It sounds glamorous but of course it wasn’t – we spent pretty much the whole day from 7am on the motorway – 550 miles!! We were originally going to take two days to drive from Berlin to Ypres but decided we’d do it all in one go – our longest drive of the whole trip. We had one major hold up, quite a few roadworks and more lorries than I have ever seen.

Anyway, we arrived around 6pm at Hotel de la Paix in Poperinge – it’s a pretty little town but unfortunately the fairground is in town for a week – right in the middle – ugly to look at and no doubt noisy. Derek has been to the area several times before for cycling and WW1 tours. Danny and Britt arrive tomorrow. It was really hot when we arrived followed by a thunderstorm and rain – am writing this sitting on the hotel terrace under the awning drinking peppermint tea.