Post: #1

I understand that this is an odd ball thread but for probably the first time in my nearly five years on RVF, I'm posting a travel thread that has nothing to do with partying* and chasing pussy.**

My old man is in his late 60s and one of his former colleagues passed away yesterday at 65 and it got me thinking that I should spend more time with with my old man, especially since I've lived on the other side of the country for the past decade. I want to take him on a trip for personal reasons but also just for him to have a good time. I'm thinking of flying over to Europe for a couple of weeks to check out some WWI sites with my dad and also hit up a couple of cities. My dad is a history buff, his grandfather was in WWI and come home with a bullet in his chest and helped raise my father, telling him all kinds of stories about that experience. My dad has always talked about going to Europe and visiting the war sites over there but has never done it, probably because he's so damn cheap haha. I'd like to take the old man over there and tour around those places, the sites that I know he would like to visit would be Vimy Ridge, Somme and Ypres.


We would likely fly in and out of Paris and take trains to Brussels/Amsterdam, if we go for two weeks, I'd probably throw London in there just to check out the historic sites and museums over there. I don't think we'd need to stay in the historic WWI sites over night, could be just do day trips there from Paris or Brussels?

Have any of you been those towns and or war memorials?

*My dad is a piss tank, we'll be on the beer the entire time
**I will probably take my dad to Amsterdam and if he wants to bang hookers, I will pay for as many as he can handle



I'll probably go about booking the flights by the usual travel site but if any of you have any ideas or knowledge to share about the area, please do.

Post: #2

You could consider flying into Brussels or London unless you want to visit Paris.

Keep in mind, there have been tons of strikes in France because of the new labor law. It could disrupt you a bit.

I have been to Ypres, can be easily done from Bruges, I did it from Lille which was à bit harder. It would be à cool town to take your father. It is quite expensive . Your father could get shitfaced off some nice belgians.

Instead of amsterdam...Wrong war, but Auschwitz would be worth a visit and you can buy him hookers there too. Plenty of cheap flights to Krakow.

The museums are awesome in England, better then anywhere else in my opinion.

Post: #3

Well, if you truly want a WW1 themed trip, a plane isn't that authentic...

Post: #4

Haha. This should be awesome. Meeting your dad in Medellin was a lot like meeting you.

I'm planning a WWII trip in a month or so, hopefully we cross paths in Germany or France .

Post: #5

If he's a history buff he might appreciate a mix of WWII and WWI. There will be 100x more things to see if you do WWII stuff. WWII is much easier because it was longer, encompassed a wider geographical area, and was focused on cities. WWI, for the most part, took place in the countryside. WWII was better documented, and there will be more museums to visit.

Holland was neutral so not a lot to see there for WWI. However, for a history buff the place is a gold mine...why not take a trip and follow Montgomery's ambitious Operation Market Garden?

I love history, and years ago I took a trip to the Normandy beachhead. Highly recommend. You can visit every beachhead and Pointe du Hoc. Pay the money and get a tour guide. Well worth it! I bet your dad will enjoy walking through German bunkers that were part of the Atlantic Wall, and hearing about the progress of the battle as the landings took place. The cities around Normandy are also very historical, especially Caen (there's a church there with an artillery shell still lodged in the outside wall). And since you are there you might as well visit Mont Saint Michel.

A trip to Dieppe might be of special significance to you since you are Canadian. You can look up the details of the battle, but the Germans crushed the landing, and the loss was so stunning it paved the way for major improvements for the Normandy landings.

I had an aged relative who was at Utah Beach. He was close to being dead and his mind and memory were gone from Alzheimer's. I showed him pictures of Utah Beach from the Normandy trip, and he came out of the fog. He was 20 years old again, and he was telling me every detail about the landing, clearing the machine gun nests, blowing holes in the sand walls, pushing into the countryside, seeing convoy trucks stuffed full of dead bodies...pretty heavy stuff. He died shortly thereafter.

Post: #6

You could call it And the Band Played Waltzing Mathilda Trip

Post: #7

No WW1 trip would be complete without going to Verdun and Alsace-Lorraine.

Actually my dad did that exact trip last year before visiting me in Paris, he want to the WW2 locations though in Normandy, Dieppe, Dunkerke...

Post: #8

Agree with above, add Verdun to the list. I don't have any specific ideas, but Great War UK site has a lot of good photos and info about the various battlefields, monuments, and cemeteries.

Post: #9

Thanks for the input guys, I"m going to do some more research into this trip in the next few weeks, have any of you ever rented a car in Belgium or France and can you drive a rental car between those countries?

Post: #10

Definitely just get a car and roam about.

How long a trip are you planning mate?

Post: #11

Also, you need to think about the weather, which can turn a Euro trip into either a sublime, sun filled experience or a watery, muddy trudge.

Which is a shame, because if the Wars are what it's about, Remembrance day parades would be top of my list. Sadly they aren't in the Summer.

Post: #12

(06-26-2016 01:54 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  Definitely just get a car and roam about.

How long a trip are you planning mate?

Probably just ten days, so a quick power trip to check out a few of the major sites and some of the museums in the cities and a couple of days to chill out and drink beer in some of the smaller towns. Hopefully the weather is decent but even if it rains, that wouldn't be a huge deal.

Post: #13

(06-25-2016 11:12 AM)godzilla Wrote:  Instead of amsterdam...Wrong war, but Auschwitz would be worth a visit and you can buy him hookers there too. Plenty of cheap flights to Krakow.

Post: #14

How about one of those European river cruises?

I bet they got them specifically for ww1 history tours.

That way you won't have to check in/out of hotels the whole time, which means less stress and more history/beer/hookers.

Aloha!

Post: #15

(06-26-2016 05:42 PM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  

(06-25-2016 11:12 AM)godzilla Wrote:  Instead of amsterdam...Wrong war, but Auschwitz would be worth a visit and you can buy him hookers there too. Plenty of cheap flights to Krakow.

Haha clumsy typing but osciewim is a town of 40,000, why wouldn't there be?

Post: #16

Good thread.

While I'm in London for Wimbeldon I plan on visiting Bayeux and St. Malo along with Normandy beach for a few days to see some WW2 sites.

Post: #17

I'd definitely rent a car to visit the off the beaten path sites. I did a WWI/II tour during college and saw all those sites in Belgium and northern France. Stayed in a tiny village of Auchovillers (Ocean Villas). The B&B still had old trenches dug around the property, maintained by the owner. The Lochnagar crater is pretty cool too, where the Brits built a tunnel under the German lines, loaded 60K of explosives underneath and blew the area into smitherines. Going to be a fun, rewarding trip, I'm sure.

Post: #18

This is probably an just an American thing, but learn to drive a manual transmission. (I can't) Automatic cars to rent are expensive as fuck in Europe