Regina Ypres

... to be accessible and still functioning. On our arrival at the windmills we found this to be untrue, but they were still pretty to look at so we decided that the pub opposite was a good place to stop for lunch.

After lunch it was back into town and time for the brewery tour! There is only one brewery left in Brugge and they run regular tours, you can smell the place before you see it too!

The lady who ran the tour was funny, she had a dry wit and at first you ...

Spent Tuesday in Brussels, first going to the Grand Place..the place where everyone goes. To be honest, I didn't notice a lot of other things to do in Brussels. I decided not to go the Atomium since it was farther afield. First thing in the Grand Place I did was get me some breakfast. Crossant, coffee, juice and a big omelet. Breakfast came to about $35. That’s what I get for eating in the most touristy trap in Brussels, but it put me ...

... 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!!!

... waffles. My friend and I split a banana, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup-doused waffle, which was completely gone in about the span of 49 seconds. Our other friend got up from the table for a split second and basically missed the entire thing. After we scraped off all the leftover powdered sugar and chocolate sauce on the plate, and drank the rest of the sauce in its cup (I’m sad to say, that is totally true), we were ready to head off again.

... to our inn. This was all said in broken English of course, so we weren’t all together sure what was going on. After a short while the rain let up a bit and we took this opportunity to make a dash back.


In the morning, we again had a traditional style Belgian breakfast with all the fixings, but disappointingly no waffles. Which we discovered are more of a dessert item than breakfast. After breakfast we made our way back ...

... debris collected from local fields, I imagine), but the trenches out back were in remarkable condition. There was a large section of trench intact, with the steel walls and wooden platforms. Some of the original trees were even still standing (only the trunks remain, and they are blasted to splinters). It's difficult to imagine dozens of men sleeping, eating, *******, living, and fighting in these trenches for weeks ...

... be there and we arrived just after 7 p.m. The ceremony was begun in 1928 and the buglers, from the local fire brigade. (the ceremony was banned during 1940-44). Wreaths are laid by various groups, a choir sang 2 songs, and a verse from For the Fallen was read out loud:

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and the morning

We will remember ...

... at each other. The photos I took of these craters do it no justice - they are massive. Some 19 of them were exploded in late 1918 - including this one at the same time. Following that - a barrage of Allied shelling - followed by the Infantry charge. No wonder this was the start of the massive Allied Offensive - the planning on this event was monumentous and the Allies by this time were more calculated than before ...

... destroyed in WW1. It was rebuilt from German war reparations and has a great cafe culture. We went on a tour of the Ypres Salient (front lines) which was really brilliant and informative. So much so that we went back the next day on our own to see some more sights and to go into some preserved trenches. It really gave us an insight into how bad things were for the soldiers.

As we prepare to depart Ypre on one of the tiny, run-down local trains, we are truly sorry to be leaving after an eye-opening and emotional visit to this beautiful little town with its bloody and violent history. It turned out to be unnecessarily difficult to get here from nearby Caen, and involved a tram, a train to Paris, two metros, a train to Brussels and a final train to Ypres (pronouned Eeeper, for those of you struggling with all those consonants!) We arrived in the town just ...