57. Ypres - Dunkirk

Lovely weather this morning , so we decided to head into Ypres, which was only a ten min walk from our campsite .
The centre was very busy with it being Easter weekend , but we enjoyed looking at the gothic architecture and walking down the cobbled streets . After the first World War, alot of the important buildings were reconstructed- including the St. Martins cathedral. You could tell they were new buildings, but they were still beautiful.
In the town centre there was a little market selling plants and crafty things, we had a little look around before stopping off for a pint . The men sat opposite us on the table were really cute and offered to take some pictures of us and Maddy, it was quite funny as the beers had gone straight to our heads and we were really giggly.
After a sobering walk back to the campsite, we had a quick bite to eat and drove onto the Yorkshire trench and dug out site .
The trench site had a reconstruction of the A frame and duckboard construction used to provide the base of the trenches in WW1. The trenches were all waterlogged , but it was interesting to visit them.
Afterwards , we drove onto have a look at Flanders fields - one of the main battlefields of WW1. The first poppy grew here after WW1 due to the high lime content in the soil and inspired John McCrae to write the world famous poem "In Flanders Fields".
After a busy day of history, we drove to our last park up - behind a supermarket half an hour away from the ferry port 🤣.
We cleaned the van and got everything sorted for our busy day travelling to Exeter tomorrow .Read more