So tis me first wake up after a sleep that was desperately needed. Kind of surreal that I am actually in Flanders fields. So I dragged me butt out of bed....at the crack of 8...holidays no need to rush I am thinking. I did the usual and headed to the breakfast and lo and behold I got the place to me self. Its interesting as the hotel is in Menin (Menon) just a few clicks south of Ieper. I tried with no luck to find a hotel in Ieper and found out it they seem to be booked for the next 4 years because of the 100 anniversary.....I got lucky I got what I got it would appear. No worries....typical European room...small and the bathroom is larger than the bedroom...seems consistent. My more immediate concern is ....where am I going today LOL
 
My first plan is to go see the In Flanders Museum in Ieper, that's easy....its the rest. So I had me typical European breakfast....with beans...whats up with that...English and French disagree on everything but they both are into beans for breakfast....me no understand. Soooo I looked at the maps and decided I would just wing it museum first....off I went. It was nice too as I decided to stay here two nights...I did not have to pack everything up. It can be a pain...ergo....no pain today...wahoo...... Hoped on the bike and decided that I would ignore the gloomy rain clouds overhead. Off I went....GPS is a great thing. Was in Ieper town square in no time. Got rock star parking....this is where being on a bike rocks....parked right in front in a lorry loading zone...acted dumb...and walked away....looked back and several other bikes parked had already next to me lol.
    
Got a ticket to the museum and the bell tower...always costs a couple more Euros to almost have a heart attack. But I was feeling brave. The museum is something....very well done...told the story....of the start of the war and the various Battles of Ypres. The town was almost destroyed the museum...what was the main church...was obliterated and rebuilt...the front square was nothing but bomb craters....with lines of soldiers marching east.....to the front via Menin gate....the front was not far from there. Good stuff and very informative. somewhere in there i climbed the tower.....no heart attack....and what a view. worth the couple of Euro's. You could see from the tower all the main battle sites, hill 60, 62....all along the horizon was the frontline. Canada had responsibility for a portion of this area and was the first to be gassed in a war. While other country's in the line next to them collapsed (I'll keep names out of it) in a panic from the effects of the gas....some how the Canucks (there was a chemist in the crowd and once he sensed Chlorine...he passed the work to pee in a rag an cover your mouth with it...and it worked. the Canadian line wavered but held.....had it fallen it would have been a German break through and we may be eating schnitzel whilst writing/reading this. This was the start of Canada growing its reputation as the commonwealth country to fear the most...and I am not saying that because I am Canadian. It was true the Germans ended up pooping their pants when they knew the Canucks were across the line....looking at them.
   
Part of it was we were not conventional and not stuck to the old rules of warfare as a new nation. We seemed to do what made sense and did it so well that eventually England had no choice but to give us autonomy and recognition and command of its own troops....rare for a commonwealth nation. Our coming of age as a nation occurred on the fields of Vimy...where no other nation could take the strong hold but we did it....and in a few days....not months. I am hoping to get there on this trip.....
 
Anyhoo...I was panting at the top of the tower taking pictures and realized that I might as well just head that way to find the sites....sooo a plan...sort of lol.
 
I finished the museum...and needed to contemplate...so found a pub on the town square....it was early but I wanted a beer and they were accommodating....Paschendale beer how appropriate...for those who do not know...Passendale is a village just a lil north and east of Ieper and is where Canada fought some tragic battles and in 1918 dislodged the Germans to start the massive pull back that occurred. It was a mud pit.....and desperate fighting to say the least.....I do recall CBC did a movie about it...and blew it....lol. The beer was awesome...unlike the movie....
 
Somewhere around that time I realized that I was sitting in the exact spot that looked to be where there was a massive crater from artillery explosions....I recalled from a photo in the museum. I am not sure why but it did cause a moment of reflection that only by virtue of when I was born...I didn't have to go through what those poor sods did...not fair but I am sure lucky for it. War for nationhood is definitely debatable....just death for the youth (male not sure why the ladies want the right to die for country but so be it). Interesting stat I read...Canada had one of the highest injury/death percentages....56%.....others were around 11%.....no wonder the Germans respected us.
 
I knew this trip was not going to be all fun and frivolity .... perhaps I think a little to much about it but my mood definitely fit with the clouds overhead. Perhaps its the port I have in me whilst I spew forth me verbiage lol.  Either way I recall being somber.... with a bathroom break...I was off to find me bike...and I tripped up on a pipe band....they just started to play next to the pub I was in...tres cool.
   
Hopped on the bike....first stop, by accident...Lille gate....its the south exit from Ieper....and it was a memorial ...full of graves...so parked and took a walk to read some of the headstones....just kids...all of em.....but the grounds were on a slope on the banks of the town moat....very peaceful. I am starting to notice a trend however....it seems at a lot of places I stop....there is another person or two doing the same as I ....and they are in biking gear...interesting. I wandered back to the bike and off I went....trying to see if i could find Hill 60.....

Hill 60 is actually a movie pretty good ....its on netflix if your interested....its about the Auzzie tunnelers...they ended up tunneling under the German lines, packed a whole lot of explosive and blowed it up reallllll good. I thought I had seen the site from the bell tower....so I just headed in that direction....and bumped into another memorial in the middle of a cow pasture...stopped to take a look and pay respect...hopped on the bike carried on and not far away another....and another ..... and another....all done beautifully and well kept and they all had a similar look...all the Commonwealth sites seem to be laid out the same. They are every where.....every road....very sobering as to how many. So lo and behold I found Hill 60....parked the bike and realized I had no phone .... crapped me pants....pontificated.....hopped on bike and lit up 175 hp to get to the last site I could remember taking pictures....it was a quick trip to say the least and there it was sitting on the ledge I put it on...friggggggg. Hmm a thing of note....not a lot of people are at these sites.....the theme is.....fellow bikers....thats it....no kidding. Soloists like me (Lone Wolves) and groups of two to three....all in bike gear.....no bus loads of tourists....no noise. So much more relaxed now. I headed back to hill 60 
 ( http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hill_60_(Western_Front) .  

