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Press Releases
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FOLLOW THE CANALS TO FLANDERS FIELDS IN 2007
Cruise to Belgium with Crown Blue Line and save up 15% on 2007 bookings made on-line or by telephone and booked before 31st December 2006.
For the first time, leading inland waterways holiday specialist Crown Blue Line is including cruising routes along Belgium’s pretty network of canals in its new brochure. This is marked with a special offer of 15% discount on 2007 Belgium cruises booked by the end of 2006.
A range of specially tailored cruises has been created to help customers make the most of their cruising time on the water.
- The Memorial Cruise – A 4-day short break cruise to visit the Flanders Fields and 1st World War memorials
- Turrets & Tapestries Cruise – A 11 day cruise around the historic cities of Bruges, Gent – the former Flemish Capital, Deinze and Oudenaarde – centre of Belgium’s famous tapestry industry.
- Beautiful Bruges Cruise – a 3 day short break cruise for chocolates and shopping in beautiful Bruges – known as Venice of the North for its hump-backed bridges and narrow cobbled streets.
Spring is a perfect time to cruise in Belgium and a ‘Countess’ luxury cruiser sleeping up to 6 costs £710 for a week (£118 pp). With only a 45 minutes drive from the Channel Tunnel at Calais, customers can cruise off into the sunset in no time at all.
Sarah Singleton, Marketing Manager for Crown Blue Line, says: “Belgium is a beautiful country, very peaceful, friendly and so easy to get to from the UK. Many people like to visit the memorials of Flanders Fields to pay their respects and reflect on what’s happening in the world today. The gentle network of canals in Belgium are inter-twined with its history and provide a special way of visiting the area at your own leisure.”
4 day Memorial Cruise
Day 1: Starting at the coast at Crown Blue Line’s base at Nieuwpoort, take a minute to look at the floodgates at Goozefoot, opened by the local lock-keeper at hightide in 1914 to try to stop the advancing German troops. Cruise inland through the polders to the First World War’s Western Front, where restored trenches and historic towns and villages full of memorials and museums, await you.
Day 2: At the town of Diksmuide, the restored trenches serve as a poignant reminder of the many thousands of soldiers who lost their lives, culminating in the final battle on the morning of the 28th September 1918. Here you can climb the 85m tall Flemish Peace memorial, with its extraordinary museum on 22 floors giving a chilling impression of life during the First and Second World Wars, and with views at the top across the entire region. Visit the British War Cemetery, the place where Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote the famous war poem ‘In Flandres fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row…’
Day 3: Cruise on to Ypres, once the scene of terrible fighting and now one of the most important memorial sites to the World Wars. Ypres remembers the dead every evening at 20.00 when the Last Post is sounded at the Menen Gate. And from the Menen Gate you can walk the city ramparts whose arches withstood the fiercest of shelling in the First World War and provided shelter for the wounded.
Day 4: Cruise at your leisure back to our base at Nieuwpoort on you final day, enjoying the friendliness of the waterways and stopping to sample local produce en route at café’s and restaurants as the mood takes you.
Email us for more information on other cruising routes.
By road – take the Channel Tunnel from Folkestone to Calais: with Nieuwpoort 45 mins by road from Calais. By ferry – to Ostend - 20km by rail to Nieuwport.« Back to News Articles
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