from it as I knew too much about the military operation it commemorates and Overloon the day before had done the ‘machinery of war’ side of things rather more comprehensively
‘Airborne at the Bridge’ museum – free entry made it worth the ten minutes I spent there
Arnhem Zoo – not a museum, far too expensive for the time I spent there (but it’s geared for a full day visit) but a very good zoo
Xanten Archaeological Park and Roman museum – technically two different things, but they’re on the same site and I paid once to cover both. Very much worth visiting, and the Roman museum is the best laid out museum I’ve ever visited
RAF Museum, Laarbruch – interesting as a nostalgia thing, wouldn’t recommend it to normal people
Verdun Memorial – this is a museum and a memorial. It was ok, and probably worthwhile for the context it offered to the devastation all around it. But really you need to see the battlefield, not the museum
Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 – good, and had I not been to Verdun may well have veered towards excellent. It’s also set in lovely grounds that are nice for a quiet walk
I’m not really a museum person normally, so it’s been a weird trip in that regard. Then again I skipped so many museums in Venray, Nijmegan, Arnhem, Xanten, Kevelaer, Koblenz, Cochem and Trier.. I’m sure they’re good too 🙂 Really I’m into people watching – hence enjoying the ferry ride.
People in France were actually ok this trip. No issues at all, and friendly people when I spoke with them. Belgians were hard to find, so hard to comment on their culture. The Dutch I still relate to. Extremely relaxed, very friendly, and on a sunny day they’re all either in a cafe, eating ice cream or riding a bike to get to one of those two options. The Germans continue to be a nation of binary individuals. You have the very friendly engaged person that’s if anything more relaxed than the Dutch. Flick a switch (well, basically add a rule) and they’re automatons, programmed to obey in extremis. It’s a weird culture in that regard and one I’m still curious to test in a work environment. It’s possible that a callous disregard for process and rules would get me sacked within minutes, but it’s also quite possible that (as with working with Indians) that ability to just get on and do things (and to do the right thing, even if the process demands otherwise) would be admired and respected. I could happily live somewhere like Xanten.
I don’t though, I live in England. Greeted in my garden by one of my gorgeous darlings.
She’s spent most of the time since asleep on me, switching between snoring, twitching in her dreams and waking up purring. The other two keep coming to visit, confirm it’s me, vanish again in a pretence of independence.
Today’s drive (to the ferry; omitting the 200+ miles in the UK):
In total I’ve driven 2745km in the past ten days. The car’s been awesome throughout, except the last two days it’s pulling to the right – sodding pothole in some village in France appears to have knocked the tracking out.
Tonight’s dinner is “I’m at home but too lazy to cook”. Mario’s Meat Feast, thin base, added jalapenos and mushrooms.
So ends the War Tour. I’ll post again in a few days once I’ve processed the 1400 photographs I took..