trevor_schofield

I fly out in 6 weeks and my plans are finally starting to take shape.
Arrive in London Oct. 10 and spend a week in the city - staying at the Globetrotter Inn and got a London Pass + transit card. Then it's up to Dublin by train/bus/ferry for a week visiting a friend and wandering around before flying (probably Ryan Air) to the Netherlands for a week to visit another friend. From here I don't really know what I should do for the first week of November, but am thinking about maybe spending a bit of time in Belgium and just slowly make my way to Northern France by Nov 11th. I have read that Vimy Ridge it really worth checking out, but was wondering if there are any big Remembrance Day ceremonies around the D-day beaches

Any suggestions for what I should do for the first wee of November if I am around Holland/Belgium/France?
Any general advice/recommendations of what to do/see in Amsterdam (and the rest of Holland) - I don't smoke, as well as for Remembrance Day weekend in Northern France?

After that I figure I'll head back up to Ireland and start looking for a job and place to stay for the winter (I have my holiday-maker visa).

omisan

I think the weed in Amsterdam's overrated anyway

Eat plenty of french fries with mayonnaise, then burn off all those calories by hopping on a bike and exporing the countryside. The place is so amazingly flat, you can bike pretty much anywhere.

The Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are alright, if a little stodgy.

If you like beer, the Heineken tour is pretty sweet... even if you don't like Heineken. It's actually really tasty from the source.

Walk around the Red Light District. Laugh at some of the horrendously hideous gals on display. Drool over the unbelievably hot ones.

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marc873

As I tell everyone, and will continue to! If in Belgium go to Brugge. Great place to spend 2 days and be blown away by the people, the beer and the scenery. If you don't know Brugge, its a 15-16th century midevil canaled city. So much fun to drink your way around. Very Easy to get to. about 15-20 min. train ride from Brussels. When in A-Dam, you could do the canalbus thing, which is a really fun way to see the city and be able to get on and off wherever it stops. The day pass also lasts for 1 1/2 days so you can use it for a while. If you are into the bohemian thing, there is a great beach just North of A-dam called Blijburg aan zee. Great place for beer, food and just interesting scenery. You can find lots of info @ google about this place. We went out and spent about 4-5 hours one morning and it was perfect. Oh yeah, you could also go to the North Sea while in Belgium and go to Oostende. Very interesting Belgiun beach city. happy traveling

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tumblezweedz

I visited Vimy several years ago, and thought it was an awesome experience. I've been trying to find out info about attending a Remembrance Day ceremony there this year, myself. So far I've checked the Veterans Affairs website and not found anything conclusive, another source which might be more helpful (though I haven't checked it out yet) is the Canadian Embassy in France. I'm guessing, based on my experience there in the summer of '91, that there would be something, it's the biggest Canadian war memorial in France and it's pretty amazingly run - I can't see them skipping past Nov 11 with no ceremony. But, as I said, I haven't got confirmation on this yet.

Another good option for Remembrance Day would be the Ypres area of southern Belgium. These are the "Flanders Fields" of which McCrae wrote, and I've gotta tell you, seeing the little red poppies bobbing along the roadside last Remembrance Day (we attended a service at the Hamm American Cemetary near Luxembourg City) was a pretty poignant sight. If we can't work France, Ypres is the fallback position for us this year. There are a number of excellent war memorials and museums in the area, according to my research, so it would probably be a pretty good option, too.

Don't know about the D-Day beaches, again, I'm betting there'd be something at Juno, but I'm not sure.

ryannorris

hey I'll be in England until mid November but then I'll probably be heading to France. My msn is odannyboy12@hotmail.com. Hopefully our plans will align at some point. Bye for now