Wow...some serious craters....and bunkers all blowed up....just wandered around with me thoughts no one was there.....its left as it was except for sheep grazing the grass. Each crater was an explosion....holy crap....lot of explosions as it was nothing but craters. Very tranquil...hard to imagine the violence that had to have occurred there. I walked down and hill.....and realized....holy crap I was in a crater....it was freaking huge....that must of been a big boom....it was like 70,000 lbs of explosives in it.   Wow...its all I had in me head....wow....back to the bike time to find some Canadian sites....Hill 62...a Canadian battleground.

So off I went...the skies opened up...time to put me gear on so pull in under a tree and got me slickers on and off I went...not far away was hill 62....It is a National memorial on Canadian soil...it was given to Canada in perpetuity by the Belgium government in recognition of the sacrifices our lads did. You can actually plant a Canadian flag on it....It was a huge strong hold that we held in the battle of Hooge...and the memorial seemed fitting it was fairly big....and at the top of the hill was a marker....that pointed to all the battle grounds and as you were on the hill you could look down the line and see them all. It always good to hold the high ground in a war.
It had quite raining and crap that sucks...never know if to take of gear or put it on...so kept it on....and then you sweat. Either way...off I went...and if I don't see a museum on the side of the road...had to check it out. It was pretty cool....lots of relics from the battlegrounds....and real trenches I got to go through and a tunnel system....pitch freakin black in there....I got to use me phone flashlight app....handy ..... saw quite a bit.... Time to go again....

I wanted to now find Hooge crater....its actually another mine put under the enemy lines and blowed up ....big crater apparently...and about here I find the Hooge museum ... and it had a restaurant...so in I went. Very cool museum...tons of stuff to see......and it was time for a cafe au lait... they do do coffee in a good way here...do not know why but it tastes awesome. I felt rejuvenated and hit the road....somewhere in all of this I ended up in the Passendale park....it has a museum and is a memorial to the battle fought there...its bigggg. That is a lot of walking but I found the museum...it is camouflaged as a big house....it would seem.... so in I went...again ...very cool....lots of interesting objects and you end up going through actual trenches and stuff. eery interesting. popped out....and wandered back to me bike.... and off I went...no idea now except that I felt I should find a German Memorial....I looked on a map and sure enough...found one. Off I went....then I bumped into Tyne Cot memorial...holy crap.....it is a huge cemetery ....huggggggeeeeeee....wandered around it....this one had tourist buses with lots of gaggle groups and kids running around...not very respectful folks I have to say...that was a very big reality check......thousands of markers...each one a story...a sad one.
 
It was a long walk back to the bike and that is a good thing I am finding...it gives me a chance to get back into me exploratory mode....hopped back in the saddle and off I went. Had to whiz....but they wanted .5 euro for the privilege of me whizzing in there biffy...nooooo not gunna happen....Mentally packed the bladder again....and off I went.

While looking I kept bumping into Canadian Memorials I stopped at each....all marked and pristine....and so many commonwealth memorials....I could not stop at them all....memorials in the middle of no where...for one, three....a thousand.....for Companies...for Brigades.....Platoons....they are every where....any road leads to one. Then I stumbled on the German one....

Very different...no one was there and it was off a busy road....totally different style....dark marble markers laid flat...one per 8 bodies...and a few random crosses hewn in a rough state from some rock it would seem...it was dark...quiet...and I am not kidding...ravens were crowing....wth...........very interesting....so I checked the site book....it had only two entries....the commonwealth ones had hundreds of penned entries.... classic entry "We will remember".....I found this to be very sad....these blokes had just as much choice as our guys....and paid the same price and it seems are forgotten on foreign soil. Weird....and the site is paid for by volunteers only from Germany...the government does nothing ....bizarre....The cloud lifted as I left..... 

I think about here I was becoming memorial numb..so many of them you can't stop at them all...then I saw a Dragon....on a podium....had to stop and check it out....yup it was a Dragon.....seems its for the Welsh that fell....I did not associate dragons with Weelsh...I will now....

Back to ieper for some food and to relax....found a cool restaurant on teh square and simply said bring me something Belgium...got me some awesome beer and Flemish stew....and fries....I see a trend...everything comes with fries...and no ketchup. OMG the stew was amazing.......as I was chowin down...a band struckup a tune and started marching around the place...they were pretty good....quite the crowd formed and they just kept playng....such classics as "long way to Tipperary" probably spelt that wrong....with that it was time to get back to me hotel....off I went...least it was eeasy to unpack.

Headed for the bar....and had it to meself.....totally as no one was there. Then Tim showed up....he was the bartender/manager .... a fellow biker who 4 years ealier had a slide and like me has titanium bits. Well he poured me some free beers....Lech I think it was called omg good.......and apparently expensive....thought that was cool he was buying me drinks then the tour bus folks showed up. Interesting bunch of brits....we gots to talking....and comparing notes...Tim broke out the Port he had....in the end...I ended up shutting down the bar...and for some reason I could almost not get my key to work in the door.....eventually I willed it to open and it was time to hit la hay...it was a day to remember.....and the drinks took the edge off....all good.....except....I seemed to not find Hooge crater.....ah well.....I tried.