10 May - Ieper in Belgium (also known as Ypres - in French we think)

After another wet start to the day, we left Amsterdam Central station mid-morning and traveling about three hours to our first change at Mechelin (south of Antwerp in Belgium) then another 90 minutes to Kortrijk where having four minutes to change platforms we saw our train leaving - we caught the next one an hour later then did the last 30 minutes to Ieper (or Ypres - both Dutch and French are spoken in Belgium), arriving about 4:30. Our B & B accommodation was simply wonderful and our host Martine was quite accommodating. After an early light dinner at a local pub, we attended the Menin Gate service where the Last Post is played by bugle every evening at 8pm by the locals. This is a simple and short ceremony that aims to ensure the sacrifice made by those in the two wars is not forgotten.

We were surprised to learn on the weekend of our visit to Ieper there was a 'Cat Festival' (I kid you not) which is attended by 250,000 people from as far away as Japan! (There's only 10 million people in the whole of Belgium).

Comments: 1. The country from Amsterdam to Ieper is flat- flat - flat. 2. So far - European stations are all stairs with few elevators/escalators for those who have luggage to man-handle. And the trains, especially those on the lesser lines, have VERY large steps to get up from the platform, also making life difficult. 3. Ieper is a lovely town. It looks quite old but was totally bombed as a major battleground in WWI, so in fact it is all quite new (from a European perspective).

After a nice breakfast the next day Martine kindly drove us to the Tyne Cot Commonwealth war cemetery. This was a very moving experience for us both, but we were glad that we visited. The cemetery is a credit to both the locals and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. There was a very cold breeze blowing so we were glad that we had taken our warm clothes. We walked back to Zonnebeke via the Passchendaele walking/cycle track that had points of interest along the way from the battles on the ground over which we were walking. On reaching Zonnebeke we visited the Passchendaele Memorial Museum. These guys could learn lots from the Australian War Memorial but nonetheless it was worth the visit.