Authuille - Vimy - Iepers (Ypres)

Authuille – Vimy – Iepers

5^th of October 2011

We woke to another day on the Western Front battlefields. Sadly the weather had not improved and it seemed we were in for the full Somme experience – wet, windy and chilly. We left early from our campsite and headed to nearby Thiepvale – the site of the Franco–British Memorial and Cemetery with French crosses on one side and the Commonwealth grave headstones we had become familiar with on the other. Once again the walls of the monuments pillars bear the alarming number of Somme missing – 73 637 men.

Walls of the Somme MIA

The monument can be seen for Kilometers around

Thiepvale - The Franco-British Cemetery

French Crosses on the left...

Commonwealth Grave markers on the right. So many just have "A soldier of the great war, Known unto God"

From here we headed further northwards out of the Somme region but still on the Western Front towards the village of Vimy. We drove the whole way across delightful country roads past the corn and potato fields, which seem to be the crop of choice here. Along the way we passed the Ulster Tower – monument to the Northern Irish division.

The Ulster Tower

We arrived 40km later at Vimy Ridge Nations Historic Site Canada. This is an amazing site which has been preserved by reforestation to prevent to prevent the erosion of the shell pocked ground all around. There were also well preserved sections of both the Canadian and German trenches sitting only a mere 25m apart at some points. That 25m through….what a hell it would have been with the deposits of crates creating a mountain either side would have to run up and take the opposition’s trench. 

Amazingly well preserved site. A definite for modern history buffs

Dave checking out the view from the Machine gunners post

The view between trenches - now lush and green but still bearing the signs of intense shelling

What the...?

Oh its Dave manning another gun post/pill box

The Canadians also used a system of subways to more safely bring supplies in from the rear.  You could go under-ground on guided tours, however we missed our opportunity as we weren’t told the tour was close to capacity and didn’t reserve a place – Oh well, time to move on anyway. 

No mans land is still no mans land with unexploded ammunition littering the ground nearly 100years later

Except for these guys... they are the bomb detection experts or guinea pigs.. just depends which way you want to pitch it

But before we did we visited the colossal Memorial to the Canadian’s who dies in WWI. 

Vimy

The Canadian Memorial

The Somme - Wet, Windy & Cold

From France we continued even further North (and a bit east) to cross the border into Belgium. Our destination Ypres (Iepers or ‘wipers’ as the Tommy’s nicknamed it) we had been strongly recommended to visit the “In Flanders Fields” museum located in the town hall in the centre of the town. We certainly weren’t disappointed with what we found.

When we arrived we were each given characters to follow at the start, middle and end of the war. Dave had an Aussie soldier, Ralph Pendleton and I had Marie Curie, a Polish woman who married a Frenchman and moved to North Eastern France. The museum had more great information about Belgian part of the Western Front and combined it with great audio-visual displays which had a very emotive effect on both of us. 

Eerie installation showing the gas and barbed wire of trench warfare

During the war (as some may know) Marie won Nobel prizes for physics, chemistry and pioneered x-ray technology and brought it to the front line hospitals to better diagnose soldiers injuries. She survived the war but died in the 30’s from radiation exposure. Ralph died in the same year he enlisted – 1918 in a shell explosion while stringing barbed wire defences. He is buried in Somer Farm Cemetery South of Ieper. Other amazing stories were that of the Christmas truce of 1914, where soldiers called out from opposing trenches and even crossed no man’s land into the enemy trenches to swap gifts, food and show photos of their loved ones. It nearly brought a halt to the entire war as soldiers began to question why they were fighting one another. But sadly after Boxing Day the war resumed, or in some extremely ‘friendly’ areas the fighting resumed another new years.

Another amazing but tough day we decided, as we were once again in Belgium to end the day and drown our sorrows in banana and chocolate waffles and Grimbergen beers.

And on a happier note: WAFFLES!

Antwerp

Day 1
Our journey was now taking us to our final Belgian city – Antwerp.

A 90km trip along a semi-highway dotted by traffic lights later we arrived at Camping DeMolen on the Linkerover (left bank of the river) and checked in for a bargain 8€ per night!

Wooden escalators leading down, down, down...



The tunnel under the river

 After lunch we headed on foot towards the city. Access from this side of the river was via the Saint Anna Tunnel – a 570m long tunnel under the river Scheldt dug in the 1930’s. To access the tunnel (which was free) walkers and cyclists descend 31m underground either via lift or via giant wooden escalators. It was a fantastic sight in itself. The tunnel popped us up right near the Grote Markt – similar to that in Brussels surrounded on all 4 sides by grand guild halls. Quite a sight to behold even thought the weather was miserable.

We wandered further into the city in order to find a waffle – it was waffle day again. And had 2 from Desire Lille with whipped cream, strawberries, banana and not quite enough chocolate for our liking.

Afterwards we made our way back to the campground in the wild wind to cook some dinner (difficult when the gas burner keeps being blown out) and some Grimbergen beers.

Day 2

Our last day in Belgium and it was wet and windy not much fun AT ALL.

We waited for a break in the weather and walked once again via the St Anna Tunnel into the city centre.

Grote Markt

Antwerp Train Station

It was quite difficult to keep ourselves entertained and dry in the weather as it times it was so windy that you were getting wet from every direction so we made our way to the Grand Bazar (a 3 level shopping centre) which before i could get too excited we sadly found was under renovations so lots of shops were closed and hard to access. It was kind of a weird little place anyway.

What we did find was a nice little sandwich store where we tried a roll filled with smos (when asked we were told this was a “combination of wegdables”) and chicken – quite tasty and only 3€50 for both serves.

