On the Road Again!

Photo courtesy of the Canadian Veterans website I have had confirmation that the commemoration will take place on April 9th as usual. This year it is 105 years since the Canadian troops assaulted the ridge and captured it. So unless Covid restrictions come into play the trip is on. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/vim y More about the battle can be found on a variety of sources but Wikipedia seeks to have it covered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge

Photo taken from Canadian Veterans website After a few years where the commemoration has been cancelled for covid-19  and resulting rules and regulations have barred us from going I am hoping that 2022 sees some form of normality. In an earlier post I suggested I might invite friends and fellow riders from Old SOCS and the Meldrews along on the run. I posted on the Meldrews FB page to see if there are any takers. A day trip to France? What could be better than a lunch somewhere (not McDonalds by the Lens football ground! Again!) and then down to take part in the ceremony?   I also thought my brother Neill, might like to come, but as it happens, Arsenal are at home that Saturday and as we are are Gold Season Ticket holders I expect he will go there instead. I need to put my ticket on the ticket exchange system. This year April 9th is a Saturday.  I have emailed the Canadian Government Veterans agency to see if they know if the commemorations in France wil...

Hopefully the global pandemic will be on its last uppers come the start of 2022. So many of us will be vaccinated it will be those that didn't want it that will be falling ill and leaving those uber-vacced to be free from it, and able to travel. The memorial at Vimy in Northern France occurs every year on the 9th April. It commemorates the opening of the Battle of Arras and the involvement of Canadian troops given the unenviable task of taking Vimy Ridge from the German occupiers. I have been a few times but not since 2018.  I missed 2019 due to a holiday in Florida and in 2020 and 2021 it was cancelled as Covid began and continued to decimate the globe. It's a pretty straightforward trip from here. Across on the Shuttle and then a motorway blast to Lens and the back roads into the site. From Calais Eurotunnel it's about 85 miles. Eurotunnel to Vimy Memorial Will I open the day trip up to the Meldrews or even the Old SOCS?  Maybe nearer the time.  I might see if my broth...

Today should have been the 104th Anniversary Memorial at the monument at Vimy Ridge.  Public attendance wasn't allowed during the pandemic and the lock down in France. Instead there was a small socially distanced memorial.  I will look to see if I can find any footage. Vimy 100 - April 9th 2017 https://www.facebook.com/CarriereWellington/videos/1107579159761139/ A little historic footage from 1917 Hopefully Covid will be defeated by next year and we can once again go to Vimy to show our respects.  As usual. It will be April 9th.

It looks as though the memorial at Vimy on April 9th 2021 will fall victim to the pandemic again.  It was cancelled for the same reason last year.  It's a bugger as I was looking forward to this again. I suppose we should look forward to 2022 when hopefully we can all meet again under the towers of the monument and pay our respects to the Canadian troops that took the Ridge in 1917. RIP. Heroes one and all. Previous Vimy trips can be viewed here:   https://rocket3man.blogspot.com/search?q=vimy  or  https://invictamoto.blogspot.com/search/label/Vimy%20Ridge

The traditional date for the memorial is April 9th. Sadly, due to the sudden and incredible spread of the Coronavirus dubbed Covid-19 this have been cancelled. I have been working from home since March 19th and the country is in lockdown to avoid the transmission of what seems to be a deadly virus that somehow has "escaped" from soemehere in China. They are blaming bats or some other bullshit, but this is a chemical weapon.

I should claim another 50-50 Challenge 5E today as well.  I am writing this in the Eurotunnel terminal at Calais after a 90kms ride from Vimy in drizzle and the occasional proper rain. Presumably mild for the Canadians stoically singing "Oh Canada" at the end of the ceremony in drizzling rain. I did sing "God Save the Queen" but seemed one of the few.  There were quite a few British there and a lot of bikers. I will finish it off when I get home and add a bit of detail. Back Home! So to start from the beginning.  I was up at 0645 and by 0720 had got washed etc, togged up and fed the dog. Pepe started without the dbpower unit to give him a jolt.  I had it with me all day and fully charged just in case! I was lucky to get on the 0806 train rather than the 0820 I was booked on and curiously I was loaded in with the cars rather than treated like an inconvenience and tacked in the last carriage. Waterproofs went on before I had left the terminal area! It was misty at hom...

