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| Bumpers at BoboLand |
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| Cheesier than it looks |
Sunday evening, the weather finally improved so we went to the seaside town of Oostende, about 15 minutes away, for their evening market. It was our first chance to check out the beach, too - pretty spectacular.
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| Checking out the beach at Oostende |
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| In line for fresh apple donuts |
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| Eric liked the donut but not the apple |
Monday, we traveled 40 minutes to the Belgian town of Eiper, or 'Ypres' in French. Beautiful village completely rebuilt after being destroyed in the First World War. The amazing "In Flanders Fields" museum is in the old cloth hall. I wish I had more time to go through it, but alas, kids. The rebuilt cloth hall speaks to how important this town once was - it is massive. We, meaning Moi and the boys, did the 261 steps to the bell tower for a great view of the city. I did about 200 steps and chickened out.
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| Side of cloth hall - it's four times as long! |
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| Random Eiper street |
That day, we also visited the grave of my great-uncle Louis Chambers, killed in 1916. We were shown his grave by the cemetery's groundskeeper, a nice lad from Leistershire in England. He's been at "his" cemetery, Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, for four years and keeps it pristine. Says he does it for "the boys." And on the way back,we stopped at the place where the poem "In Flanders Fields" was penned, now Essex Farm Cemetery. Seems on each road in and out of Eiper, there's a cemetery.
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| Putting flags on Louis' grave |
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| We will remember them |
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| The lane to the Lt. Col. John McCrae memorial |
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| The cemetery, once a field hospital, where the famous poem was penned |
Pat was invited by our tour guide to recite In Flanders Fields while standing amongst the graves there. She scoffed at the offer of the book to read from, but the emotion of the moment got to her and she flubbed a line. She was in tears as she recalled it from memory. A very moving spot.
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