After our short time in France surrounded by war graves and sites we decided that before continuing southwards we should visit a war cemetery and Mons being so famous and close by we decided to stopover for a couple of nights. It was a good choice as we later learned that Mons is where the British entered the war and the first British bullet was fired.

On arriving we realised that Mons had more to offer in the shape of numerous museums of interest, a cathedral and a very attractive town centre.

Our first visit was to the Mons military museum which was very informative as it not only covered both world wars it described the numerous historical battles for the control of Mons itself going as far back as the Middle Ages.

It had a very good visual display showing the moving lines of battle and how the allies were encircled and pushed back resulting in the evacuation at Dunkirk and an insight on the planning of the evacuation. A small exploratory force had been sent to test that the sand would take the weight of the vehicles and a group of soldiers were practising for the evacuation on the Welsh coast. They were spotted by German submarines subsequently attacked and many died, not something you learn in history books.

Sadly the other two places that interested us were not accessible to us, the Francois Duesberg clock museum was closed though it was published as being open and the Bam museum was restricted to members of the press only for a pre show viewing.

We had noticed there was an event called The night of dance in the main square that evening so to salve our disappointment we grabbed a pavement table for a few drinks and a meal whilst we watched the first couple of hours of the show before heading back to Vinnie.

Before leaving the next morning we visited the Commonwealth war cemetery which also included other members of the allied forces ie: Polish, Russian, Romanian and American. It also contained the grave of Pte J.L.Price of the 28th Canadian regiment, the last soldier recorded as killed in the Great War a tragic two minutes before the Armistice surrender.