Kasteelhof 'T Hooghe Ypres

... and go to school. There was a nice little Canal down the middle of the town and very cute shops and restaurants for all. We then piled back on the bus one more time and headed for the WWI memorial Museum in.... I dont remember. It was equally as awesome and housed some great war paraphernalia.

All in all, this was a great trip. Very exhausting, we were always on the go, but very helpful to understanding every aspect of architecture.Stay tuned for Amsterdam!!!

Last Friday we moved into our studio. To put it lightly we were a bit disappointed about the size, we hadn't expected a palace but we'd expected a bit of space to move around in! However, we had to keep reminding ourselves of how cheap the rent is and therefore how much extra money we will have to spend on other, more important, things!
As soon as we had arrived we went off to Ikea to buy essentials such as pots, pans, duvets, pillows and sheets and other decorations to help us to ...

... and offered to take us to Bruges!
Tomorrow we both start work, although we are supposed to have two weeks where we are simply observing classes before we begin teaching, so hopefully it won't be too challenging to begin with! That doesn't stop me from very nervous though!
I'm really looking forward to moving into our flat and making it our own, we are hopefully going to go to IKEA on Friday afternoon to get some bits and bobs that we might need so that we feel more at home.

... of the Canadian military
doctor Major John McCrae. John was asked to conduct the burial service owing to the chaplain being called away on duty elsewhere.
It is believed that later that evening John began the draft for his famous poem 'In Flanders Fields'.

The small town of Ieper is very quaint. We had a few hours to kill so we walked around the square and even went to ...

... floor), we set out to find dinner. Lille is very close to Belgium, and there is a lot of Flemish influence still mixed in with the French. It’s also at about the latitude of Canada, so the 70 and sunny that Weather.com promised was totally bogus; I’m so glad that I had packed several layers. Since it was feeling pretty autumn-y, we decided to hunt down a highly-recommended regional specialty called Carbonades Flamandes or Carbonade L’Ancienne. It ...

... a time. After we left the museum, we made a brief stop at the Commonwealth Cemetery and planted a few Canadian flags on the graves of Canadian soldiers.

Next we drove to Vimy Ridge, near the town of Arras, France. Vimy Ridge is the home of the Canadian WWI Memorial. In April 1914, the four Canadian divisions banded together and took Vimy Ridge. This event gave a sense of unity to a nation of individual ...

... br>
I am sure someone has posted it on u-tube, or whatever it is called.

When it was over I asked if this is normal for the crowd and was told yeas and during the summer it can be even bigger and is bigger on November 11.

We went into a couple of war antique shops and then stopped for an ice cream, but since we had lots yesterday we opted to try some Belgium chocolates. Mmmm they were good.

Camping at Jeugdstadion, Bolwerkstraat 1, Ypes.

... remember - the Germans had settled their Eastern Front Offensive with the Russians and had now pushed more Divisions onto the Western Front. We saw the 5th Australian Division and cemetery at Polygon Wood - this is where the Aussies battled the Germans in the 3rd Battle for Ypres. The hill that still exists in the cemetery today was bitterly fought after - it was the high ground. It is also where a British and ...

14-15/4/08 So we have made it on to the European continent to start our 6 mth adventure in Clive. After a week of goodbyes and lots of drinks we were feeling very hung over and sad to be saying good bye to our friends. We started off ok, packed everything into our van brought a few things from the supermarket and got to Dover on time. It was nice to wave goodbye to the white cliffs of Dover (I am sure there ...

... the sun was setting and eventually arrived at our B and B which we had booked the night before, only to discover that the sweet but befuddled elderly owner had misheard our arrival time and had given our room away when we didn't appear by lunchtime. Luckily, she still had a single room spare, so we checked in and headed straight down to the Menin Gate war memorial for the nightly playing of the Last Post. The Gate turned out to be a huge memorial with the names of more than 54, 000 ...