Hotel Old Tom Ypres

... If time permits I will be trying my hand at pralines next Easter! The best part of course was that you could have a taste test at the end!

The rest of the museum was basically about the history of chocolate and was actually quite interesting, we took our time wandering through the displays and reading all the history and looking at the antique and ancient chocolate accessories.

To the end of town we went from here to find the four windmills, one of which was ...

... but I know what the waiters were talking among themselves about after they left.

Well, one more day in Bruges, then I board the train Saturday morning for Amsterdam and the final leg of the trip. I’m looking forward to lugging my luggage just one last time before coming home. Tomorrow it’s laundry day again. I finally found the Laundromat the hotel recommended down a bunch of twisty streets and snapped about 40 photos on the way.

... at various buildings. All were very interesting and each professor incorporated their own concepts/ideas with each building. This became a more integrated approach to us learning our architecture. The next day we traveled to Amiens, to look at another Notre Dame Cathedral. A little different then the last, but still very impressive. Amiens was a nice little town, it houses a main university in France so it was awesome to get to see how other students in Europe ...

... more (what else would we do?) we sat down at Bocca, an Italian restaurant that serves pasta in takeout Chinese container lookalikes. I admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was some of the best 5 euros I have ever spent – the homemade sauce was absolutely delicious! We liked it so much that we are planning to write to Europe on a Budget and recommend it. Seriously, it was that good.

To cap off our evening in Bruges, we went and got ...

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After a little venture around the Grote Markt we started back to the inn and were about half way back when we were caught in an absolute downpour. Just as it was getting too much to bare and we could barely see in front of us we ducked into an open doorway and found ourselves in the foyer of a monastery. After a while a monk came out and spoke with us and told us a truck would be coming in a little while that would give us a lift ...

... was a chorus of rowdy men, singing Christmas carols and shouting, "Hey Fritz! Got any more sausages?" "Hey Tommy! Got any more tea?" and "Merry Christmas!" It was very moving and brought me to the verge of tears. The museum on the whole was very informative and a valuable experience.

Our next stop was Hill 62 where there is a small privately-owned museum. The museum itself was uninspiring (a random collection ...

... to return. This memorial bears the names of 54,896 soldiers who were reported missing in the Ypres Salient between the outbreak of war and August 14, 1917. Because the gate was too small to hold the names of all the missing, those who were lost after this date, 34,000, are commemorated on the panels of the Tyne Cot Memorial in Passendale.

The service is memorable, very moving and unique experience . There was a very large crowd, more than I thought ...

... didn't it explode down the tunnel - as this was a likely source of 'explosive direction?' Why did it explode upwards? Sandbagged walls were built inside the tunnels - the arminol (TNT) was packed in one area - sandbagged. In another closeby area another equal lot of the explosive - the detonation would push these explosive forces together - they then had no way of 'tunnel escape' and had to go upwards; because they were ...

... around Ypres. Stopped at a bar near the Passiondale Cemetery for a couple beers and sat in the Sun watching the other cyclists go by. Gale force head wind on the way back which made it heavy going. Total 76K for the day. Decided to cook chicken pasta and share a bottle of NZ C******nay.

... the super driver. We didn't trust Tom Tom Go initially but it had proved its worth since. We eventually got to Ypres in Belgium within an hour or so. Unfortunately the rain was bucketing down so we couldn't set up our tent. The weather was pretty appalling for two days so we only had the space in the van. Ypres is a beautiful city with rampart walls which was ...