5-Day Break

Day 1 – Local departure by coach then onwards to Ypres for a four-night stay.
Day 2 – The Hills of Flanders – The Bluff Walk 1: Our first walk shows us that Flanders isn’t always as flat as we think! We start in the village of Locre, and looking at the subject of soldiers ‘Shot At Dawn’.
We then walk out to the site of Locre Hospice, seeing a unique field grave to Irish Nationalist MP, Willie Redmond. From here we look at operations around Kemmel Hill in April 1918, climbing our way to the top of the hill, seeing the French cemetery, and crossing down into the village to the see the graves of men who fell in the early period of the war.
Walk 2: We begin in the village of Vierstraat, and see the grave of Peter Llewllyn Davies, immortalised in ‘Peter Pan’. We then follow a route to the Ypres-Comines canal, and towards the Bluff. Along the way we see bunkers, battle- scarred remains of the canal and battlefield cemeteries – a most unusual walk. B
Day 3 – Messines Ridge – Behind The Lines Walk 3: We start in the village of ‘Whitesheet’, in the centre of the Messines Ridge. We walk out to the eastern side of the ridge, and follow the site of fighting,
seeing several small battlefield cemeteries, and a British bunker. In Messines we look at the fighting of 1914 and capture of the village in June 1917, and end at Bethlehem Farm cemeteries.
Walk 4: We move away from the battlefield, and look at the work of Casualty Clearing Stations at Brandhoek, also seeing the grave of Captain Noel Chavasse VC & Bar. In the village we also see his memorial, before going to Hagle Dump. We then trace the site of Dirty Bucket Camp – and finish at Hospital Farm, close to Vlamertinghe.  B
Day 4 – Broodseinde Ridge – Visit to Nieuport (optional). Walk 5: Our final walk starts at arguably
one of the finest museums in Flanders, The Passchendaele Memorial Museum, with it’s unique reconstructed WW1 dugout. From here we walk from the grounds of the Zonnebeke Chateau, through the village, and follow the old railway line up onto the Broodseinde Ridge. From here we walk across to Tyne Cot Cemetery, seeing the graves of those connected with the ground we have just crossed, and take time to see the Visitors Centre.
In the afternoon either take free-time inYpres, or join us on an optional visit to Nieuport, where the Western Front petered out on the beaches of North Belgium, and where British soldiers were in action in 1917. B
Day 5 – To Calais, and return home. B

Included Meals: B=Breakfast

Accommodation
You'll stay for four nights at the 3-star Novotel in the centre of Ypres, near the Menin Gate and the market place, with its many shops, cafés and bars. The hotel has a lift, bar, and restaurant. All bedrooms have a T.V., hairdryer and air-conditioning.

Extras
Optional Excursions.
Single room supplement £119