Vimy on 2017 Time has moved on since the last update on this potential run and I have heard back from the Vimy people in France. As with most years that aren't a big anniversary there will be the usual smaller scale commemoration at the Memorial. So I expect  numbers will be back into the hurdreds if not tens as previous years. The ceremony itself usually takes place on the other side of the memorial itself to that in the picture, although this side allows for a far larger flat space for the visitors! Last year there were many thousands and thousands of people. Mostly Canadian to celebrate a date that many see as "the birth of a nation". In 2014 there were maybe 100 people, no more than 150. So the plan. Unlike 2014 I will entrust my route to a TomTom. Which one I haven't decided but I have yet to try the 410 on the bike.  Once one gets used to it, it is a better piece of kit than the old Rider. I have fitted a new Bosch style plug to the end of the OEM wiring loom a...

After attending Vimy100 in April 2017 I have been looking at going again 2018. I fully expect that it will be a more relaxed affair than the Centenary this year where there were around 20000 people attending the event. When we went in 2014 we were able to park in the parking​ lot right by the visitor centre. Unlike this year (2017) where there were park and rides setup with buses to the site. I'll probably be Billy No-Mates/Jean Sans-Amis again but hopefully less of a cock-up like 2014 when I managed to get lost after deciding to leave the satnav at home! Although I did all the planning for the 2015 trip I was unable to go after my heart attack less than week before. So fingers crossed for good weather etc. More information. Update 23/10/17 Booked the Eurotunnel shuttle today. The cost is £30 so no point using the £50 voucher they gave me after so many delayed and cancelled services.

The day started a little later for me as I had misread the booking for the Shuttle and set off to arrive at 0850 when I fact the train was at 0850 and I was supposed to be there before 0820 when that train closed.  Curiously the automatic booking system didn't quibble and still gave me the crossing I could never make.   As usual there was a delay. I don't think we have been over using Eurotunnel for many years where the train has left on time or at least as scheduled.  The last time was with Reggie and Claire when we went glamping on the Somme (80) coast last October.  Delays both ways. Anyway.  Once I had done a few laps of the parking I slipped between the barriers.  When I arrived with my "hanger" - a thing that car drivers can hang from their interior read-view mirrors - showing crossing K, the staff didn't say, "Go straight to the controls", instead I would have done a 360 loop of the parking had I not snuck through the barriers after 180! UK passpo...

Checked the website again to see what the travel arrangements are in place and with 9 days to go to the event, there is still nothing about the parking and shuttle up to the site. There is an update regarding the e-ticketing to the event and for some reason, the French Government has asked that the e-tickets are sent out again.   " Important Information – New E-tickets being issued As a result of new measures in place put in at the request of the Government of France, Veterans Affairs Canada is issuing new e-tickets to everyone registered to attend the commemorative ceremony. All e-tickets will be distributed by April 1, 2017. Further information about shuttles and parking will be provided in the coming days on the Veterans Affairs Canada website at Canada.ca/Vimy-100. For those who previously received an e-ticket, please replace it with this new e-ticket. Please bring a copy of your official e-ticket and government-issued photo identification, such as a passport, national photo I...

It's less than two weeks to go. I have my ferry booked and even took up the P&O offer to have RAC cover just in case Pepé breaks down.  Like all insurances you might never need it but... So whilst I have a while before I need to pack the big lock and the panniers with stuff to wear whilst on foot at the ceremony, my thoughts turn to where to park. The monument  itself will be closed to the public, or at least private vehicles , with a shuttle bus service being laid on to take the public up there. As yet, there are no details in the website to say where the parking will be nor where the shuttle buses will run from. I assume as with the Somme 100 event last July the two will be about the same place. But where? The FAQ : Q 8: Will there be parking available onsite for the April 9 th   ceremony? Will there be accessible parking for those with mobility impairment? Will the site be wheelchair accessible? A 8:  There will be no vehicle access to the Vimy Memorial site f...

Planning has begun on the first run of the year. This trip will be to Vimy in Northern France.  This year is the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Arras, and in particular the Canadian assault on the enemy held ridge at Vimy to the north-west of the city. I have been several times before, lastly in 2014 and in 2015 I had a heart operation just days before it took place! I was unable to go last year even though it was a Saturday. This will be a Johnny No-Mates trip as we had originally planned to have it as a Meldrews event but when we found that Eurotunnel had no day tickets to sell as it is the week before Easter, we dropped it. The date is as always April 9th and this year it is a Sunday. http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/vimy-ridge/100-anniversary Report later. UPDATE 3rd April 2017: I saw on Facebook that one of the bike groups I joined a while back are having a day trip to France on the 9th to have a hoon around and lunch. So I got on the Euro...

Didn't go.  The heart attack on Easter Saturday put paid to that. I provided as much information as I could and the rest of the party went anyway and had a good day. I was hoping that they might have sent some details of what they got up to, but I've not heard back from them. Some photos even.... I had planned a lunch break near Souchez for everyone but have no idea if they made it. Luckily, I covered my ass by emailing the proprietor and telling him I had had a heart-attack and wasn't going to be there....