So,… What Happened Next?

Saturday 27-Sep-2019 to Wednesday 02-Oct-2019 (Ghent)

About those difficult decisions.

First of all, Fiat – could it be repaired and if so where? Jonas looked at the photos and is confident that it can be repaired in a way that ensures there is no effect from the accident. The damage seems not to have affected the ALCO chassis, but rather the chassis extension that supports the garage, the side walls, garage floor, and clearly the back wall and ladder etc.. Apparently, all of these can be replaced.  The primary services such as the water tanks, heating, and the drive chain seem to be OK too. As the behind the scenes (to us) discussions progressed between the different insurance companies evolved over the week, McRent informed us that Fiat would be transported back to Isny on a truck, and repaired at the Dethleffs Factory – a good outcome (the plan is that it will be picked up from Bottermans on Wednesday 9^th October, and should be back in Isny by Friday 11^th October.

Next – the problem of the eBikes, and the other things that we had acquired along the way. All of which we expected to be transported back to NZ in Fiat’s garage (and at no additional cost).  However, as the garage was not secure, and even if it had been – Fiat is likely to be “deconstructed” before it is “re-constructed”, leaving things in the garage was not an option.  Which meant we needed to send them home independently, and they needed to be packed before we could leave Ghent, and preferably before Fiat was put on a truck. Further – as eBikes have Lithium Batteries in them – they are dangerous goods – so a Dangerous Goods License was needed to transport them.  Jonas came to our aid again – by asking the company he uses to transport Motorhomes to NZ, to look after us. It took a number of days before the next step became clear. It turned out that the best solution was to have a moving company (focused on moving households) do the packing, box the goods into a crate and get the necessary clearances. The date for packing – Friday 4^th October.

Also – by Wednesday (02-Oct) evening, we had a clearer plan of “What Next”.  McRent agreed to provide us with a replacement motorhome (a Globebus I6 – which is similar to one of the other options we considered before choosing the Esprit), available in Isny on Tuesday, 08-Oct, and would cover our accommodation and rental car costs through till then. This outcome was the very best that we could have hoped for – and we are very thankful to the staff at McRent, Isny station (as well as Jonas helping in the background) – who have done a great job in helping us get though this incident.  We really appreciate the help of all involved.

All we needed to do now was stay in Ghent through to Friday, then drive to Isny in time to pick up the Globebus on Tuesday 08-Oct.  We had a good plan! 

Did we do anything else – such as go and look at the old town of Ghent again? No.  For two reasons, most of the time it was raining, and there were a lot of forms, lists and documents to work on (Accident reports to McRent, AA Insurance etc.), Lists of effects to be transported, purchase prices, estimated value, customs forms… as well as emails, phone calls, and WhatsApp messages while we were trying to figure out how this was all going to end up.   However – this left Thursday free for us “to get out of the hotel, other than to go to Fiat to pack up etc.”.  Our next stop was going to be Ieper (Ypres is the French name) – so Thursday would be a day trip to Ieper and Passendale – that terrible killing field in WWI. 

Thursday 03-Oct-2019 (Ghent – Ieper – Ghent)

On this mostly sunny day, as we drove through the countryside then, via the Menin Gate into the town of Ieper (Ypres) – it is hard to imagine the misery that was created here between 1914 and 1918.  The countryside has a beauty about it – with ploughed fields, fields of vegetables, corn and other crops, and small copses of broadleaf trees – some beginning to show Autumn colours – a beautiful landscape that belies what still lies below the ground. 

Actually at Tyne Cot Cemetery (see text) - but typical of the countryside today.

Then there is the Menin Gate, completed in 1927, a memorial to those from all Commonweath countries except NZ that lists the 54,900 dead whose graves are not known.  This has been built on the site of the old gate in the ramparts to Ieper – through which most soldiers passed on their way to the various battles of the Ypres Salient.

The Menin Gate.  The Last Post has been sounded here every Sunday at 8pm since 1927.  During WW2 it was sounded in London instead.... 

Rows upon rows of the names of the dead... this is what war is about - so much death... in what the Flanders Field Museum noted as the product, in large part, of technological development - in particular the machine gun, where a few gunners could kill at a scale not previously imaginable. 

The Ieper moat today (just beside the Menin Gate) - So peaceful today... 

