Day 15 a day Six of road trip

Hard to believe we have been on the road now for nearly a week! What a marvellous time we are having, every day has been just great. Woke up to a thunderstorm and torrential rain this morning, shades of Sound of Music! However got on the road early as we wanted to see the Australian war memorial at Bellinglise, where the Australians broke the Hindenburg line and helped win the First World War. It was sitting out in the middle of a field, in the exact spot where they fought the Germans and won. A very moving spot and beautifully maintained. It is so quiet and peaceful there that it is so hard to imagine the conditions and horrible things that went on. Quite moving thinking of all the lives lost - by both sides, the amount of young men who never got to grow up and experience life as they should have. Went from there and saw a memorial and cemetery for the British soldiers lost, and found out later that the were about 400 Australians also buried in the cemetery. The cemeteries have the little cupboards in a wall and when you open them, they contain the names of the soldiers buried in the cemetery and a visitors book to write your name in. Saw the Riqueval Farm bridge across the St Quentin canal that was stormed to complete the "Siegfried Position" inaugurating the last phase of the victorious final offensive of the Allies which ended with the Armistice on November 11. Everywhere around here there are roads called November 11, 1918! It is in one of my photos to follow after the war memorial pictures. Saw a tunnel that was designed by Napoleon and used by the Germans in the war as barracks for their soldiers. It was captured by the Americans at the same time as the Australians taking the Riqueval bridge. Now used by boats using the canals, all so interesting. From here we went to Villers-Bretonnaux. Another humbling and emotional place. Visited the Franco-Australian museum, full of pictures of Australian soldiers and the bombing of VB and how they helped rebuild it  for the residents. The people of VB  love the Australians, and rightly so. The memorial they have built is absolutely unbelievable and a real tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives. It was nearly destroyed in WW11 and was rebuilt but the bullet markings were left on the building as a tribute to the history of the place. It really is an emotional place, hundreds and hundreds of graves of young men from many nations, some headstones just say, unknown soldier and this just make you feel even sadder! We were so glad we made the effort to go, to actually see what conditions were like, the extremely flat land around here with no where to hide! You can apparently do a holiday trip to all of the war memorials on the Weatern Front, there are just so many! Even as we were driving along, you would see another war cemetery just in a field. But they are all beautifully maintained. It was really hard to leave the place but had to head off to Amsterdam and that was still over 4 hours away. Travelled through France, Belgium and the Netherlands today! Now in Amsterdam for a couple of days before starting back to Prague through Germany. Looking forward to seeing Frank and Belinda and their beautiful boys again before we head off to Ireland on Sunday. I'm sure Hamish and Toby will be glad to see Gary again, as Hamish wanted there to be three of Gary whilst we were there! Hope Kira doesn't find out or she will be jealous that her Ga Ga is wanted by someone else!