After weeks (indeed months) of planning and preparation, our UK “Pipe and Slippers Tour” finally got off the ground at 9:45am on Saturday, 9th May.  The first part of our journey took us, by car, across Switzerland, through France and on to a fantastic B&B called Aioli in the small village of Maissin in Belgium. Our hosts, Pierre and Francoise, were particularly welcoming and our evening meal was superb.  Like many villages in this area of Belgium, it had been the scene of a particularly fierce battle in August 1914, where thousands of French and German soldiers died.

The following day we continued through some very beautiful Belgian villages and countryside to the port of Zeebrugge, where we spent the night on the ferry, before arriving at my ‘home’ town of Kingston upon Hull.

Like the recent cycle race, ‘Le Tour’ continues around Yorkshire, to Sheffield tomorrow then on to York.