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  There are so many sad facts that arise from the senseless slaughter in France and Belgium during WW1, and I go as often as I can to the battlefields to pay my respects. Last year's trip with Vic was the only chance I got in 2012 and I'm hoping to go a couple more times this year. I've even discovered some family graves - a Great Uncle buried at Rouen who died from wounds sustained at The Somme in 1917 and a distant relative from Stoke On Trent who is buried in the same CWGC cemetery as Herbert Asquith's son.
  
  As Vic, Brian and Tom have all said, it isn't until you get there and see the scale of the slaughter that it comes home to you; it's very powerful and extremely moving no matter what age you might be - a friend took his (now sadly dead) Uncle to the Menin Gate a few years back, and even in his 80s it moved him to tears for most of the day. It was his first visit to Ypres and proved just too much for him.
  
  Wherever Michelle and I go on holiday, whether in the UK or abroad, we always look to see if there is a CWGC cemetery there or nearby and, if we can, always go to pay our respects. We've been to a few far-flung places as a result! My favourite has to be Cantara (Al Qantara) which is located on the East Bank of the Suez Canal in Egypt; it's so remote, and so difficult to get to (it's in a very sensitive part of what used to be called the Canal Zone and armed checkpoints along most of the way do tend to unnerve the innocent tourist) that it's all the more rewarding when you get there. There were a few men from Dover at rest in that cemetery and it was an honour to pay our respects to them - I doubt they'd had too many visits over the years!

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