First Trip to Europe Part 4 - the Somme and train travel

So this day was a little messy because I was trying to shoehorn visiting some historical sites in a half a day when we would have to drive 4 hours just to get there. I knew going in this was not optimal, but I was determined as I wasn’t sure we would ever get back to this part of France again as we have a long list of other places we would like to visit first.

The Sunday started off with us attempting to go to 10:30 Mass at the Bayeux Cathedral, but it turned out that they were having a major ceremony with of a “Profession of Faith” with what looked like middle school students. The cathedral was packed and we stood on the stair by the door. While very beautiful, this certainly took a lot longer than a regular Sunday Mass. Then we were off driving close to 4 hours to Vimy in the rain. We were able to visit the Canadian Memorial here with the preserved Canadian and German trenches from the Battle of Vimy in 1917 right before 5pm. After a quick fast food dinner in Albert, we did a self-driving tour of some of the key places of the Battle of the Somme and visit some very moving Commonwealth Cemeteries scattered among the fields. This was our least organized day and the boys didn’t get as much out of it because it was mostly a long day of driving, and the only info about what we were seeing was coming from me. But to me, it was something so meaningful and profound to see even if it was only for a few hours so I’m grateful my family was willing to put up with my desire to see what looked like lovely farm fields.
That night we stayed at a B&B in Guedencort, a dot on the map that was in the center of the Battle of the Somme. This village of a dozen houses in the middle of fields was incredibly peaceful as you could hear the cocks crowing and see the horses ambling around. The next morning, we drove an hour to Lille to drop off our car rental at Europe Lille and take the Thalys train to Schipol outside of Amsterdam. I will say driving the car into Lille was probably the “least fun” driving experience we had in Europe. But we made it to our destination successfully on the first try, although we decided to take the penalty for not having a full tank of gas as the thought of finding a gas station and making it back did not thrill us. Next time we know to get gas on the highway BEFORE we enter Lille.
We were actually pretty excited to take a major train in Europe. In my mind, that is part of the experience! There were soldiers and security everywhere along with supporters of Belgian, Irish and German soccer teams throughout the train station. We took pictures next to the Euro 2016 sign in the fan zone right outside the train station and not once did we feel unsafe. I was surprised (but pleased) to find out that there was a security check to get on the Thalys train much like the airport, except you could bring drinks on. Soon enough we were speeding to the Netherlands and the final leg of our trip.