Today was probably the best start to a tour we have had. Firstly, the weather was fine, so no need for waterproofs. Secondly, as we arrived at the check-in booth, Ginny landed perfectly on 29,000 miles covered.
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| Another Ginny milestone |
Following that, the check-in offered us an earlier crossing, which actually left 3 minutes early, so gaining us 30+ minutes on the other side.
The weather was superb for the entire journey, albeit a boring motorway mile-munching one. If anything though, it was just a bit too warm, being in the 30s the whole way, The humidity was very high too, so we were sweating buckets by the time we arrived at the hotel.
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| Phew! Scorchio! |
Apart from the fuel and coffee stops, we only had one point of interest stop today, that at the Englischer Friedhof (a British War Cemetery) at Rheinberg. Here we were visiting 5 particular graves, those of Flt Lt Hopgood and 4 of his crew, from one of the aircraft of 617 Sqn, The Dambusters. Hopgood's aircraft crashed shortly after having unsuccessfully dropped its bomb on the Mohne dam. This is a theme you will see more of tomorrow. The cemetery is some way from the crash site but I suppose Rheinberg must be the closest British cemetery to it, for them to be laid to rest there. There are many headstones, a large number being for air crew but all commemorating a young life lost. Hopgood himself, was just 21.
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| J V Hopgood, pilot of Lancaster AJ-M |
We arrived at our hotel, Haus Union, Oberhausen, about 4pm. As is almost always the case, our room is practically the furthest from reception but on the plus side it overlooks the free car park, so we can see the bikes. Another bonus, it has a lovely beer garden, which we obviously had to avail ourselves of. The long hot day was, as hoped, topped off nicely with a schnitzel and wheat beer! 😉
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