Its a Long Way to Tipperary.... Ypres, Vimy Ridge & the Somme

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from outside the UK)

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Aviation House, Crossoak Lane,
Redhill, Surrey
RH1 5EX.
United Kingdom

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Holts 2009 brochure cover

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April 2007 - Tipperary Tour Report

Our usual holidays involve throwing everything bar the kitchen sink into the car and taking the ferry to France for two weeks in a rented cottage, or joining the queues at the airport for somewhere further afield. So at eight thirty on a spring morning in Victoria Coach station, waiting for our coach for Holts’ Tipperary Tour, we were not at all sure what to expect.
As our fellow travellers arrived, we were surprised at the wide range of people who choose to travel with Holts on a First World War guided tour of Ypres, Vimy Ridge and the Somme. I hesitate to guess ages, but I would say there was an even range from two women obviously in their twenties through to people happily retired for several years. There were those travelling alone, as couples, with a friend, in a group, and with a relative. Mostly from the UK, but also Australia and New Zealand. Holts’ Tour Guide John Grimwood and driver John Hayward were relaxed and chatty and put us at our ease. Then down to Dover where Mary Lyons, our Tour Manager, handed us our tour packs of maps, an introduction to the Great War, and a detailed itinerary. There did seem to be a lot to see.		John Haywood and John Grimwood (Mary Lyons)
When Holts say a four day tour, they mean a four day tour! We had noticed that some other battlefield tour companies spend two of the four days travelling, which can’t leave much time for the actual tour. Our first afternoon saw us walking through preserved trenches, visiting a museum and memorial, and John had started setting the scene before we even got on the ferry. By the time we reached our hotel in Ypres at six, we had forgotten to worry about whether we’d get to the ferry in time, would the hotel be OK and would we be able to find what we had come to visit? As people who normally prefer to do things “our way”, it was wonderful to feel this was all in someone else’s very capable hands.
Hotel Ariane (Mary Lyons)	Hotel Ariane is a family run hotel in a quiet position within walking distance of the centre of Ypres. The rooms were good, the staff helpful, it is the kind of hotel you would pick yourself. A complementary welcome drink, a three course dinner of good plain food with wine, and pleasant conversation with other people in our group. Some of us continued our conversations over a couple of drinks in the comfortable hotel bar. At the risk of sounding obsessed with food, the breakfast spread was excellent too, from boiled eggs, cold meats and cheese, cereals, yogurt, fruits, toast, croissants; no doubt I have forgotten something!
Day 2 started at 8.30am, and what had looked like an impossibly full itinerary went well because Mary had everything organised and our Ypres hotel was conveniently close to many of the sites. We spent a reasonable amount of time at each place and didn’t feel rushed. The one exception to this was that I would have liked more time at the In Flanders Field Museum in Ypres. This had brilliant displays of what it would have been like to be a soldier, and told the personal stories of individuals who lived in Ypres during the War. For some reason the connotations with the war had made me assume the town of Ypres itself would be poor and gloomy. Far from it. The town is very attractive with stylish new buildings alongside restored old Flemish houses, a pleasant relaxed feel, certainly geared up for tourists but a proper town too. The Saturday market was worth a linger, restaurants around the square buzzy and reasonably priced, so I would like to come back here, hopefully staying at the same hotel.
Each day John told us what we were going to see and explained the historical background. On the journey to each visit he pointed out where the actions had happened, the state of the armies and why the lie of the land was important, keeping the mood sometimes with music, some film, an audio tape or a poem. It’s difficult to explain, but I felt we were in the middle of the battlefields with the Front Line and trenches to our left and right, almost as if we were driving through No Man’s Land. John is a very good speaker, and I started to understand how each element of the war fitted together, something I had not managed through many years of education. Our group had varying levels of knowledge, from “first world war buff” through to “ interested because of a family history connection” and John seemed to get the level right for everyone. He answered individual questions and discussed the action with us as we walked along.		John Grimwood explains (Mary Lyons)
