Blogs from Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 4

The day started early, about 20 minutes before the sun came up. I took a quick shower, packed my toiletries and night clothes, then checked out. I reached Piccadilly Circus just as the sun came up and the early morning traffic began. I'd broken a cardinal rule of touring in London on my arrival: taking the tube during rush hour with all my luggage. It being a Monday I didn't want to do that again, so I'd left with plenty of time to walk to St. Pancras, where I'd be catching my train to Brussels. I must have arrived between trains, because going through screening and check in was very quick. We started to board a few minutes later than listed, but the departure was on time. Although I don't really handle tunnels or confined spaces ... read more

The nights may be getting a little cooler but the sunshine had returned and the day was sunny and warm as we drove into Belgium. The only places we wanted to see in Belgium were Ypres (Ieper) and Passendale, being of specific importance to New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries as a major battlefield during the First World War. We arrived at Ypres at about 2pm and drove straight in to the city centre through the Menin Gate and managed to find parking really easily. (Probably as the city is not very big - approx. pop. 35000) Ypres was made famous as the last bastion of Belgian territory unoccupied by the Germans in WW1 and a barrier to their advance into France. As a result the town was absolutely flattened and 300 000 allied troops lost ... read more

First stop CHOCOLATE!! Literally the first stop we made in Belgium was to the town of Brugges and a museum called Choco-Story. It was a pretty cool little expo on the history of chocolate from the Aztecs use of it as a drink of the Gods, then later as a currency (100 cocao beans could buy you a slave) through to the Belgians perfecting it and adding praline to it. There was even a great live demo of how to make praline chocolates in moulds which we got to try afterwards. Apart from walking around the very pretty little town (which we liked more than Prague) there was not much more to see. The church with Christ's blood was closed for lunch so we wandered around the canals and some markets before heading off for Ypres. ... read more

Day 10, 10th June. In Wissant near Calais Woke with massive hangover - no more beer! Urs took us on a car trip at noon to the secret cannon base at Mimoyecques built in WWII by the Germans. Twenty-five underground super-cannons which could reach London and were never used. They were designed as the V3 weapon which would have destroyed London! Later we went off to Bologne town for a walk about the old walled town - had a coffee and worked out who owes what to who - complicated, there has to be a simpler way to combat this maddening waste of time. Back at the caravan we had chips at the local chippy, Toby cooked sea-kale and pasta for dinner, and Scott made green-tea. Urs left for Düsseldorf, so I have to stay in ... read more

Well, everyone from the short couse left yesterday, so today I decided to see a new town. Got up this morning and hit an open air market for coffee and a pastry. Wandered around Gent for a while and then went to another market for a half dozen oysters and a glass of wine. Then I hopped a train to Ieper (Dutch, Ypres in French), which was where some very significant fighting took place during WWI. Unfortunately the "In Flanders Fields"museum was closed until February, but I still saw St. Martin's Cathedral, the Menin Gate which is a monument listing the names of the 54,000+ British soldiers who died at Ypres and whose bodies were not found, and walked about halfway around the fortified walls of the city (it was a long walk). Took the train ... read more