Monday, June 23: Ypres, Belgium

Birds!!! They have these mourning doves/pigeons that are incredibly noisy. They sound something like our cooing mourning doves, but with a couple of extra notes plus a megaphone. They were in Brugge and also here in Flanders.

Very flat countryside

We are getting a lot of attention in the campgrounds. A favorite activity is to walk around the campground and check license plates to see where folks are from. They have huge license plates both front and rear, and we are sitting here with nothing on the front at all and a skimpy little plate that no one can figure out on the back. Lots of consternation as they walk by and try to find a license plate since we typically back into a campsite and only the front is visible.

 We are in World War I Flanders Field area. We stopped in the little town of Kimmel at the tourist office to get tickets to a recently discovered German trench area from World War I. The trench site was in the middle of a farm and the roads to the area were 1 ½ lanes wide at their widest.

Two way country road only 1 1/2 lanes wide.

Meeting an oncoming car meant pulling into the weeds on the side to let each other by. We found the site, but had to back up ¼ mile to the last pullover to park and walked into the trenches area.

 We walked down into the trenches and followed them around. Hard to believe the death and destruction from that time period when looking out at the peaceful farmland spread out below us from our slight ridge.

Underground bunker

Photo from WWI

Central Ypres Square

After leaving the trenches, we headed to Ypres (or Ieper) to visit the World War I Museum – In Flanders Fields Museum in the rebuilt Cloth Hall.

  The Cloth Hall building, originally built in 1304 to sell and store cloth (Ypres, along with Ghent and Brugge were major textile cities). The building was mostly destroyed in WWI and reconstructed faithful to the original plan. The Museum was excellent filling in the gaps of our memory of WWI history and providing an idea of what it was like to live in the area that saw much of the most brutal fighting in WWI.  

Legally parked on a Ypres side street

 Oh, did I mention that this museum is in the town center square of Ypres, a small city? Yup, narrow roads, little parking and lots of one-ways, do-not-enters- and other signage that we weren't sure what was being prohibited. Jack did manage to find on-street Legal parking!

 After visiting the museum we walked down to the British Memorial Menin Gate where they play Last Post every evening.

We decided to call it a day and go to the nearest campground. Our GPS took us to a gated road with no one in sight and no way to get through the gate. We eventually figured out I needed to walk in, but the office was closed from 12-4 and it was 3:45. Next door was an automated machine to get a reservation and pass for the gate. By the time I figured it all out and received a technical error message, the office was open. I walked next door where she told me they were full. On to the next campground about 8 miles away. The drive there was on decent roads through small towns. We turned into a sports complex with huge soccer fields outside and indoor tennis and gymnastic rooms. I went inside and asked where the campground was and he said, right here. They had eight spots behind the building, very close together, but grassy with electric and water and dump nearby – for the grand total of 12 Euro or about $16. We had the place to ourselves with everything we need. Perfect.

After finishing up with the paperwork, a man came and knocked on the manager's door saying someone was down on the track on the far side of the field. I watched as he headed out with an EMT kit and calling an ambulance. He gave him CPR along with some other runners who had stopped by until the ambulance arrived. They took him away in the ambulance with the sirens going.......