Yesterday afternoon after blog writing Lola and I went for run around the ramparts in the afternoon sunshine. Before we headed out to for a walk to the ancient Abbey of Saint Winoc and to try and find Potjevleesch for Kevin. It is the local traditional French Flemish dish which translates to English as potted meat, a terrine type dish made from veal, pork, chicken and rabbit. However, after trying three different places which were either full or not serving food that night or tomorrow we had to make do with takeaway frites (and perhaps a little of the local Belgium beer!).
After another cosy night listening to the rain hammering on the roof. Today was Operation Dynamo day, to visit Dunkerque and the museum and beach, site of the rescue of the British Expedition force in 1940. We had two choices of route, direct train or cycle the 11km. Which would both take about 30-40 mins. We decided on cycling for a bit of fresh air and exercise, so we loaded up Lizzy and Lola in their buddy rider seats and set off under a rather grey sky. I was in front and trying to navigate with occasional stops to look at my phone. I had opted for what looked like a quieter traffic route in. Unfortunately after 5 miles when I checked my phone it told me we were considerably off route, to cut a long story short, 1.5hrs and 16 miles later we finally made it to the museum in Dunkirk 🤭😣 Kevin has not let me forget that all day! Especially when the direct route back turned out to have a cycle route all the way! Still at least we had some good exercise!
As Lizzy and Lola were not allowed in the museum, the three of us went off to do some sightseeing along the beach, as it was Kevin’s turn to go inside leave him to describe the museum.
The Museum is housed in the old Operation Dynamo headquarters and is quite a modern approach to explaining the historical facts of May/June 1940. There is a 10 minute video of the fall of Dunkirk in pictures and video, which was extremely graphic and showed images Kevin had not seen before. It tries to explain the involvement of the French and Allied forces in their attempt to avoid capture by the Germans and the marvel of the logistical operation by the Royal Navy and the English sailing public in their little ships to rescue them. A moving and thought provoking day visiting a historical site we both had wanted to go and experience for ourselves.
In for a Penney 