The Road Home from Austria

Saturday 19 August 2000. We have to say goodbye to Austria as the coach set off north for Belgium. We were to stay overnight in Belgium and then back to the UK the following day.

Gazing out of the coach window brought a few reminders of the scenery we had enjoyed during our few days in Austria.

At times it threatened to remind us of some of the weather we had sheltered from during our evening walks!

We said goodbye to the musical box chalets that had been almost the only shape of building we had seen for a week!

We had seen so many chalets and other buildings of the same basic design that I was actually looking forward to seeing a house without a balcony and with a four-sided roof! The Austrian-German border came and was crossed and we turned onto a road with markers every kilometre. We would stay on this one road for several hours and the first marker read 510 km.

The Germans were building a new high-speed railway and we saw construction works every now and then as the road weaved its way alongside, over and under the embankments and cuttings of the railway.

There were also the occasional castles to break the monotony of the flat landscape. I watched throughout the day as we stayed on this one road until a marker said 1 km and we reached the border with the Netherlands.

The following day, rain spattered the coach window as we left the hotel in Belgium. "Where's your camera?" demanded Janet! It didn't do very much though and we set off from Antwerp towards France and the ferry port of Calais. A stop at a Belgian chocolate factory found the factory already full of visitors but the same firm had an outlet at the wine cash & carry near Calais so no-one seemed unduly worried! The border posts on the Belgian/French border were still there but were now deserted for most of the time as Europe had opened its frontiers to other European countries.

Er... the white bits (top left) are the reflection of the coach windows on the opposite side of the coach and not - as they might at first appear - a ghostly washing line of Y-fronts...

The odd reminder that 2 world wars were fought over this land and several typical French farms and villages flashed by until we reached Calais. The ferry crossing was smooth and we transferred to our feeder coach, swapping news and views with the people we had travelled from Blackpool with 8 days before.

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Beautiful Bruges and Ghent Coach Trip

Join us for a long weekend, travelling with Leger Coaches to a hotel in Bruges, Belgium and excursions to Ypres and Ghent.

Each place of interest is shown on its own separate article, reached by clicking/tapping the four photos below. A link on each page will bring you back here.

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Last Walk to Bruges

Sunday 11 August 2019. Having returned from our trip to Ghent we walk from the hotel back into Bruges for food and a last look round.

So let me see; what have I not told you yet about this Belgian city? Well it was temporary home to three of our kings when they found themselves in exile. Edward IV, his brother Richard III and Charles II each took refuge here as their fortunes dipped and nipping away smartly became the thing to do to keep a head on their shoulders.

Whilst most of us can just about remember that it was Englishman William Caxton that produced the first book in the English language from a printing press, perhaps fewer of us know that he did it here in Bruges, not in England (although he was soon to cart his press over to Westminster to start producing books there in 1476). Apparently people wanted him to translate all sorts of foreign books but he was a better printer than translator. In fact his version of the language (many French words just bunged in amongst the English) came to be an early form of standardised English. The British Library has an account of his where a woman in Kent failed to understand a man from Sheffield asking to buy eggs because she called them "eyren" and he called them "egges". She thought he was speaking French... "What on oeuf are you saying?" she demanded...

It was a mixed afternoon for us with spots of rain at times. We had light jackets with us and it was cool enough that they stayed on most of the time.

This rather plain little bridge was described as "one of Bruges' most photographed spots" in the margins of my map, so here it is in all it's er… glory...

Perhaps they meant the view from it? The carilloneur was bashing away at his peg-keys again, they get their money's worth out of him or her for sure.

The cafes were all crowded, but it was still a bit early for an evening meal. I contemplated sketching from here, but it was very crowded and still trying to rain every now and then so I put the thought away and we carried on walking until my feet were screaming and Miss Franny decided we could stop for a sit down and something to eat.

That won't be for a bit yet... Here we could admire the fortitude of those who had queued for half an hour for a boat and weren't about to give up their place just because it chose this minute to throw it down.

Just look at the joy on their faces as they set off... The lady in the sunglasses has spotted me and is thinking "Surely that's John Burke, the guitarist from Creeping Bentgrass over there?"

Eventually it stops raining. We have a sit for a bit on a block of concrete in the Market Square and then walk back towards the hotel, eating in a restaurant along the front of that other square seen in a previous post. The restaurant we chose was called the Golden Monkey (Le Singe d'Or). We both had a steak which was large and cooked to perfection. I had mine with a sauce béarnaise, chips and mushrooms and it was wonderful. And because for a change I wasn't driving, we polished off a glass or two of good red wine with it!

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We Went to Ghent

Sunday 11 August 2019. We are on a Leger Tours long weekend tour - Beautiful Bruges and Ghent and, staying in Bruges, today is our excursion to Ghent.

