blog 24 August 2014
Before we
set off on our Belgian road trip last week we popped into St Mere Eglise to
wish Carol and Trevor Good luck in their new venture, selling vintage clothing
to the world war two re-enactors of this world. I was delighted to see other
friends there in their 40’s outfits swelling the crowds and giving the whole
day a real sense of purpose and fun. I
am so envious that Trevor and Carol have found an outlet for their hobby and we
hope they have a profitable and successful business
Then
against all the odds, with dodgy weather
and Mike
recovering from a nasty tummy bug
we finally set off and got to Ypres late on Monday in the pouring rain. We camped on a site walking distance from the
town centre which made visiting the Mennen Gate easy and worthwhile. The
whole of Ypres was rebuilt between 1918 and 1965 and although it is a strange
concept to rebuild exactly as was, these old buildings are still crisp and as new
as the day they were conceived hundreds of years ago
On the
walls of the Mennen gate are the names
of 55 thousand solders missing in action
and as we walked around the endless tablets of engraved stone, I read out as many names as I could so their names, would be in
my voice and heard again
At 8:00
every evening since 1928 buglers have played the last post to honour of the dead
in the 1st world war. I was however, not
prepared for this touching and thought provoking ceremony. We stayed an extra night just so I could go a
second time and was amazed that every night is different, there were hundreds
of people there and on the first night a small choir of male voices sang in
this, oh, so, acoustically perfect arched building. 6 buglers played the last post and it sent a
deeply profound shiver through the crowd. The second night, a lone bag piper
played whilst wreathes were laid. At the end of the second evening’s ceremony
we were honoured to participate in the recognition of 60 years’ service of one
of the burglars in the team who attend
this ceremony every night. What a
commitment, what a fantastic event and so unexpected
We
did a day of sightseeing and visited the Tyn cot ceremony and hill 60 all in
the area around Ypres, It is possible to
spend days just walking the paths of the great war but we had lots of other
things to do. Belgium is a country of
two halves and as a half Belgian I was very bewildered by the utter difference
in language and culture and it was so very obvious at the dividing line how
things changed. In the North Aldi
supermarket would not take our French or English bank cards, they would not
take a euro cheque and we had to get cash to pay for our shopping, bit like
being in Spain or Greece but harder because we were starting to feel at home
and I thought I had arrived when I was
given a tube of mayonnaise with my crock monsieur lunch and the choice of mayo
in the shops was stunning, I stroked the
jars I said to Mike….I really am home. But we struggled with the town names and
thanked our lucky stars that our GPS speaks Flemish and headed south into
Walloon French speaking territory to visit our dear family friends who have
been in my life all my life. 
Hedwige and
Ivan have been part of the family scene for ever and we were welcomed and
treated to an exquisite lunch, but sadly not enough time to fully catch up so
we will be back, it is not so far and we spent a few moments eyeing up where we could park the camper and
stay over ….watch this space we make a habit of camping on peoples drives.
Our next
mission was to understand the battle of Waterloo. My great uncle was a celebrated
expert in the life and times of Napoleon and the Waterloo event has been in my
head since I was five yet never really explained . Mike had an interest as well
so we paid the full tourist price to visit the Wellington museum in Waterloo, the visitor centre at the Butt
du Lion memorial and then over to Napoleon’s headquarters. All this for one day of battle and thousands
of lost lives in 1815.
There is a fantastic 360 degree painting of the day’s events and the building was erected to accommodate it in the 1820’s. The building and painting have now been painstakingly restored. I just love this art that is effectively the BBC of the day, giving news and opinion of this epic event. The site is now priming up for the 200 year anniversary next year, we might just go back in June next year to see what they do. And if you were wondering…Yes, we did climb the hill to the top to look over the battle field and it is high and we both realised just how unfit we are
We then made our way to Welhain 30 kilometres from Brussels to meet up with my cousin Dominque and her husband Michel. We shared a wonderful evening of good food and cine films. They have family film of me at the age of 3 and 5 and I saw my Mum and Dad and m brothers and sisters as I remember them in my mind but to see the reality in old cine film was extraordinary and a lot of fun
I took one snap shot of the old cine screen and when I looked back at it there was a picture of my Mum 55 Years ago how very touching and amazing is that .
Another
night on another drive with all mod cons and more importantly renewing family
ties. Dominque and I share the same great grandmother on my Mum’s side and we have fond memories and real history
between us, so this really was a good reunion and we look forward to our next
time together.
Our camper broke down in some tiny town
somewhere in France on our way back and had to, for the first time, call for assistance,
it is a good job that we kept the paperwork together and current and I made the
call, gave the very polite young man our number plate and he said, oui Madame
Baker where are you and what is the problem.
A big tow truck driver called to
say he was on his way and he got us going in two seconds flat diagnosing a
broken battery so we drove straight to
Norauto on the outskirts of this little town and after a cooool 160 Euro, we
had a new battery fitted and although it took half a day from beginning to end
we were back on the road. I forgot to
mention that we stopped in town to buy chips for lunch and for that I am very
ashamed, but extremely pleased to say that despite the deviation on diet we
were able to test the road assistance system and by George it works
Mike was
very patient with me this holiday because it was all about me and as we made
our way to le Havre to cross the River Seine, I asked Mike if he could stop at
the Air de Baye de Seine so that I could walk the Pond de Normandy, and he did
stop, and we did walk ourselves to the top of the arch and walked back down
again
Both our
knees were still complaining from the waterloo experience but we did it and that
is another tick dealt with.
We could
not do all this history and family and not stop off at Renville to make a
salute to Mike’s Uncle Bill’s grave, killed on 23rd July 1944 . We
took HOSS in with us and asked him to sit and he lay down and just looked so
wonderful and knowing, such a good dog xx
We walked along
the hill taking in the views and forever the mariner, Mike is here retying
HOSS’s bit of rope which he proudly holds in his mouth thinking he is the
mariners bees knees, but actually we give him the rope to discourage his barking,
especially when we walk in the evenings and in the morning, so Mike keeps his
monkey’s fist knot and his coiling rope skills alive, and we then get a quiet HOSSy walk.
So finally
the holiday is over we did 1355 kilometres and saw great things and lovely
people, but most of all we enjoyed the freedom of the camper spending free nights
in the many Air de Camping Car and the little low cost sites where the welcome
is always friendly and sincere. We had a
really good time and have to say a huge thank you to our friends who feed the
animals and watch the house so that we can get away and enjoy…….xx
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