This new and exciting tour offers a chance to experience two unique aspects of Flanders - the First World War and its great beer brewing tradition. We will be concentrating on the Western Front, around the notorious Ypres Salient, and then moving south to Mons, which saw the first British shot fired on the Germans at the opening of the war in 1914.
This tour hopes to include visits and some guided tours of outdoor sites, bunkers, trenches and memorials, plus several specialist First World War museums, but individual visits are subject to change. We will look at what Allied soldiers were drinking behind the line in towns such as Poperinge. We will also have a very special session with Frank Becuwe, author of Bier Aan Het Izerfront - Het verhaal van de dorst in de Groote Oorlog (2009) (Beer on The Izer Front - The Tale of Thirst in the Great War. We will visit De Snoek Brewery Museum in Alveringem, which not only survived the war but appears to have prospered whilst slaking soldiers thirst. We will also hear about what effect the war had on the breweries of Flanders generally and will include visits to other Belgian breweries in and around the Western Front.
Fri 30th April
On our first day we cross the channel and make our way to La Reutel café at Zonnebeke where we will have lunch and a choice of a beer or two from their impressive list of 80 beers. We will then have a three hour guided tour*, taking in the Memorial Museum Passendale 1917*, which concentrates on the third battle of Ypres in 1917, the largest Commonwealth cemetery at Tyne Cot* and a tour of Cryer Farm*, an underground first aid post and bunker located on private property which can only be visited upon request. We then make our way to our hotel for the next two nights, the delightful Oude Abbdij in Lo near Ypres, which was formerly the old St. Louis malt house and brewery, now converted into a hotel. After checking in and an evening meal* we will be treated to a special talk* from author Frank Becuwe. The rest of the evening is at leisure in the hotel’s well-stocked bar.
Sat 1st MAY
After our buffet breakfast at the hotel, we make the short coach journey to The Museum of Thirst in the Great War at Alveringem where we will have a guided tour* telling us about what happened in and to the brewery during the war. We will also have time for a beer*. We make our way to Poperinge which was never occupied by the Germans, and which was full of British and allied soldiers enjoying some rest and beers away from the front line. We will visit the famous Talbot House* (Toc H), a home from home for Tommies and which is unchanged since WW1. We will have a short orientation talk*, a look around and we will have a taste of their famous hospitality in the form of a cuppa* (the beers will come later). After lunch in Poperinge, hopefully we can call in for a quick beer* at the new Struise Brewery in Vleteren and a look at their schoolroom brewery. In the late afternoon we make our way by coach to Ypres and will be dropped at the Ramparts Museum/Klein Rijsel Café which is a small museum of the war in the Ypres Salient, combined with a café, where we will enjoy a beer. The rest of the evening is free in Ypres, and Podge’s Bar Guide to Ypres will be provided*. Travellers can take in the moving last post ceremony at the Menen Gate in Ypres, which has been sounded by the Belgian Fire Service at 20.00hr every evening since the gate was built in 1928. The coach will return us to our hotel late in the evening.
Sun 2nd MAY
Following breakfast, we are off to nearby Boezinge and the recently discovered Yorkshire Trenches which have been reconstructed with concrete sandbags, duckboards and ‘A’ frames, giving a good impression of what the trench systems on the Western front would have looked like. From there we head to the Hoog Crater Museum in the heart of the front line, where we will have a guided tour of the museum* and a light lunch* and a beer* at the museum. We then travel by coach south towards Mons, stopping on the way for a brewery visit*. We then make our way to our base for the next two nights at Mons, where the British Expeditionary Force first engaged with the Germans in 1914. Our base is the centrally located Hotel Ibis Mons Centre Gare and after check-in, the evening is at leisure in Mons, armed with a copy of Podge’s Bar Guide to Mons*.
Mon 3rd MAY
Following our buffet breakfast at the hotel, we will take the coach on a tour of the important sites and memorials in and around Mons which saw the first shots fired by the British Expeditionary Force on the continent since Waterloo, and the last shot fired in the First World War. We will visit the sites and hear the stories of the British Expeditionary Force action at Nimy Bridge and Obourg Station, where several VC’s were won. We will pay a visit to the beautiful Commonwealth War Graves Commission St Symphorien Military Cemetery. We also hope to fit in a brewery visit and tasting in the afternoon before heading back to Mons for an evening beer or two.
Tues 4th MAY
On this last day of the Tour, we leave our hotel for the drive back to Calais, taking in some WW1 sites and some beer sites. We travel towards Ploegsteert in the south of the British and Commonwealth sector, and briefly stop at Frelinghien, where we visit the memorial to the 1914 Christmas Truce between the Tommies and the Germans, which in this sector the Germans started with the immortal lines “Don’t Shoot, we’ll send beer!”. We then proceed to Vanuxeem at Ploegsteert which stocks well over 500 beers from which we can make our selection to take home. After our beer-buying spree, we pay a visit for a beer and snack to In de Vrede, the café of the Trappist Monastery at Westvleteren, which also has some WW1 stories attached to it, as well as some extant bullet holes. Our final visit of the tour is to the ’t Rohardushof café at Roesbrugge, which has a superb selection of beer, and there happens to be a beer festival on at the time of our visit! We then make our way to Calais for a Eurotunnel train home in the early evening.
The price of this five-day tour is £395 per person based on sharing a twin or double room. There is a single supplement of £112 if you want your own room. If you want to go on this tour, please send a deposit of £100 per person (the balance is due five weeks before departure). If you need more information on the tour or how to book and pay, please call Podge on +44(0)1245 354677, or send Podge an email.
We use a luxury coach throughout the Tour. Included in the price are coach travel from Colchester or Chelmsford, still and sparkling water available on the coach, hotel breakfasts plus all items marked with an asterisk above. Arrangements can be made for different joining points on the way from Colchester to Dover or even on the other side of the channel. Personal insurance is not included but is strongly advised, as is carrying the European Health Insurance Card available online, by phone or via the Post Office.
If you want to go on this tour please send a deposit of £100 per person with the balance being due five weeks before departure. If you need any more information on the tour or how to pay please call Podge on +44(0)1245 354677, or or send Podge an email.
