The Land of Beer and Chocolate - Belgium

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The first stop on our Belgium leg of the trip is a small town just over the French border by the name of Ypres (or Ieper in Flemish). Ypres holds a significant place in Australian history as it saw significant fighting in the First World War and thousands upon thousands of Australians are buried there. To place its significance in perspective, of the 55,000 Australians killed in the Great War, about 9,000 died on the Gallipoli Peninsula with the majority of the rest on the Western Front, many of whom fell in the Ypres area. The town itself was completely destroyed during the fighting in WWI, and by completely destroyed it was literally wiped off the map - not a single building stood at the end of the war. The town has been convincingly rebuilt to its original appearance and walking around you wouldn't notice that everything is under one hundred years old.

As it is somewhat off the beaten track we had to swap trains a number of times before finally arriving just after dark. Fi and I lugged our bags from the station before emerging into the cobbled town square which is dominated by the huge Gothic Cloth Hall. Ypres was a wealthy cloth trading town in the 17th and 18th century and the Cloth served as a very ornate warehouse to hold all the goods to be traded. We found our hotel which was perfectly located on the square and settled ourselves in. After relaxing for a little while we rugged up and wandered around the square checking out the quaint boutiques, restaurants, chocolatiers and pubs. We eventually made our way down to the Menin Gate, a huge archway across the river running into Ypres which serves as a memorial to all Commonwealth troops who died but have no known grave. The names of nearly 55,000 Australians, Kiwis, Poms, Indians, Canucks, Scots, Springboks and Irish line the inside of this tunnel. The Australian names covered nearly a quarter of the memorial, and the tragic thing is that this is only a memorial for those who have no known grave - thousands more lie in marked graves around the area. At 8pm every night traffic is halted and a party of buglers march into the middle of the road underneath the arch and play the last post. It was an extremely emotional sight, and I would be lying if I said Fiona and I didn't shed a tear. It is a great credit to the Belgians that they continue to recognise the sacrifice that was made in an attempt to protect the town.

After the last post we walk back to the square and found a cozy pub for dinner. As we were walking in a pissed old Pommy bloke was leaving in a somewhat upset state and he was giving it to the people in the pub. He was screaming at the top of his lungs “You're the biggest bunch of pigs in the world. Next time you have a war to fight don't call us to do it for you!” He then challenged anyone in the pub to 'step outside'.....we're not sure what happened, but we figure that maybe his beer was a bit cold for his liking. With that turmoil aside we settled in at the bar and ordered a beer. The Belgians are known for their great beer and I have to say they didn't disappoint. I worked my way through the beers on tap, dark beers, blonde beers, amber beers and wit beers - some even as high as 9% alcohol. I was just starting to warm up when a familiar face walked in the door. An Army mate of mine who I'd worked with in Darwin, Mick Thomas was in town for the same reason as us. As it turned out, he and his wife were on the same battlefield tour with us the next day! We had a chat for a while and a couple more beers before they called it a night. Fi and I hung around at the bar and had something to eat making friends with the locals who were pretty keen to practice their English with us. It was really great to be out of the big cities and into a small town.

The next day we were greeted with a cold and foggy morning - not ideal for tromping around battlefields, but you have to take what you are given. We met the tour guide at his store and he turned out to be a Canadian on a fifteen year sojourn to photograph all the Canadian war graves in the area. First stop on the way was a small cemetery which was the spot where John McRae, a member of the Canadian Army, wrote the Poem 'In Flanders Fields'. Flanders is the northern half of Belgium and was where much of the fighting took place. The cemetery nearby is one of the most visited in this area as it is the resting place for a 15 year old boy who lied about his age, joined up and was killed in the fighting. The next stop was a German cemetery where over 44,000 Germans lie buried. The tour guide told us the stories of some of the German actions and it was really great to visit this place as all to often we remember history from our own perspective and fail to consider the sacrifice made by those of the opposite side. Four large, stone human figures watch over the graves, and with a thick blanket of fog shrouding the cemetery it was quite eerie. We wandered the ploughed field next to the cemetery and found shell casings, pieces of shrapnel and other pieces of war paraphernalia. The tour guide said that people are still finding large objects such as mortars, helmets and bayonets pretty regularly. Sadly, they are also finding bodies - recently a large grave of 400 men, of which 150 were Australian was discovered. A new cemetery is being constructed on the site and the men will be laid to rest in a more peaceful manner. The tour then made its way around the many battlefields that Australian and other Commonwealth forces fought, and we stopped at the Tynecot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Cemetery in the world - it was staggering to see the size of this place, and in addition to the names on the Menin Gate, another 35,000 names of soldiers with no known grave line the wall. At the centre of the cemetery stood a large concrete bunker which had been converted into a memorial with a large oberlisk and flag on top. This bunker had been captured by Australian soldiers of the 3rd Division during the battle of Passendale; the same division in which my Great Uncle fought. After wandering the grounds we then moved to a private museum which had the only remaining trenches in the area. These trenches were in original condition and still surrounded by terrain scarred by artillery fire. Smashed tree stumps and shell craters filled with frozen water made it quite easy to picture what the conditions must have been like. The trenches were quite extensive running about 300m with original revetments and communication saps running to trenches further behind the front line.

