Today was going to be different day to previous, we planned to go cycling. There is a 45km cycle route called the peace route. It goes past the majority of major monuments, cemeteries, and battle sites.
We started off at 10am, hiring bikes at the campsite for the day, and headed into the centre to the start location. The cycle route was very well sign posted and we hardly had to use the map.
We passed several cemeteries on the way to our first stop off point, Hill 60.
At Hill 60 you can walk across the shell and mine blasted front lines. At one point the two opposing lines were no more than 20m away!
Our next stop was sanctuary wood. There was a museum with lots of images from the war. Outside they had sections of the trenches you could walk through and even subway tunnels that took you from the front line to the reserve line. We walked through the tunnels with no torches, and it was pitch black!
The next stop on our route was at Polygon Woods. There was a cafe there and a memorial to Harry Patch. He was a regular customer. We got talking to the owner and he showed us his museum. He has been on several TV shows, including Time Team, about all the items he has found on his farm.
The last half of the cycle route was a long ride into the wind. It didn't matter what direction we were cycle, the wind was in our face!
We finally made it back to the campsite, after 7 hours, cooked dinner and had a beer to relax on our final days...