The drivers hadn't been to Ghent for around four years and decided the route in had changed considerably. However after a couple of ways in that ended in tram only tracks, Bob got us to hold a pole through the skylight so it looked like we were a tram and we eventually got off the coach just a short walk from the city centre. This structure is a shelter for horse drawn carriages. They were all out trotting around somewhere...

This bell tower was on a direct route back to our meeting place and fronted onto a large square so we took it as our landmark for returning to the coach. It is known as the Belfry of Ghent and is 91 metres (298.5 feet) tall, making it the tallest belfry in Belgium and it has UNESCO world heritage status. The bells make up a carillon and number in excess of 50 bells.

The Belfry with the Cloth Hall in the foreground. Visitors can climb up the bell tower to see the workings of the carillon and the views from the top. Plus a free ride in an ambulance I imagine if I tried it...

The Royal Dutch Theatre was built in 1899 and since 1965 has been the home of a public foundation the NT Gent (Nederlands Toneel Gent).

The Church of Saint Nicholas dates from the 1200s and is of a style prevalent in Belgium, known as the Scheldt Gothic.

Believe it or not this is a 37-room hotel, set on the top two floors of the Post Office. Rooms are named for their size - the smallest being the stamp rooms, then there's the letter rooms which are bigger... You can even stay in the octagonal tower which gives you a superb 360 degree view over the city.

The city is a fascinating mix of medieval and modern. This particular spot was on a bend in the road and we would return here to sit at one of the tables of Juffrouw Strik (under the "Chocolate" sign) to have a drink and for me to do a sketch of the view from there.

The view includes a bridge over the River Lys (Lieve) and the Gravensteen, a 12th century castle with roots going back to the 9th century and looking every inch as though it had come from a fairy tale. It was the seat of the Counts of Flanders, though once they left in 1353, it went through a number of different purposes including a court, prison, mint and er... a cotton mill... It is now a museum. It has a torture device collection in the... um... pantry... "Don't do that to me pies!"

As we crossed the bridge over the Lys we saw that although the larger shops were shut, this being a Sunday, there was a flea market going on, as far down the river bank as we could see!

Before going to have a look at some foreign antiques, we had a closer shufti at the castle. "Stay clear of the pies..." advised an old man, tapping the side of his nose.

Wait... was that a tram or Bob and Ray in the disguised coach? Ah no, it's a tram!

We went to have a look at the flea market. Riveting stuff as not only was there lots of foreign antiques, but familiar boxes with Belgian text - old toys and games and bits of home equipment. There were a lot of Beatles vinyl albums and CDs, plus Belgian versions of their 1960s magazines.

I found a load of postcards on one stall and spent a few minutes looking through them. I bought a couple of World War One postcards for only one euro each. Back in the UK they would probably be five times that at least, but I suppose here we were, standing over the ground where all this carnage took place. The postcards won't be as rare here as they are in the UK perhaps. Belgium was a neutral country invaded and occupied by the Germans from 1914 all the way through to the Armistice.

The market turned down some side streets and we walked a full circuit of streets without ever leaving the long lines of laden stalls. Someone back on the coach moaned that we should have gone when the shops were open. That would have meant missing this wonderful market altogether. You can't please some people.

Besides many of the smaller shops (make that the more interesting shops) were open anyway.

There was a real mix of people wandering around. We heard several European languages and came across some of our fellow coach party. Strangely their main topic of conversation seemed to be "Do you know the way back...?" Er, yes I do thanks...

Ah yes - the throne from the TV show Game of Pans...

We started heading back and stopped for the fore-mentioned drink and sketch. Somehow the proportions of left and right are not quite equal, but to be fair I was sitting close to the wall on the right and it looked big! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

We walked off at an angle to the way we had come, trusting that we would be able to see the huge Belfry eventually to find our way back. It wasn't hard in the event.

See? Here we are back at the main square. We went into a chocolate shop to buy some Belgian chocolates. This was quite an adventure as I don't speak any Flemish at all and the shopkeeper had very little English, but there were enough words on the menu she showed us to be able to pick out things like caramel, orange, praline, etc. and we came back with a box full of the most lovely rich chocolates that will last quite a while as to eat more than two in a night is tempting fate. But to put one on your tongue and then try to ignore it is to unleash a taste like no other!

On the square one chap was entertaining kids and adults alike by blowing lots of huge bubbles with nothing more than two sticks, a bucket of soapy water and some string tied into loops between the ends of his sticks.

We turned to head back towards the meeting place, finding two thirds of our fellows waiting across the road instead of where we got off. The other one third gathered around us and then when Bob and Ray turned up they had to stop somewhere else anyway...

On the way back to the meeting place I found this statue looking at me sternly from the wall above the door to the police station.

And to finish, a nice piece of decorative street furniture on this door, both the iron work sculptures over the glass and the hefty handles to close the doors from the outside.