With the tour completed we stopped back into Ypres for lunch with Thommo and Jodie before saying our goodbyes and heading to the train station to our next destination - Brugge. The trains are a fantastic way to travel - it is very comfortable and relaxing and is where I am doing most of the writing for these blogs. It is much much less stressful than driving through London! The only problem is that it can sometimes be difficult to find your way to the hotel from the train station - which was exactly the case in Brugge. We arrived after dark to find it about -6 Celsius and all we had was the name of the hotel - no idea where it was and no address. For the first time on the trip we decided to catch a taxi - given how cold it was the fee of 9 Euro seemed pretty reasonable.....until the cabbie drove us about 500m and dropped us off at the front door - lesson learned!

We dropped of our bags and then braved the cold to find a place to eat. We ended up in a nice place the was connected to a hostel, so the food and beer were pretty good value. Once again I started working my way through the beer on tap and found some even more amazing drops. Belgium's Trappist beers are produced by the Trappist order of Monks in different locations around the country and have a reputation for being super tasty and super strong. There are only six genuine Trappist beers, and to sell them a pub must gain permission not from the distribution company, but from the monks themselves. For those of you who have enjoyed a Chimay (I know you have Mr. Perham), that is one of the six genuine Trappist beers - some of which reach as high as 12% alcohol by volume - more potent than most wines. So after just three of these beers I was feeling pretty happy and didn't feel so cold on the way home!

Next morning we decided just to stroll around the town and not really push to purposefully see the tourist attractions. Brugge is the perfect town to do this in. Once a powerful trading city, Brugge's port became filled with silt which ended the flow of wealth into the city. As a result there was not enough money to spend on buildings, and leaving Brugge pretty much the way in was in the 16th and 17th century. The old city is made entirely of narrow one way cobbled streets where it is difficult to determine the footpath from the road, and open squares lined with trees, restaurants and pubs. The canals which once provide the distribution network for the city were frozen solid, with the trees lining the canals white with frost - it was postcard beautiful. We stopped in for brunch and chatted to one of the locals about where we had been. She told us that she'd never been to Paris because the French were too up themselves......seems like they have a world wide reputation whether they deserve it or not! Fiona periodically stopped to check out the many chocolatiers which call Brugge home, while I was more interested in sticking my head into a pub to 'thaw out'. We made one such stop and I decided to try Belgium's famous Duvel beer (Devil in Flemish). Coming it at a respectable 9% abv, I was feeling warmed by the time we left the pub.

We then wandered over to the main canal which surrounds the old city. Perched high upon a grass covered hills are four old 18th century windmills. We walked the tree lined path checking out the giant windmills, and for the first time in what seemed like ages, enjoyed the sun. Unfortunately I started to feel a bit off colour, so in the mid-afternoon we retreated to the hotel in order to be close to a toilet at all times. I must have picked up a bug somewhere which was a little unfortunate as it shortened our time to explore, but there was no way I was going anywhere without adult nappies or a toilet every 5 mins.

Next morning I woke up feeling slightly better and wandered down to the Saturday morning market in Brugge. It was quite an interesting affair as people were selling fish, meats, poultry and dairy stuff just from the back of trucks or display tables. We thought it was a little untidy until we realised it was -4 outside and there really is no need for refrigeration! We stopped into a little restaurant for a Belgian Waffle covered in chocolate for breakfast (Fi is really warming to the European concept of chocolate breakfast) before picking up our bags from the hotel and heading to the train station and on to the Netherlands.

Belgium is the land of beer and chocolate, and it seriously deserves that title. The country makes over 700 different beers, and I would like to try every single one of them they are that good. It seems that there is a chocolate shop on every corner, and Fiona seems to have started a love affair with Belgian truffles. The towns that we saw are stunningly picturesque, and from all accounts Antwerp and Brussels are great towns too, so if you are coming to Europe, make sure Belgium is on your list.

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