Colin & Maria Tour de "Northern France"

A note from Colin & Maria:

Another beautiful day for Eurotrip '11! For today's adventure we had to rent a car. The guy at the counter said he knew little english, that's good because Colin knows little french.. They would get along just fine. Our little, correction, our tiny but yet very fast car!

Along the highway, we kept passing Ikea, Maria loves Ikea but we couldn't stop.. She made her Ikea pouty face every time.

Our tour took us from Lille, France about 45 minutes (if you drive like the French.. as in fast..) south along the A1. A few exits later you come to a peaceful grove lined with maple trees and pine. Then the sign to officially let you know you are now on Canadian land in France.. We were kinda home.

France gave this land to Canada as a thank you for what had happened April 9, 1917.

That date is an

in Canadian history. It is when Canada reclaimed Vimy Ridge from the Germans, a feat the French and British soldiers could not do for 2 years. This is also the first time that Canada was led into battle by Canadian officers & our forces actually fought under the Canadian name & not the British regiments. Our nation fought as Canadians for Canadians.

This memorial is free to attend, just remember, even though you are in Nothern France, you are on Canadian soil.

More info on the Vimy Ridge Memorial can be found on the Canadian government website.

More info on the Battle of Vimy can be found here at THIS WEBSITE.

Canadians come from all over to see this memorial to remember those who helped create our Canadian identity & help push the Germans back & those who sacrificed their lives.

This is Melanie. She's from Ontario. She's a Canadian working with Parks Canada at the memorial, as do all of the interpreters.

She yelled (at a distance) at Colin for being on the grass to take this picture.

Turns out she's a really nice girl who's just doing her job. When asked how she knew Colin & Maria were Canadian: "you apologized for being on the grass."

Also on the site are the actual tunnels and trenches the soldiers and officers used.

The ground is made from soft chalk, so it was easy to leave graffiti, as one soldier carved a maple leaf into the tunnel wall.

Some of the rooms underground near the front line.

In fact, the Canadians on the front line were only 25 meters from the Germans. The video shows how close they were! Left side is the Canadian front line, the right side is the German.



It is a very somber and peaceful place, an incredible resting place for the soldiers, many of them unknown.

On November 11.. Lest we forget..

Now, these signs were everywhere!

But it is true, there are still live munitions in the ground. One soldier was killed in 1997 while removing one. So to keep the grass cut and looking nice.. They use sheep! Notice the sign in the background..

It's quite a spot to be a Canadian.. Now on with the rest of the Northern France! It was now 3:45pm.. We had to have the car back at the train station by 9:00pm.

Maria wanted to find a certain cemetery where a soldier by the name of Private Harry William Keene rested. She did a presentation 3 years ago on this soldier. She picked him because he was just an average Canadian from Toronto. His info can be found here http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem/Detail&casualty=314790

We had the directions, kinda. Colin checked the GPS, the village wasn't on the GPS, so we had a paper map, the directions, kinda, and away we went looking for this little cemetery in the middle of the country side in Northern France.

They drove

and drove

and drove. Seeing nothing but farmers fields and roads, and the odd little village. They were now 200 km's from the train they needed to be on at 10:09pm to get to Paris and it was now 6:00pm..

After being instructed by the paper map, and not finding the right D28 road, Maria for some reason decided to try the GPS again. And the village of Caix showed! We were about 50 km's away. Stomp on the gas, a few wrong turns, we found Harry!

Literally in the middle of nowhere! Off a small one lane, in the middle of a farmers field.



We headed back to Lille to catch the train, we had lots of time! It was now 8 & we had to have the car back at 9. Lots of time? yeah right.. We got lost looking for the car rental parkade. Wrong parkade. Wrong streets.. We finally dropped the keys off with 5 minutes to spare!

A container of paprika Pringles and a coke and we were off to Paris!

Who let the Canadians stay?

Catching the 16:09 train to Lille (population 226,000, metro population 1,100,000) from Brussels was a relief. 20 minutes later the train crossed the border into France. Colin & Maria quickly found the Hotel Carlton after some guy inquired as to what was in Colin's backpack.

The room was sweet!

Jet tub...

