I’d read about the fighting on the Yser River in WW1 but never realized how massive. There were 5 battles over about 6 months and about 800,000 allied and German casualties. The town of Ypres (Leper) was flattened as was the surrounding countryside. Every night at 8:00, since 1928 (except for WWII when the occupying Germans forbade it) there is a 5 minute period when the local fire brigade goes to this wall and bugles are played to honor the dead. There is also a museum that depicts all that happened. We are so lucky we have not had a war on our land of this magnitude, it is shocking.

There are cemeteries like this all along our bike paths. They are immaculate with fresh flowers. Most of the markers are not named as there were so many killed and unidentified.

Our guides waiting for us at our hotel in Brugge. It was originally built (and rebuilt) in the 1400’s. Each room was very unique, mine was very large and used to be a kitchen, still sporting the brick hearth and warming ovens.

It is known as the Venice of the North with canals and old buildings. It’s hey day was from the 15th to 18th century then had a slump and is now coming back as a beautiful place to visit.

In 1216 this building was supposedly the place of the first stock exchange. They started holding papers for traders so they wouldn’t have to be paid and of course charged a “commission”

The chocolate is in every other store and is the best I’ve ever tasted. They laugh at Godiva and rightfully so

And of course the beer wall, which is much larger than shown here

So we arrive at our hotel and find out we own the place. The hotel gives it’s staff a day off every year and, yep, this is their day off. They left the keys for our guides and our room key lets us in and out of the hotel and we are all alone. We could cook in the kitchen, steal the front desk computers, the inmates have taken over the asylum. And people wonder if the Belgians are trusting, duh.

We had lunch and a beer at an Egyptian restaurant in Oudenourde, of course.

Me in my Peace River Rider jersey in front of an old windmill

We are staying in one of the oldest towns in Flanders. We arrived to the annual organ festival with thousands of people in the streets looking and listening to organs brought in from all over Europe. We could hardly walk our bikes through the crowds to get to get to our hotel plus when we entered the city there was a mile of the street turned into a giant garage sale. Lots of local color.

The ride was a bikers dream, lots of bike paths. These guys were fishing for trout (?) with gigantic poles that they had to brace on shore to maneuver them out to the center and then the tip of the pole was under water, doing what I don’t know.

We stopped at the de Cam Brewery in Gooik. This beer is only brewed in an 18 mile radius and is in barrels for 3 years. No yeasts are added but is made by spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts. Tasted like beer and champagne.

My friend Jill and I still taste testing in Geraardsbergen

This is supposed to be a Brewery trip but the streets smell like chocolate, there’s chocolate stores on every street, it is amazing.

And then there are the mussels. So large a portion of mussels cooked in white wine that I almost couldn’t eat them all. Belgium is famous for beer, chocolate and mussels, so far have tried them all and the reputation is well earned.

And then there is the Marriott Hotel with a McDonalds in it’s first floor. At least the hotel ExperiencePlus recommended has a Chocoholic Store. Much better.

Maneken-pis is probably the most famous thing in Belgium, lots of beautiful old buildings all over but on a back street, hard to find is this statue. I know it because my ex-husband must have been here and bought a souvenir bottle stop of him. Fitting since he liked to drink a lot. Don’t know what happened to it.