The battles for the Ypres Salient  (Flanders Fields Museum) is in what was formerly the “Cloth Hall”.  We have seen “Cloth Halls” in other medieval cities too – they contained trading stalls for the sale, particularly, of cloth but also of leather, wax, salt, and exotic imports.  The Ieper Cloth Hall was one of the largest commercial buildings of the Middle Ages, and was completed in 1304 – but lay in ruins after WW1. However, between 1933 and 1967, the hall was meticulously reconstructed to its pre-war condition.  Visiting the museum was a salutary and moving experience – so much death for what seemed like so little progress on the ground, but curiously, it did not have the same (visceral) impact on us that we have experienced when visiting the Gallipoli exhibition in Te Papa.  The impact on our emotions was much greater when we visited Menin Gate, and the Tyne Cot Cemetery (in Passendale) where many of the NZ dead are buried.

The Cloth Hall on the left and the spire of St martins Cathedral on the right.

One of the displays in the Museum

The view from the Cloth Hall Belfry (220 steps) towards Passendale - the landscape is essentially "flat" except for some low ridges and strategic hills.

Ieper (Ypres in French) today... rebuilt

A close up look at St Martins Cathedral... as we note - rebuilt to the original (1300) design in just 8 (or maybe 9) years.

Inside St Martins.

There are two towers in the picture with the Cloth Hall – that on the left is the Bell Tower of the Cloth Hall (70m high), while that on the right is the spire (102m) of St Martin’s Cathedral.  St Martins, completed in 1370, was heavily damaged during the First World War. Subsequently (1922–1930) the ruin was cleared and the church was entirely rebuilt following the original plans, although the tower was built with a higher spire than the original (how long is it since the Christchurch Earthquake, and the Cathedral still languishes as a ruin, in a time of plenty…. which was not the case in Belgium in the 1920s).

And so we moved on to Tyne Cot Cemetary in Passendale (this is the Flemish spelling), the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war, and the place where many New Zealand troups are buried. It lies on a broad rise in the landscape which overlooks the surrounding countryside.  The location was strategically important to both sides fighting in the area. As such the cemetary includes three German bunkers / pill boxes. The largest (the German Command Centre, and after its capture by the Allies, a dressing station for wounded men) now lies under the Cross of Sacrifce at the centre of the Cemetary, wheile the other two lie exposed within the cemetary. The Tyne Cot New Zealand memorial to the missing is integrated within the larger Tyne Cot memorial, forming a central apse in the main memorial wall. The inscription reads: "Here are recorded the names of officers and men of New Zealand who fell in the Battle of Broodseinde and the First Battle of Passchendaele October 1917 and whose graves are known only unto God". The bodies of the identified and unidentified New Zealand soldiers who fell in the battles are buried within the Cemetery.

Note the Road signs... This is the NZ memorial to the NZ Division, as a result of its role in the Battle of Broodseinde. The caption reads: "This monument marks the site of Gavrnstafel which on October 4th 1917 was captured by the NZ Division as part of a general advance towards Passendale"  "From the uttermost ends of the Earth".

On the 100th Anniversary - this small monument to the NZ troops has been erected on the berm in front of the Tyne Cot Visitor Centre.

War.... and its consequence of misery...

So many gravestones, but so many more names with no grave stones

One of the German Pillboxes that lie within the Cemetery.

The New Zealand Alcove at Tyne Cot Cemetery.

One of the many tomb stones - this one for a D Ballantyne from Otago.

Also, there is a small Museum at the Cemetery – with more information about the battles etc., but the most enduring memory is the reading of the names of all the dead – and with each name, a picture of the person – which transforms it from an academic exercise into one that builds an emotional connection.

Friday 04-Oct-2019 (Ghent – Rouen)

The packers came… and departed about 11.40, with our 8 boxes of goods…. and €2,500 of our savings!

Normandy countryside under a threatening sky.

One of the main roads to Arromanches...

Arromanches is where the Allies built one of two artificial harbours (Mulberry B, the other being at Omaha Beach) in order to land supplies and men in support of the D Day landings.  It was an impressive undertaking – building a large temporary port with breakwaters, wharves, and roadways to get the material ashore – all within 7 days (the port, “Port Winston”) was operational by the 14^th June. Today – there are parts of this port that are still visible, including sections of the breakwater, and of the pontoons that supported the bridge structure between the wharves where ships could tie up and unload, and the land.

Port Winston covered this whole area - the dark "objects" near the horizon are sections of the artificial breakwater

Looking over the town of Arromanches to the cliffs surrounding the beach

A Sherman Tank...not sure they were very useful against their German equivalents - but I believe there were a lot of them...  

The main street plays to its recent history...

