Visiting First World War Sites in Flanders, Belgium

Langemark German Cemetery

Tyne Cot Cemetery

Passchendaele 1917 Museum

Black Watch Memorial

Christmas Truce Memorial

In October 2017 along with Alessio and my father we spent a week in Belgium. One of the trips we did was a tour of First World War battlefields. We got picked up from our hotel in Bruges and along with 6 or 7 more people we started our tour.

I can`t remember all the sites we visited but the main ones I do! There were many highlights but seeing Tyne Cot was one of them. Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. It was a very moving experience walking around and looking at the gravestones and reading the names of the men and seeing their ages too. It is quite astounding to think there are just under 12,000 men buried here. The memorial has the names of nearly 34,000 men missing with no known burial. This is the largest Commonwealth forces cemetery for any war!

We also visited Langemark German Military Cemetery, it is one of only four First World War cemeteries in the Flanders region and it has over 44,000 men buried.

We also went to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, this was very informative and extremely interesting. You find out about the five battles of Ypres, including the battle of Passchendaele, all of them quite horrific! At the end there is reconstruction of the dugouts and trenches which Alessio found quite interesing!

We visited numerous other memorial sites such the Black Watch Memorial, for Americans soliders, memorial for the Christmas Truce football match, Spranbroekmolen Mine Crater, known as the Pool of Peace.

Also we visited the town of Ypres, there we visited the In Flanders Field museum and the Menin Gate. I already did a post about these places a good while ago.

I would definitely suggest doing a tour to see these places, now that it has passed the 100 year mark it is important to remember what happened and that the younger generation continues does not forget!

Happy weekend folks!

A Few Days In Brussels

At the end of our October holiday last year we spent a few days in Brussels, this was the first time I had visited the city since I lived there for 3 months as an au pair when I was 18 or 19 years old.

We arrived by train from Brugge, dropped our stuff at the hotel and started to explore, We went straight to the city centre, on the way we visited the Cathedral. The Grand Place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, construction began in the 15th century.The square holds the Town Hall, King`s House or Bread House (which is the Museum of the city of Brussels) and many other guild buildings. It is of course full of tourists and very busy.

The Belgium Comic Strip Center is worth a visit if you are into comics or have children and it was near to our hotel. I am not sure what the name of the area where our hotel was in but there were many restaurants and bars which was handy in the evening.

On our last day in Brussels, Alessio and I wondered around the city. There was no plan as to where to go but we did see some very interesting architecture (not sure Alessio was into that). We ended up in park where we stayed for a while before we headed to the airport.

The weekend is very nearly upon us and this one will be busy, my parents are arriving for their normal September holiday. I am going to a wedding on Saturday and no doubt on Sunday we will go on a day trip somewhere! Not to mention that Alessio will be 12 years old on Monday! Good God it is hard to believe!

Happy Weekend!

A Day in Antwerp

Ruben`s House/Muesum

Cathedral of our Lady Antwerp

Grote Markt

Views from the MAS

Port House by Zaha Hadid Architects

MAS

Antwerp Main Station

Hello again it has been a while since my last post, so thought I better do one before the whole of June has passed by!

I visited the lovely city of Antwerp in October last year along with Alessio and my father and as the title suggests we only had one day to explore it.

We visited the fantastic Rubenhuis in the heart of the city, which was the home of the 16th-17th century Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens.

As do most Belgian cities Antwerp also has a wonderful Grote Markt with many fabulous buildings including the City Hall.

Antwerp is the second largest seaport after Rotterdam and you get a sense of how large it is when we went to the top of the MAS building and saw some fantastic views of the city and port.

MAS - Museum aan de Stroom, we actually did not visit the museum but went up to the roof for the stunning views. The red building is such a striking piece of architecture, well worth seeing!

I particularly wanted to visit/see the famous Port House by Zaha Hadid Architects, but it was quite far away from the area of the port we were but I managed to get a view of the building from afar. We also saw it from the train too!

Have a great weekend!