Hi Gary: We are just back in Istanbul now, after a wonderful tour.

Simply put, both tours were fantastic. Both Jon and Robin were very knowledgeable and passionate about their respective eras. Jon seems like a quieter person and Robin is quite the character but both were well-suited to us and our son.

I think however that we enjoyed the WW1 tour a bit more because of the family connection to it. Visiting the cemetery where David Milne was buried as well as the possible battlefield where Darin’s grandfather was injured was very emotional. Jon also showed me some Chinese names listed on the Notre Dame de Lorette monument that were the same as my maiden name (Wei) and told me about Asians in WW1. I was not at all expecting this information as the tour was mainly for my husband and son and I appreciated that Jon did this research.

We enjoyed Robin’s stories at all the places he took us too. We appreciated his maps and photos as they made the modern sites come alive. We could picture the gliders in the fields and the placement of the men and guns. We were even able to meet Madame Gondree at her family’s cafe next to the Pegasus Bridge. Due to an extremely low tide we were also able to walk out to the remnants of the Mulberry harbour on Gold beach – a highlight for our son. Robin took into consideration our son’s interest in tanks and guns so showed us some tanks on display and visited the Maisy battery.

Both Jon and Robin were flexible in their tours and seemed to tailor the amount of info they gave to us based on our level of interest. We would definitely recommend both of them.

Robin’s French partner also kindly organized some dinner reservations for us as we don’t speak much French. We stayed in an apartment in Bayeux so didn’t have a hotel reception to help us out.

All in all, it was a great 5 days. Very emotional at times and it was eye-opening to see the scale of loss on both sides by visiting the many cemeteries. Our son is 16 and it was sobering for him to see how many 18 &19 year olds were buried in the cemetery plots. I was unaware there were so many Unknown Soldiers and we realized that we were fortunate that David Milne was identified and had his name on a tombstone.

Thank you for helping organize the tours!

NOTE: This was a pilgrimage tour for Gillian’s husband Darin, following the service of his grandfather David Milne.