Above the beach is a commemorative Garden – that was commissioned for the 75^th anniversary of the landings. The aim was to pay tribute to the surviving D-Day veterans and respectfully remember those who lost their lives in the battle to liberate Normandy.

Soldiers in the Commemorative Garden... I think it gives a sense of what it must have been like... coming ashore, fully exposed to German fire.

Likewise... wading ashore

Another poignant reminder – via Street art in Arromanches

Well said...

The greatest loss of life occurred at Omaha Beach…

Omaha Beach, and the 75th Memorial.  Lots of people just walking on the beach, standing in the water, filling small containers with sand,  or perhaps just imagining the events of 1944... a sombre scene, made more so by the leaden sky and water. 

The "Les Braves"  War memorial at Omaha Beech. It is said that the memorial represents three elements: The Wings of Hope, Rise Freedom, and the Wings of Fraternity" created by the French sculpture Anilore Banon." To me it looked more like swords set against the troops who landed on 6th June 1944... 

As you can see from the photos… it was getting late in the day and the weather was threatening. So on to Pointe du Hoc – a point on the coast that was believed to hold large artillery pieces that could have severely impacted the D-Day landings.  The US Rangers were assigned the task to capture this site – which was on the top of a steep cliff.

Pointe du Hoc

The bomb craterscape at Pointe du Hoc... with the Ranger memorial in the middle background.

Prior to the Ranger’s landing – the site was heavily bombed – and many (all?) of those craters remain to be seen today – it looks a bit like what one might imagine a “green” moonscape to look like.

This is what they had to ascend...

And again - this is the terrain that had to be overcome... Incredibly brave, and heroic, but as it turned  out, for no gains.... the Fog of War..

The Ranger Memorial.

The cliff is 30m high, and nearly vertical…. But the saddest thing of all? Of the 6 guns at Pointe du Hoc that threatended th elandings, one had already been damaged by air raids, and the other 5  had been moved back from the bunkers and were not operaitonal (or guarded) at the time of the assault – so they wer eno threat. Worse still, the French Resistance informed the Allies of this fact, and just before the landing the commanding officier was told of this. He proposed that the landing be cancelled – but instead was releived of his command. And the loss of life? At the end of the two-day action, the initial Ranger landing force of 225+ was reduced to about 90 fighting men.  All to no long term benefit…

We moved on to Bayeux… and an Apartement that I had hoped might be less clinical than a modern hotel room.  Well it was indeed less clinical… but not a place I would ever recommend or return too! An interesting experience though.

Bayeux

?? Art?

Our apartment was behind the double doors on the left, our car - is the foreground.

Our Lady of Bayeux (Notre Dame of Bayeux)

The Alter in the Cathedral

Prayer candles.

Sunday 06-Oct-2019 (Bayeux - Nancy)

As there is an important Tapestry here in Bayeux (although the purists insist it is actually an embroidered piece of cloth to aid the understanding of illiterates) – we had to see this before departing. I thought it really impressive, Karilyn was a bit underwhelmed by the content.  We were both impressed that it still exists – given the vagaries of the intervening 950 years. Oh, and it was actually generated in England (well that is what seems to be the latest suggestion).

But it’s Sunday, we are on the west coast of France, and by tomorrow night we need to be in Isny (which based on Google suggests that we need to cover 1,100 km over the next two days. Today we drove to Nancy in Meurthe-et-Moselle, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine.  Why Nancy? Well it seemed like about the right distance – all on motorways (676km as it turned out, including passing through Paris), so that we could spend a little more time tomorrow travelling more interesting roads (i.e. not motorways). So we crossed Normandy, Paris (and yes the traffic was unpleasant even though a Sunday morning), Champagne and the Ardennes (we didn’t notice any grapes beside the road), before entering Alsace and Lorraine.  All a bit of a blur really – but delightful countryside… and for the most part (till we got within an hour of Nancy) it was not raining. 

Somewhere in Northern France - Champagne perhaps?

This mode of travel gives you many opportunities to pay for the roadway you are travelling on… with toll stations spread along the way. We are told that motorway travel in France is expensive – but not (potentially) nearly as expensive as in Austria… Although out of time order, this seems like the right time to add to our Austrian “Go Box” experience – which caused much perspiration at the time (see the blog entry for Monday: 29-Apr-2019 (Ludwigshafen).  When we got to McRent on Tuesday morning they said they had a present for us… not a nice one as it turns out. They had just received 4 x €240 fines for RV-NZ-100 for not having a Go Box!  But we did… I don’t understand why – but it seems that the person who configured it at the Go Box AGIP station on the Swiss Border did something wrong with the emissions class setting – and so the Go Box “malfunctioned” – though (in our opinion) we had no way of knowing this – as all the instructions were in German. McRent didn’t seem very certain that they could get this resolved – but we will see (and will push for a better solution!).

