Continuing our visit to Flanders Fields
The people of the beautiful town of Ypres, were warm and welcoming.
The town was completely restored after the Great War, it had to be.
Photo, City of Vancouver Archives
At the centre of the market square is the Cloth Hall, the clock tower was having a bit of maintenance.
I thought it a very slender scaffold tower, glad to see it was well tied in to the building. It’s a long way down for a comfort break!
I’m more used seeing building sites like this secured, I’m sure if you tried this at home, some likely lad, would think it a blast to scamper up after a few pints! The footings looked quite relaxed too…
I’ve hardly any photos of the town, my planned day of mooching around the streets, camera in hand was scuppered by a dramatic drop in temperature that left us scampering between coffee shops and museums dodging the icy winds, others have done better than me .
Such a shame the day before had been a beautiful spring day, Spud the dog who came along for his first overseas trip had been lapping up the sun and watching the world go by from his favourite spot in the van
Spud had to have a visit to the vets whilst in Ypres, to have a worming tablet, a statutory requirement if he was to allowed back into the UK and to be marked on his pet passport. We found the vets online before we left home, the appointment was made by email and it was all very straight forward, and for Spud who has seen more than his fair share of vets over the last few months, he thought it rather swish and he was more than happy to escape with just a tasty tablet.
We were a bit perplexed the evening before, when we looked down the street where we thought the vets was located, it was all very traditional and looked residential rather than commercial, but in the daylight when the shutters were up we discovered that to accommodate the need for more modern space in such a carefully protected townscape, the façade of buildings are preserved, meanwhile the walls within are a totally reworked space across several buildings, here at the vets, a carpark is on the lower floor with a sweeping ramp up to the glass walled offices and consulting rooms on the first floor.
I wondered what it was like to live in a town with the legacy of remembrance tourism, tricky sometimes maybe?
But the hospitality we received was generous to say the least, here is a chicken pie, that we ordered ‘to share’ between two of us.
It goes without saying that Belgium beer is good, and the chocolate is divine, the scent of which wafts along the main square,
judging by the state of this last photo, I obviously took it after the beer,