Beautiful view..

and then Colin & Maria really decided to class the place up..

They hung their laundry from the past 3 days... Yes, those are Heineken on the counter.. They bought them in Amsterdam, and will finish every one of them before they land on the North American continent.

The hotel even provided slippers, Maria still hasn't taken them off.

It was off to dinner! A quick walk through the square...

And it was eating time! Both had a local steak, green salad, BBQ & rockford sauce and a bottle of wine. The guy beside them had the steak tartare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steak_tartare) . To finish the night, champagne! Who would have thought they'd be enjoying champagne in northern France?

The next adventure on their itinerary is Vimy Ridge, which they took a ton of pictures! They'll be online tomorrow, including Maria's Ikea Sad Face...

chocolate, a girl statue that pee`s & the mariachi band that stole our money!

It was a travel day from Amsterdam to Brussels via EuroRail. Brussels (pop 1,830,000) located in Belgium, home of Belgium chocolates and beer! It was a sad day to leave Amsterdam, but hey! A quick overnight stop in Brussels should be fun too!


Getting off the train, Colin & Maria proceeded to their hostel. Hotel Francois. Hostel, should be interesting. As soon as they got off the train, they arrive to the square known as Grand Place!

Then finally to their hostel. Expecting only a bed and having to share the shower and toilet with the other guests, turns out our travelers had a very large room and their very own shower ! Except the head of the shower was placed in the corner of the stall so you could only wash one of your bits at a time.

It was early evening and this stop on EuroTrip was only a one night stay in the city to eat chocolate and drink beer, it was time to find a place to eat and drink. Guess what they came across...

Notice how many beer they sell? Only thing was, there was no food.. So they continued until the came across Six Nations rugby pub with an Irish server! Colin & Maria both had a Grimbergen, a wonderful blonde beer which they started brewing in 1128.

The Irish server told the two about another pub called Delirium Taphouse which featured the sister statue to this little guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis , except she squats. Her name is Janneken.

And it was down a creepy narrow alley way.

Since they saw the statue might as well drink the swill at the Delirium! Colin had a Barbar blonde and Maria had a Chimay Rose.

Then it was off to their last pub for a bit of pizza and beer. At the time of this writing, nobody remembered the pizza or the place it was called. All that can be remembered was the server was creepy.

Night shot outside of their hostel.

This guy is Martin, he runs the show at the hostel & the inspiration for the cafe next door.

The next day in Brussels they dropped their bags in a locker at the train station then got really lost.. As in "oh my God" lost.. No map. No idea where they were. Absolutely lost in a city where they didn`t speak Flemish. They were the only little white people not hanging out on a corner in one part of the city. No lie. All was good though. Then they remembered these guys..

These guys came `round looking for money last night during pizza, once they got a couple of bucks they took off! No song, no nothing!

One final Belgium waffle with chocolate

and it was back to their train station for the trip to Lille, France. If you haven`t heard of Lille, Alice Cooper has!

Overall Brussels wasn`t as enjoyable as hoped, maybe next time... Not sure why this giant bullhorn is here...

A note from Amsterdam.

A note from Amsterdam.

On today's agenda.. The Hard Rock Cafe.. Might as well use our All Access card. But first, get lost... Again.. When touring Amsterdam on their cool Dutch bikes, get to know streets (or straats).. Getting lost is a fun way to see the city.

Across the street was a giant game of chess!

Then it was off to Poezenboot, a cat colony on a boat, in a canal.

We dropped the bikes off and headed back around central Amsterdam.

There are very narrow streets, and the intersections are tiny!

But nobody complains, or honks their horn or gets upset, or so it seems. Amsterdam is a place where nobody seems to work, it's extremely chilled & relaxed as one Dutch girl said. Everyone seems happy, no wonder you get a free cookie whenever you get coffee or tea! There is also a lot of boat traffic, in fact, some use a boat taxi to get around..

Chinatown!

If you want to experience the Red Light District, do it at night.. It's MUCH different than the day, there are no seniors bus tours or high school tours, but you still need to watch out for Amsterdams outdoor urinals, they smell like 300 year old pee.

Tomorrow is a travel day.