Collecting the Tolls...

For the last hour though – it poured down.  Thank goodness for GPS navigation, or we would never have found the hotel.

Monday 07-Oct-2019 (Nancy - Isny)

We awoke to a clearing sky – though everything was still wet.  The hotel we were in was adjacent to Place Stanislas. We took a look before departing… now that was a surprise!  It turned out to be a large square, built between March 1752 and November 1755, by Stanislaus I of Poland, to link the medieval old town of Nancy with the “new town” built under Charles III in the 17th century. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first place in France and in the top four in the world.  A  t the time of our visit they also had a giant installation in the square – which only later, we realised was layed out like a “hand”, and with an undercurrent of palmistry.

Entering Stanislaus Square in Nancy... between 1958 and 1983 it was a car park!

One of the streets leading into the square.

There is a Triumphal Gate too... 

And lots o golden gates and fences.... and a few sculptures with Classical Themes...

An entry into the 2019 Installation in the Square

One of the many gardens... a riot of colour and texture.

A long table.... shaped like a line on one's hand...

There were pools too, with floating and submerged objects... and fish...

 

And so we set off for Isny, for what will be our second of three visits to this town.  We only had around 400km to cover today – so were only on motorwys (Autobahns) for short distances. 

At St Die we stopped for fuel – and discovered, based on the decoration in one of the roundabouts (highly decorated roundabouts seem to be common in many European Cities) stated “Saint-Die-Des-Vosges, Capitale Mondiale de la Geographie” – which Google translate assures me, means “World Capital of Geography” – which came as a bit of a surprise! The reason… “Vautrin Lud, Canon of St-Dié in charge of the mines of the valleys was the chaplain and secretary of René II, Duke of Lorraine. He set up a printing-establishment at St-Dié and facilitated reflections on the theme of earth representation and also met with what would today be called geographers, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, and the Alsatian professor Matthias Ringmann and clever Canons.”  Yet more evidence that travel can improve one’s knowledge of the world! 

St Die - famous in St Die...

Next a stop at Neuf-Brisach on the Rhine.  This is a s a fortified town in the department of Haut-Rhin in the French region of Alsace. And it was built to replace Brisach – which is on the German side of the Rhine. Work began on the fortified town in 1698, and it was designed an 'ideal city', which meant a regular square grid street pattern inside an octagonal fortification. In reality – the fortifications occupied more acreage than the town itself. It also had some interesting social design features…whereby “simpler” housing was provided in long tenement blocks, built inside each curtain wall, which had the effect of shielding the better houses from the risk of cannon fire. 

The design of the town of Neuf-Brisach and it's ramparts - a work of art??

The canon fodder... to protect the houses of the wealthy...

One of the "moats" - and we have no idea of the reason for the Elephant...

The town has been declared a UNESCO site… but it looked like it will need a lot more help if it is to survive – there was much dilapidation evident. On crossing the Rhine and entering Germany – the first thing we saw was a McDonalds… surely a sad indictment on the cuisine of the area??

An initial view of German gastronomy...

But the weather continued to improve… and as we ascended toward Odenbach on Route B31, after Freiberg, the road became a bit more interesting… and for some reason the speed limit was reduced to 50kph (in Europe they tend not to provide advisory speeds on bends, but instead just change the speed limit for all) – which I took as  merely an advisory speed limit. It wasn’t – we both saw the red flash!   But the scenery was beautiful (and we were in real hills again)… and it is clearly showing signs of Autumn.

Near Odenbach… Autumn colours abound...

Hills again... and Autumn colours beginning to show in the forest...

By the time we reached Lake Constance (Bodensee to Germans) – it was quite glorious – our first really blue sky for what has seemed like weeks (though that is not entirely true).

Lake Constance.... we have been here before - so we have completed some kind of "grand circle"... Zeppelins were to be seen floating above the water.

And thence to Isny…

Our Hotel - the "Hotel Restaurant Baren"

And from our window.... Autumn is upon us...

We celebrated our arrival with a really nice meal in the Restaurant of our Hotel… Tomorrow being the start of the next stage of our adventure.