Y3W32 - Brussels, Flanders Field, and a Happy New Year!

Christmas came and went so fast. I must say that though we considered going to Munich with Ryan and Melissa after Christmas, we were really tired. I think we were all really glad that we didn't have to get in the car and drive so far. But, in our effort to not waste any time here in Europe (we have so little left), we had to go somewhere. We decided to visit the cities and areas surrounding Brussels and Ypres in Belgium. Greg has been talking about going to Ypres for a couple years so we finally made it happen. The last time we visited Brussels, there was a bit of restoration work ongoing. This time all the beautiful architecture was visible and adorned with wonderful holiday accents.

In addition to the Grand Place's elegant architecture and broad spaces, Brussels has quaint side streets filled with restaurants. It was funny to watch the hosts flag down potential patron after patron and then stand quiet as we walked by with our small (but cute) little army of children. We also found time to find one of Brussels most well known sites, little Julien. He is often dressed in a fancy outfit, but for us, he was in his traditional birthday suit.

We went to the four recommended Chocolate shops (Neuhaus, Galler, Godiva, and Leonidas) to get a sample from each to have our own little Belgian Chocolate taste test later at the hotel. I have to say that I was very excited about this part of the trip.

I love Brussels by the way. I can't really put my finger on what exactly I love about it though. We ended up staying in Lille, France because we couldn't find a hotel closer to Ypres that had availibility for our family.. Apparently, Ypres is a hot spot this time of year.

The weather was not ideal in Ypres, but we always find a way to make it work. Greg had done some research about some WWI trenches that are still there. Though it was very rainy, we had to see the battlefields. When do you ever get a chance to see that? And, I must say, despite the rain, they were very cool. The series of trenches that we visited where called Bayernwald because the landscape reminded the German soldiers of the Woods in Bavaria. They had pictures of both English soldiers and German soldiers who had fought there (including Adolf Hitler which was really interesting to see as a young soldier in WWI). The reason they have both English and German soldiers is because control of the trenches had changed hands a couple times.

Then, we made our way to the Flanders Field Museum. Wow. If the building itself is not enough to wow you, then have an amazing experience inside. They give you cards when you walk in with a persons name on it. There are three different terminals throughout the museum that you can enter your card and it will tell you what the person on your card was doing at that time. Avery was very excited to have gotten Marie Curie as she had heard about her in school. Lleyton was a soldier from Chicago, who had six brothers who all were fighting in the war. All seven miraculously made it back to Chicago after the war. They also had a sister, who was in Europe involved in the War effort who made it back. Amazing.

The Ypres salient is well known for it's five major battles throughout the Great War. A salient is a military term used to describe when a bulge occurs in the lines creating a situation when one army can be attacked from three sides. Ypres was the center of such a salient and the Allied forces were hit from the north, east, and south for several years leading to the complete destruction of the city. In one of the five Battles of Ypres, 140,000 people lost their lives to gain about 5 miles of territory.

We took some photos of the War memorial called the Menin Gate which today marks a passage point through the town walls. The gate pays honor to more than 54,000 Commonwealth soldiers who lost the lives in Ypres and who's bodies were never recovered. Every evening at 8:00pm, traffic through the gate is closed and six buglers play the last post.

It was definitely enough of a trip for us. We spent the rest of the week and weekend just hanging out. Our first rest in so long.