Route ideas from Caen to Hirtshals
 

Hi guys.. I am in the UK & Europe for at least 4 months from May 2016 & have many routes and POI's loaded to my GPS.. After my lap of UK I am catching ferry to Tourlaville to visit Omaha beach, then Caen.. I need advise of a nice scenic route North from Caen to Hirtshals ferry preferably taking in Amiens ( Australian war memorial) I am not on a timetable just want a nice scenic route with no desire for overcrowded touristy cities.....Me... 52 yo solo rider KTM 1190R.. Will be swapping out my off road tyres and will be using ones more road friendly..

Breendonk
 

Amiens: well worth visiting.
There again, when you visit that area you are surrounded by WW1 memorials.
It will be the 100th anniversary in 2016 of the battle of the Somme, so the area will be packed out, especially around July 1st.

An answer kind of depends on what interests you; continuing with the military history theme, I have never forgotten my two visits to Breendonk both made nearly 20 years ago - during my second visit there I met, and spoke with, some survivors of incarceration within that fort who just happened to be there on the same day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Breendonk

I have never forgotten Breendonk.

As for routes; it very much depends on what you want to do, and see.
The Low Countries are well named and Denmark is just as flat; any member of the Danish mountain rescue team can confirm.

Dave,

Thanks for the heads up on Breendonk, I might head that way after Amiens, it looks very interesting, still in tact as well.... Think I will head towards Germany then North ...the riding looks more interesting looking at the terrain...mapping that out now....Atlantic road sorted In Norway, down to Stockholm , Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, then back west through the Alps to UK ....really looking forward to seeing these parts of the world...full of history...cheers Phil

Lots of interesting WW1 stuff around Amiens/Northern France - take a look at the Lochnagar Crater or the Plugstreet (Ploegstraat) memorial to the 1914 Christmas Truce First World War football match remembered with 'Plug Street' Uefa memorial - Telegraph

Belgium is a bit boring but I've always found good food, great architecture and even better beer in Antwerp beer

If you want to dodge the motorway run through Hamburg look at getting the ferry from Wischafen to Gluckstadt

If you are into military history then the Northern end of Hitlers Atlantic wall ran up the western coast of Denmark - plenty of interesting bunkers and militaria to explore. Over in Kristiansand Battery Vara is worth a look.

Bottom line is to chill out, take your time, stay away from the motorways and take the back roads wherever possible !

Thanks for the info,,,, I was going to the underground museum in Albert, it would have been a shame yo miss the crater, being so close...I will check out the Battery vara as well when I get up that way...

Canada is the only nation which purchased land, from France, at the site of a WW1 battlefield = Beaumont Hamel, in the Somme area.
They have preserved that site as a memorial to the Newfoundland Regt which was wiped out in one day (and Newfoundland was not part of Canada at that time).

The other very significant Canadian site is Vimy ridge which was taken by the Canadians in 1917.

Both are well worth visiting; there will be plenty on the internet about both sites.


Belgium has the Ypres salient where you could spend a week viewing the various sites of the 3 battles fought there between 1914 - 1918.

SE Belgium has some pretty good roads for riding - the Ardennes - also known for the WW2 battle of the bulge.

Verdun
 

By the way, the battle of Verdun ran more or less throughout 1916 (Feb - Nov) so there is another 100th anniversary for next year.
I've made two days of visits there and haven't yet been to all of that area.

Apologies - I may have done Belgium a disservice ! What I really meant was that the roads up from north west France through Belgium to south west Holland were boring ! I agree that the stuff over towards the eastern side is much more fun !

And I should add that the abandoned village of Doel, just outside Antwerp, is worth taking a look around

No worries; it's all about bouncing ideas around.

And, I agree with what you said when it comes to the riding aspect!

As a note about the Canadian WW1 large monuments that I identified earlier; during the summer season they are staffed by Canadian students who are selected from longish application lists to represent their nation at the sites and conduct tours for the visitors - at Vimy ridge that includes a trip into the tunnels that were used to house troops and as a means of "safe" access to the front; the last time I was there I was hosted by a student who had researched the background of his grandfather who had fought over that same ground 97 years earlier.

Yep, not just intact, but a national memorial site for the Belge.
It is sombre, even eerie: I have visited such places as Dachau but I didn't get the same experience there as I had at Breendonk - part of that may have been from talking directly with those survivors but the site itself is a testiment to what happens in war (the main perpetrators of interrogation were collaborating Belgium nationals).

A German author, Gombrich, has a book "a little history of the world" which is indeed short and gives a good background to the part Europe has played in the world (the author is better known as an historian of art but he wrote this book because he was asked to do so).

La Coupole
 

I've just remembered this one, located in northern France just outside St Omer.
LA COUPOLE : World War II bunker Museum, North of France tourism

It was attacked with 10 ton bombs by the RAF which did not penetrate the 10 m thick reinforced concrete roof of "the coupole".

Hi Simo
 

From Overlord sites in low Normandy you can carry on along the cost up north and stop in Dieppe where Canadians landed in 1942, i'm not a fanatic of these sites, but there a museum and some places to visit around (V1 launching bases
...etc..) .take time to visit the Caen memorial. You will arrive in Cherbourg (not Tourlaville which is closed to Cherbourg ) Have visit to Aromanche ( offshore harbour). If i'm not on the road ,i'll be please to offer you food, drinks and diner .you can contact me on Dieppe HU communitee.
Ride safe and cool
Roger

There is a well written travelogue in this recent thread about visiting the D Day beaches area:-
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ng-d-day-83533

All I can say is wow....what a great article by Kilian... It is noted and very much appreciated Dave . I intend to trace some of his footsteps. As well as see the town of .../Oradour-sur-.Glane untouched since WW11....., there is certainly a lot to see...

I appreciate the information and offer Roger...it is noted and thank you , I could detour from Rouen to Dieppe and have a look around....cheers Phil