Pre-Tour: Normandy Beaches to Holland 2025

Today we continue on our private orientation of the D-Day Normandy invasion. Our day will begin with a solemn morning visit to the Beny-sur-Mer Canadian Military Cemetery. We continue to the ‘Juno’ sector of the Normandy beaches, to see the Queens’ Own Rifles House, the first house liberated by Canadian forces when they stormed the beaches on June 6th, 1944, before heading over to the Juno Beach Center, dedicated to the 3rd Division landings, as well as Canada’s full involvement during World War II. After lunch, we visit the Mulberry Harbors in Arromanches before continuing on to La Chaos, the German offshore battery, which today still sits relatively intact, 75 years later. We continue further still, to Omaha Beach to discover the appalling difficulties required for the Americans landing on Bloody Omaha. We will finish our day with a visit to Pointe du Hoc where the cratered landscape of the German battery, taken by the US Rangers in 1944, can be observed. After leaving Omaha, we head back to our hotel to enjoy our dinner and overnight. (B, D)

Accommodation: Caen Hotel or similar 

Saying our farewells to the Somme region, we shift our focus from the First World War to the Second, heading for the French coast to the seaside resort town of Dieppe. We will first explore the Blue Beach at Puys, where we can view the gun emplacements on the cliff tops, which, on Aug 19, 1942, were responsible for such terrible Canadian casualties. We will then visit the Dieppe Canadian Cemetery before travelling to the Green Beach at Pourville. We will also view the main landing beaches of Red and White on the Dieppe seafront. Later, we will continue our journey to Arras for our hotel check-in, dinner, and overnight. (B, D)

Accommodation: Arras Hotel or similar 

Our day will be spent exploring the Somme – making visits to the Memorial to the Missing at Thiepval, as well the preserved battlefield memorial park at Beaumont Hamel – dedicated to the Royal Newfoundland and Labrador Regiment who lost so many men on that first day of battle. After enjoying a locally made picnic lunch at the Old Blighty Café we will continue on to view the Lochnagar Crater, among one of the largest craters on the battlefields of the Western Front. We then head back to the gothic city of Arras, with time to explore and enjoy dinner on your own. (B)

Accommodation: Arras Hotel or similar 

Today we take a tour to Vimy Ridge Memorial Park. It was on Hill 145, on April 1917, that Canada truly became a nation in the eyes of the world. Its troops combined and stormed Vimy Ridge after all other allied forces had failed to do so. We will tour the tunnels, trenches and memorial, as well as the brand new interpretation centre, which opened in Spring 2017 for the 100th Anniversary. Enjoy a locally prepared picnic lunch en-route. In the afternoon, we continue to see the new Canadian Memorial at Hill 70, where we will visit the brand new, and state of the art museum in Loos-en-Gohelle, which opened in the Summer of 2017 for the 100th Anniversary. Here we will be discussing the Battle of Hill 70 – sometimes dubbed as “Canada’s Forgotten Battle”. When our explorations of the battlefields are through, we continue on to Ypres, Belgium. (B, D)

Accommodation: Ypres Area Hotel or similar 

Today we will take the full day to explore the Ypres Salient Battlefields. We begin our introduction with a visit to Essex Farm, the place where John McCrae wrote the famous poem “In Flanders Fields”. We then head north to visit the Tyne Cot Commonwealth Cemetery – the largest Commonwealth Cemetery, of any conflict, in the world. We will also discuss the Battle of Passchendaele, with visits to the Crest Farm Memorial, in Passendale. We continue further to explore the German Cemetery of Langemark, and the ‘Brooding Soldier’ at St Julien, to commemorate the first gas attacks against the 1st Canadian Corps in 1915. Lastly, we take a visit to the Hooghe Crater, and Hill 62 – a small area of the original battlefield and part of the Canadian Front Line. We finish our orientations today in the medieval city of Ypres, also known as the ‘City of Peace’ with an early group meal in the heart of Ypres’ Grote Markt. Tonight, at 8PM, we will witness the iconic and historic Last Post Ceremony, at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, led by the Ieper Fire Department & the Last Post Association. This daily act of homage is among the most memorable acts of remembrance that we will witness on our tour. After the ceremony is through, we will head back to our hotel to prepare for tomorrow’s departure. (B, D)

Accommodation: Ypres Area Hotel or similar 

Enjoy breakfast, before we say our farewell to Ieper and travel to Mechelen to understand the Liberation of this region prior to the advance onto the  Breskens Pocket.  We will also visit the home to an extensive collection of original uniforms, weapons, artefacts, and scale models, the Canada-Poland War Museum, one of the most interesting private institutions preserving memory of the war and liberation of Belgium. Upon travelling into Holland, we will have the opportunity to visit the Canadian Military Cemetery at Bergen Op Zoom. (B)

This tour then combines onto your continuation on to the Holland Liberation Group Program.