Ypres

We went to Ypres/Ieper. 

By train, see the Belgian Rail post. Using a Liteway 3. Useful because of its size and floorpan 

Its about somewhere, hottest day of 2017. Not everywhere in Belgium is covered in holes and cobblestones. Just the bits that take you from where    you are to where you want to get to. 

 

Its a very accessible town flat (apart from kerbs and cobblestones) the dropped kerbs aren’t too bad as long as you know they’re coming. 

Thats the square at Ypres, c/w cloth hall and Flanders field museum.

 

The square’s potterable. The Flanders field museum is also wheelchair friendly and very accessible and most of everywhere you want to be can be got to. Its not as scary as Brussels. Its not as busy as Brussels but you still have bicycles tearing about. 

 

Just when you think you’ve got the traffic worked out, then a bicycle tears past in what you think is the wrong direction. It takes a while. 

 

Thats the Menin Gate with one of the lions guarding it on the Menin Road on the way into town.

 

Every night at 8pm members of the fire brigade play the last post. Traffic through the gate is stopped, wreaths are laid and the the town goes back about its business. People come from all over, parties of schoolchildren come from all over and  in the old days one of the firemen cycled out to the gate and stopped the traffic.

 

As of June 2017 Police transits block the road and armed police keep an eye at both ends while the ceremony takes place.  

 

On the street out of town, up to the Menin Gate there’s a bar/cafe on the left. Halfway  up. St Arnoldus (patron saint of brewers) Nicely set because you can still hear the last post ceremony without being in the way. 

Towards the town,  down on the way back down from the Gate, there’s a bar. The Old Bill Pub on the corner where the firemen stop for a pint afterwards. It’s reassuringly decorated with police helmets and memorabilia.

 

Books and souvenirs are available in shops on the way up, or down  to the Menin Gate. It’s amazing what you discover. I found a couple of Lee Enfield brass  rifle oil bottles.

 

There  are tours to the surrounding battlefields, sights and CWGC graveyards. It would be a great shame to get this far and not see the sights. They can be cycled to, if you’re into that sort of thing. 

 

We used 2xplore Flanders-Battlefield tours. Tell Patrick we said hello. 

It was probably the most sensible thing I’ve ever done on a holiday. You can get a Liteway 3 into the back of a VW Sharan. ( and a Ford galaxy, more later) 

 

He knows his stuff and if you give him an indication of what you’re particularly interested in, he can tailor it to suit. Sensible man that he is we stopped at the German cemetery at Langamarck. It wouldn’t have been on my list, but there’s a part of me glad we did. It’s very different from the CWGC set up. 

 

 

We did the 16th and 36th Irish and Ulster Divisions scene of activity around Messines and Wyteschtze,  the Irish Peace Park. (I’d avoid it in November. It would be a miserably and ferociously cold hole)

 

No doubt some will freak out at the sight of school kids scrambling over Tyne Cot. But all over the surrounding area there are small clusters of war graves, some with thousands, hundreds, dozens  and single figure clusters of graves. And that’s everywhere around Ypres. 

 

Back in the town of Ypres, St Aldonus, the bar on the left on the way up to the Menin Gate has a massive selection of beers and some pretty good food . Try the pork roulette and red onion jam.  I know red onion jam, the roulette  is like Pate, rough bread and the red onion confeture.

Awesome. 

 

 

I think I’ve discovered the trick with Belgium beer, you find a type you like, blonde, dark, wheat, trappist there are lots to choose from. I just stick to what I like and get the staff to recommend a different variation on the theme. This they are happy to do especially when you have inadvertently  ordered a non alcoholic one.  (They brought a real one too just in case and happy to take the miscalled one away. 

 

Ypres has wheelchair taxis, people carriers can take a scooter or a manual wheelchair. I don’t think I saw a bus the entire time I was there  and the railway station is just on the outskirts of town. Which from the square at the Cloth House is a twenty minute walk, over cobblestones, streets and kerbs. But it can be done, if you’re on wheels I wouldn’t be doing it to a travel or a tight  deadline. 

 

Again for rail travel, use the Belgian rail contact no, if you can the day before, they’ll get you on the train and probably more importantly off at the far side. 

Again, for a scooter, make sure they’ve got size and weight details. They aren’t being picky there’s a very good reason for it. It’s safety. 

 

Some of the runoffs just aren’t there and the way out (and in) is seriously steep. You need to know what you’re doing. If you’re anyway nervous or unsure, nervous of really steep turns, drops and slopes, there’s a possibility that current rail travel may not be for you. It may get better when when they upgrade the whole rolling stock to double deckers. But at the moment, treat it like an adventure. 

 

The railway staff are very helpful and they know they are working within the constraints of an old infrastructure. But they are updating that as fast as they can.

 

 Poperinghe being a case in point, the air conditioning in the underground working area is a lot better than the public areas in the station. You can see why rail travel is so popular on the continent it works and gets a lot of people a to b and beyond. 

Just give yourself a chance, if you can lay off traveling at peak times, it’ll be a lot easier for you and everyone else. 

 

 

I liked Ypres. But two days was enough, it’s not a happy place. Especially for us weirdo history freaks. There’s just too much to take in.

 

It’s not dark or depressing by any stretch of the imagination. But a hundred years on it’s a place which deserves to be treated with respect. 

 

We were lucky, the weather was glorious, hottest day of the year so far in 2017. I don’t think I’d like it in the depths of a winter evening. 

If we go back, I’ll let you know. I suspect it will be a wildly different experience and not a good one.