Ypres with My Adoptive Family

Today was my trip to Ypres with Karla & Chris' Belgian relatives, Karel & Kristin. I called Karel last night and he told me their friends Luc and Bea (who Chris knows) are joining us. Rounding out the bunch is Karel & Kristin's daughter, Caroline, who is a judge and a tour guide in Ypres.

 There was no problem finding each other- as soon as the car pulled up to the B&B, we knew we were all in the right place! We had a brief ride to Ypres, and as we parked, Kristin said something in Flemish - all I recognized was "apertif" which made me giggle. Sure enough, Karel asked if I was up for a drink before the museum. Thus we were drinking at about 10:30 am! It was a nice little ice breaker.

Next we headed to the museum, In Flanders Fields. What an amazing museum - the coolest thing, to me, was a selection of vignettes where actors played persons from the war and read from diaries as though they were telling you about their experience. It was very moving and had me in tears several times. Hearing what the local citizens went through, as well as the soldiers, was heartbreaking. The exhibits overall were incredibly well done. They also use RFID bracelets; you sign in at the beginning and at certain exhibits, it tailors the content to you. At the end it tells you if any relatives were in Flanders Fields (not surprisingly I came up empty).

The bell tower is newly opened, so Karel and I climbed up 315 steps to the top. We could almost see France. It was a very cool overview of the geography of the area and how that influenced the battles.

The last exhibit was about the U.S. program to send food to the people of Flanders after the war. There was a film of people describing what it was like, and Karel shared his memories as well. I had no idea that the U.S. had done that - if I'd once learned it, it was forgotten - along with aid to rebuild the town (which, by the way, is gorgeous!).

After the museum, we met Caroline for lunch and then she gave us a lovely walking tour of the Menin Gate Memorial, the ramparts, the cathedral and Anglican churches, and a small British cemetery. She did a marvelous job of informing and answering questions. She mentioned that to be a guide, she had to take a total of 3 exams! Clearly the Flemish respect their history and want to protect the sharing of it to ensure the accuracy.

We said goodbye to Caroline and returned to Brugge. After parking, we found a cafe where I "presented Guido's beers" - Guido is a friend of Chris and Karel who loaded my SIM last fall for my Austria trip, and I had hoped to buy him a beer but he was walking the Camino Santiago de Compstelo, so Karel kindly offered to accept his beer instead.  :-)

All in all it was an educational and interesting day with some deeply kind and wonderful people, and highly enjoyable!