In October 2024, the CanHist.ca team is leading a 15-day walking tour entitled From Northumbria to Normandy – Hadrian’s Wall to Juno Beach. Along with our partners at Ellison Travel, our tours use the heritage walking principle, an approach that encourages experiencing history through gentle/achievable walking on an exciting historical itinerary.
- In October 2024, the CanHist.ca team is leading a 15-day walking tour entitled From Northumbria to Normandy – Hadrian’s Wall to Juno Beach. Along with our partners at Ellison Travel, our tours use the heritage walking principle, an approach that encourages experiencing history through gentle/achievable walking on an exciting historical itinerary.
- Walking Hadrian’s Wall is an immersive experience. A full 73 miles from coast to coast across northern England, the October 2024 tour will concentrate on the most iconic 12 miles over four days. As always, we concentrate our heritage walking with visits to key historical landmarks along the Wall, such as the archeological excavations at Vindolanda.
- With walks that extend no further than 3 miles/day – plus optional daily deviations for those who may not feel up to tackling a climb to the wall – the needs of our travelers are always foremost. Each day is capped by a wonderful meal available at the legendary Twice Brewed Inn within sight of the Wall, where we’ll be lodging for four nights.
- The quality of our accommodations and meals does not diminish as our itinerary takes travelers to the historic cities of York and Whitby in Yorkshire, before departing by overnight Ferry en route to Normandy in France. Staying in medieval Bayeux for four nights – with a side trip to the cathedral city of Rouen – the focus of our heritage walking in Normandy will be the D-Day beaches.
- Every Canadian should experience time at the Juno Beach Centre (JBC) where Canadians first landed on June 6th, 1944, starting the Allies’ year-long series of battles to liberate Europe in the Second World War. There are few experiences as moving as walking the Norman beaches in the footsteps of our Canadian Veterans. The JBC tells those Canadian stories especially poignantly in 2024 – the 80th anniversary of D-Day – with a new Exhibition called Faces of Canada Today.
- Our tour concludes with a memorable trip into Paris, to stay for two nights close to the Seine and within sight of Notre Dame Cathedral in the Latin Quarter. Over the last 15 years, our community of travelers have all agreed that their favorite urban walking experiences have been in the City of Light… and really, who could disagree?
A few spots are still open for the October 2024 Tour. We love to welcome new members to our community of heritage walkers. This year we’ll welcome renowned historian John Heckman (aka ‘The Tattooed Historian’) to lead our learning throughout the tour, and the acclaimed ‘Blue Badge’ Hadrian’s Wall Guide, Anna Gray, to share her expertise as we ‘walk the Wall.’
If the notion of heritage walking appeals, then please do reach out to us at: info@canhist.ca and register for the Tour at: https://canhist.ca/the-tour before Feb 29th!
At CanHist, we like to say, “We do history differently…” and we think you’ll agree!
