Belguim

We caught the 0645 train (cheap rate) to Lille which took an hour. It was still dark and raining when we got there. We picked up a car to drive to Memorial Museum Passchendaele in Ypres, even though in Belguim its called Ieper which makes it hard to find on a map. And the museum is not really in Ypres/Ieper but a small village nearby with no station, hence the car!

The museum, in the Zonnebeke Château has interesting displays of artifacts in the building and a maze of underground dugouts/tunnels . The tunnels have bunkrooms, kitchen, clinic and pumps to keep the water level down. Complete with sound effects. They are a replica of a section of tunnels found filled witb water, elsewhere on the property.

Afterwards we visited The Old Contemptibles exhibition in another building, the name given by Kaiser Wilhelm to the British Expeditionary Forces of 1914. This display, in addition to others in the main museum, was of memorabilia and personal tributes. Hilary's grandfather not among them.

It was a long day - with the GPS in the car telling us to circle the station twice. We turned her off. Then our google maps told us to get petrol at a shopping centre! We arrived back at Gare du Nord to find all the escalators out. There had been fire in one of the metro tunnels. A traveller's life is tough!

Museum at Chateau Zonnebeke

kit

Old Contemptibles Exhibition at Villa Zonnedaele

memorials in the shape of poppies