Canberra Hit Us Hard - A Big Lap Stop We'll Never Forget

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Ypres Salient

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 It is a challenge to drive a bus into Ypres, and Phillippe manages it in the unflustered style we are rapidly becoming accustomed to. As you approach the city centre, the cobblestone streets are narrow and the corners sharp. Apparently in the near future buses are going to be banned entirely from the centre. I wonder how this will affect the economy of the town, which is strongly built on battlefields tourism. It's Sunday 6 October 2024 and this is my second visit to this city. 25 years ago, Robyn, Andrew and I had planned to stay here, but with no accommodation available we stayed in the neighbouring town of Poperinge. It was Andrew's gap year after the HSC and he was travelling with us on this segment of our first big overseas holiday. Michelin maps provided our only navigation guides, and Andrew proved to be an excellent navigator. Ypres was our first battlefields stop on a trip that was taking us from Amsterdam to Paris. So there is a familiarity as our bus edges through t...
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Clearys Ireland to Australia

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Fromelles, finally

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