Over the course of four days we saw, heard and visited so much that I can only highlight what I enjoyed most. In Flanders Field Museum in the Cloth Hall in Ypres was fascinating. For all ages, brilliantly done from the grand scale to the personal.
Talbot House - Toc H (Gus Thomas)	Talbot House, the “home from home” behind the front line was open to all ranks. The Flemish guide explained the history of the house and showed a film of the kind of entertainments the soldiers saw, and we were free to investigate an exhibition, the house and garden. A wonderful peaceful place.
Thiepval Memorial (Gus Thomas)	Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Battle of the Somme, and the excellent new Visitor Centre. The isolated position of the Memorial, the style and scale of the huge Lutyens-designed structure, and the 72,000 names of British soldiers carved into the stone is sobering. Two members of our party knew they had a relative here, wreaths were laid and poems read. I cried my eyes out.
Day 3 saw us leaving Belgium for the Canadian tunnels, trenches and Memorial at Vimy Ridge and on to the Somme. Lunch was at “Ocean Villas”, Avril Williams tearooms in Auchonvillers, a village behind the British lines. I had seen the communications trenches and Avril’s cellar on one of Richard Holmes’ War Walks TV programmes.
I know there is a lot of interest in family history, and that on a Holts tour it is often possible to visit a particular grave or memorial and lay a wreath or poppy cross. Several people made Special Visits on our tour, with Mary accompanying them, and some told us a little of whose memorial or grave they had come to see. We saw many headstones, cemeteries, memorials with the names of thousands of the missing; the scale is overwhelming. Very different when you can pinpoint it to just one name.		Commonwealth War Graves (Mary Lyons)
Night three, and in France, staying in a larger hotel that I found less charming than the one in Ypres, but practical to minimise the driving to and from our visits on the Somme. Our last night and the Presentation dinner, an excellent meal of simple French food in good company. John Grimwood, very much our host, explained that this was the point he would normally present badges to any Holts customers who had travelled with the company 5 times or 20 times – they would be welcomed to the Holts “20 Club”. Several of out party had travelled with Holts before, but none as many as 5. By this point it came as no surprise that people travel with Holts again and again. Many on our tour were talking about which tour they would like to do next. Our last day, and another busy one, but the highlight was Lutyens massive Memorial to the Missing of the Battle of the Somme at Thiepval. It felt a lonely place, and we wandered up the hill to the Memorial, with the French and Commonwealth war graves beyond. The Thiepval Visitor Centre was excellent, explaining the history of the Battle of the Somme on panels and with film, and a computer system to look up information on soldiers who died in WW1. The Centre feels very welcoming, lots of glass with the sun shining through, helpful staff, a good shop and even a picnic area. Its architecture is a pleasant contrast to some of the more “brutal” architecture of other memorial entrances and visitor centres. It was quiet for our visit, but I could imagine kids running around on a trip here, which is how I think it should be. The Memorial itself is sobering enough. A late lunch in Arras, and then John summing up what we had seen, tying up the loose ends on the drive to Calais. Back in London I realised I was exhausted from four days of walking around first world war battlefields, but more because we had been made to think every step of the way, which was actually oddly pleasant. I enjoyed it all immensely. I’ve had a week or so to think about the trip, and why I enjoyed it so much. Had we travelled under our own steam, there is no way we could have seen as much nor understood as much – most would have passed us by no matter how much we had read. Before I went I was not sure I would like travelling on an organsed tour, but not worrying about the logistics meant we could concentrate on what we had come to see. The other people on our tour were really nice to talk to. The organisation on the tour was excellent, Holts must have had a hidden minute-by-minute timetable, but it all felt relaxed to us, which is how it should be. The holiday is by no means cheap, but there were no “optional” visits, all entrances are included and all we paid for were three snack lunches and a few drinks. I thought it good value, and I think a lot of other people must think so too judging by the number of people who keep travelling with Holts. So would I travel with Holts again? – you bet I would.
Sunken Road near Beaumont Hamel, The Somme (Gus Thomas)