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The Last Post at Ypres' Menin Gate

Saturday 10 August 2019. We gathered back at the hotel where the Leger coach was waiting to take us at 3:00pm to the city of Ypres where we would attend the Last Post Ceremony at the city's Menin Gate.

Leger coaches have their own livery but not their own coaches. They use local coach firms from all over and our coach for this weekend was from the Welsh firm of Eifion, based in Anglesey and was in their own livery. Our drivers were Bob and Ray and were invariably cheerful and good fun.

The Menin Gate stands on the route taken by the defending armies of World War One on their way through to the Ypres Salient - an area of intense and unremitting fighting during the war almost from start to finish as it was on the German main planned route to the west. There were three battles of Ypres and this area also saw the battles of Messines and Passchendaele. The area saw the first use of poison gas, both chlorine and mustard gas and the city was totally destroyed by the end of the war and had to be rebuilt from scratch during the 1920s.

The gate at the time of the war consisted of two lion sculptures on plinths, between which the armies marched. Replicas stand in their place now on the road just before this memorial arch. The originals, though damaged by shellfire, were given to Australia for their war memorial and now stand before it in Canberra where visitors to the Australian Memorial have to pass between them. The replicas were presented back to Ypres by the Australians to mark the centenary of Australia's involvement in Flanders during the First World War.

54,395 names of UK and Commonwealth soldiers are inscribed on the walls of the Menin Gate. These are all of missing soldiers - those whose bodies were never found or were unidentified. It isn't large enough. For a start it does not list the missing soldiers of either New Zealand or Newfoundland. They have their own memorials nearby. And once full, the names of another 34,984 UK missing were added on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

As we enter the large Market Square we pass the Palace of Justice standing facing the square.

Every building in Ypres was destroyed by five years of almost continuous shellfire. The most important buildings were reconstructed to look as much like the originals as possible, from the 1920s onwards.

This was the Cloth Hall. The original was built in the 13th century. Its replacement now houses the In Flanders Fields museum.

There was a funfair set up in the square. Rides and an amusement arcade catered for the crowds of people still walking through the town at around 5:00pm. We wandered up the side of the square and into the streets beyond, scouring menus of restaurants as we wanted to eat before the ceremony at 8:00pm.

We cut sideways across a full block, knowing this would eventually lead to come back down the other side of the square. It was worth walking that far as we came across this impressive monument, the Ieper Fury. Ieper is the Belgian name, Ypres the French version. The Tommies during the 1914-18 war mainly referred to it as "Wipers"…

Turning to head back towards the square we came to this church or cathedral. Both, as it turned out. The Church of St Martin was built 1230 to 1370, became a cathedral and seat of the diocese of Ypres in 1561 but then lost its status and reverted to a church in 1801 due to an agreement between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII in which Ypres became incorporated into the diocese of Ghent. Locals still refer to it as a cathedral.

The building was flattened during World War One and rebuilt from the ground up to the original floor plan, though the spire is larger than the pre-war spire. It is a beautiful building and fully deserving of cathedral status.

Opposite the church entrance was this archway leading through the Cloth Hall and including the entrance to the In Flanders Fields museum. We walked through and found somewhere to eat. We both had chicken, with a creamy mushroom sauce that was pure delicious. I got extra mushrooms as Fran picked all hers out…

We sat for a while watching people coming and going to the fairground and then wandered back towards the Menin Gate in good time to find a spot to stand. Several people from our coach were gathered together near the spot where wreaths would be carried to be hung on a rack in a recess at the side of the archway. This is the Kasteelgracht - one of three bodies of water remaining of the original moat of the city. The fortified city wall can be seen on the left.

I didn't take any photographs once the ceremony began. Plenty did, in fact it was hard to see sometimes for the number of phones and tablets held up (get a camera, instead of blocking people's view!!!) but I felt that it was not appropriate to take photos. It was a ceremony of remembrance, not an entertainment. But alas the distinction is lost on many people these days.

Two bands played briefly during the ceremony. This silver band from Sheffield marched to their place, playing, a quarter hour before the ceremony started.

Formed up on the roadway was a fife and drum band from Belfast. The ceremony itself was quite moving for those who sought to identify with its meaning. Certainly I wasn't the only one having to wipe a tear away as the wreaths were laid. The last post itself was sounded by three buglers. Traditionally they come from the local Fire Brigade. Once the ceremony ended we went back to the coach to return to Bruges and our hotel.

And this is it - the Hotel Olympia.

We were still trying to catch up on sleep after having been awake from 7:00am on Thursday right through to about 10:00pm on Friday - 39 hours! Besides, Miss Franny's wrist gizmo was saying we had walked 14,000 steps that day already so we weren't about to go out to top it up any more!

We had a drink in the bar and headed up the stairs to our first floor room. Second floor to the Belgians - they call the ground floor the first floor...

Guess which side of the bed I was allocated...? We went to bed. BANG! Ouch... I had been in the bar, so needed to get up agai… BANG! Ooooohhh…

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