We had decided that summer was looking more and more over and that i would need closed in shoes suitable for walking (still recovering from blisters from ballet flats in Brussels) and so we went shoe shopping down the National Staat – main shopping street of Antwerp. This street also has the Momu Fashion museum (Dave wouldn’t agree to go to it L) as Antwerp is considered a bit of a fashion savvy place.

Shoe shopping in Antwerp (ps didnt get these leopard print beauties)

With mission accomplished we arrived at the central train station – very impressive for a transit centre we thought.

We headed back towards the city’s main cathedral (Onze Lieve Vrouwkathedral) which provided some relief from the wind and rain and housed paintings from Peter Paul Rubins – northern Europes famous Baroque artist.

Nearby in the Groen Platz (another town square) we soaked up some time in one of the cafes sipping hot chocolates – perfect for the weather although we had to put up with copious amounts of cigarette smokers.

Braving the rain for a pic

By this time it was 5:30pm and time to look for an early dinner. We were rewarded with great food at De 7 Shaken, Dave having yet another Flemish Stew this time beef and I had chicken and pesto pasta. To wash it down we added another 2 beers of Belgium to the collection – Krystal and Le Chouffe.

Cheers toBelgian beers

Oh no, all i have for dinner is a few lousy pieces of meat

Oh...its ok some Belgian Frits and a whole massive pot of stew (not in the pic)

Once we walked back in the rain to the camp ground we found Don and Sandy (Aussies from Brugges) had arrived too. We had a short catchup at the washup area before heading back to the dry van.

Beautiful Brugges!

Day 1

Back on the road again – a whole 47km towards Brugges. We checked in at Camping Memling on the eastern side of the city and only 3k’s away.

After doing the washing and having some lunch we were able to head into the city by bus.

Brugges, another beautiful little city filled with al things typically Belgian – chocolate, beer, waffles and lace. WE had head it would be busy but we found it not too bad.

We arrived in the centre – once again the Grote Markt (city market) in which was the city’s famous Bellfort or bell tower, which incessantly plays musical tunes on its bells.

The famous bell tower

More of the Grote markt

Next we went in search o the Basilek of the Holy Blood where a few drops of Christs coagulated blood are kept under guard 24/7. Finding what you would think would be a fairly well visited church was a another challenge all together. Eventually after several wrong turns we found it built into the border buildings of the Burg Square. It was well worth it as the day and time we visited the sacred relic was available for viewing so we could get up on the side alter and lay our hands on the vile holding the drops of Christ’s blood (well almost, it was covered by a little Perspex screen well polished by the priest guard between every pilgrim – some people kissed it – ewww germy).

The entrance (just in case you are ever looking for it)

The guardian priest with his precious relic

Finishing here much earlier than we anticipated, (it was only a tiny church with not much to it) we had time to visit another Brugges treasure – Chocco Story, the museum of Chocolate. Although we thought this would be the same as the German one in Cologne it was much different also telling the story of chocolate in Europe – first as a drink of the rich and famous and then moving to solid form and also told us why Belgium is so famous for doing chocolate well. The Belgians being the first ones to invent chocolate moulds, filled chocolates or pralines and pretty much perfecting the whole chocolate making and boxing process. They have also ben involved in several studies showing the health benefits of chocolate – mood enhancers for depression (due to serotonin and endorphin release) and vasodilator assisting with management of heart disease, blood pressure and migraines. All in all we got the message – KEEP EATING CHOCOLATE! We then got to watch a chocolate praline making demo and then of course got to taste the end result – YUMMO!

This was a giant egg made of real chocolate!

Picking the cocoa beans

Ahhh the return of the manekin pis

A chocolate Barack Obama

The end product of all our labours

After all of this chocolate we wanted MORE and went in search of a bargain chocolatier. We ended up getting 5boxes for 10€ to eat for the rest of our trip (or as long as they last).

Some of the options we had to choose from
(Sorry fathers and friends - no chocolate boobies for you)

We settled on a more sedate 5 boxes of choccies

Still not satisfied it was more waffles – delicious.

Hey there was fruit on them we're not THAT unhealthy :)

Now full we headed back for a light dinner and bed.

Day 2

Back in Brugges again, to the Halve Maan brewery – the only Belgian brewery still brewing beer inside the city of Brugges.

A traditional Belgian Brew

We had a guided tour of both the modern brewing plant and the old brewing plant where beer was cooled by wind on large copper rooves and fermentation and maturing vats were cleaned by young boys (they were the only ones who were small enough to fit inside) who often emerged drunk form the alcohol fumes. After the tour we were rewarded with one of the beers – The Brugse Zot, and sat with a fellow Aussie and 2 Hawaiian-Italians for some company.

Tasting the malt

A cutaway of the fermentation tank

The view from the brewery rooftop

Beer drinking done we made our way back into the centre of the city for some traditional Belgian lunch cuisine. Dave opting for rabbit done Flemish style (cooked in a dark beer stew) and me opting for a chicken watersooi (a creamy chicken stew). Both were delicious and topped off the day in Brugges.

Making our way back toward the campground and just when we were thinking the city could offer no better we stumbled upon a cheese festival! 100’s of cheeses all in one place for us to try – soft cheeses, hard cheeses and ones with yummy fillings – pestos and herbs. Luckily they were only giving out tiny samples or we might ot have fitted back onto the bus on the way home.

CHEEEEESE!

Massive cheese chopping knife

Once again we made it back to the campground just before a storm hit, we managed to find a cosy spot in the annex of the Page’s (a Aussie family on a 9month tour of Europe) annex. We sat chatting, drinking beers and eating choccys with what turned out to be a group of Australians all congregating at one caravan park and nearly all right next door to each other – what are the chances?

A great night was had thanks to Ray, Daphne and family (our hosts) as well as the other Aussies Sandy and Don and Margaret and Terry.