Hotel Old Tom Ypres

Or at least, the Lille metro.<br><br>Lille's metro system was the first one in the world without a driver, which is pretty clever really. It does make the journeys interesting, however!<br>As there is no driver, sitting right at the front of the train you can look at the tracks straight ahead of you, which is quite good fun really and reminds me of being on a rollercoaster! Of course I don't sit there screaming and shouting. At least not all the time.<br>Getting on the metro early ...

... today to buy my week's fruit and veg and some pastries! <br><br>I also went with my parents to the "Jardin des Plantes", which is a kind of botanical garden and is absolutely beautiful. The guide book says "it is worth a visit just for the smell of the roses", however unfortunately there were no roses since it was October! I will have to make sure to go back when they are blooming! I really liked walking around these gardens, it was really ...

... examples of lesson plans, which is really useful. <br><br>At the weekend Erin's boyfriend arrived in Lille for a visit, so we did a bit of exploring of parts of Lille which we had yet to visit, such as the Citadelle, a massive architected park just on the other side of Vieux Lille. The Citadelle is really popular with sports enthusiasts such as runners and cyclists, and you can also hire scooters to whizz around on!<br><br>On our way into the ...

... English detective show or something. We had a great night out and ran back to the hostel in the rain.<br>We walked all around the town and saw little parks and local areas to the north of the town where people actually live. Around town there are heaps of chocolate shops and even a TinTin shop! The clothing stores are all fancy and there are mouth-watering pink-decorated candy stores.<br>Our visit to Ghent was nice too. It is ...

... run all through the city. It was gorgeous. After that we stopped in a church really fast to see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child then we went to the local brewery to take a tour and get a free beer, walked around the city then went to pick up Josh.<br><br>If anyone is ever in Bruges there is this little restaurant that has all you can eat ribs for pretty cheap and right across the ...

... 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.<br><br>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. <br><br>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 ...