Heading for Holland

On the night of Tuesday 8th July we parked amongst the dunes alongside other motorhomes at Westende Bad just outside Nieuwpoort, on the Belgian coast. The next morning we awoke to gale force winds and driving sands so we ditched our planned tour of the Belgian and Dutch coast and headed inland to Brugge.

Having found a handy free parking spot next to the main canal, we donned warm trousers socks boots and waterproofs and cycled into the city centre. We enjoyed the Flemish architecture and cobbled streets.

We explored the stalls in the main market square,

and window shopped for Belgian Chocolates,

and some rusty old tools..

chocolate!

Yes, really!

before the rain forced us in to a restaurant for a lunch of moules et frites and glass or two of white wine!

By Thursday lunchtime we reached Kinderdijk in the Netherlands, and finally found some sunshine and blue(ish) skies. So back in our shorts and T-shirts and in Dutch style got on our bikes to see the windmills and polders.

We found a nice quiet parking spot next to some allotments on the outskirts of Albasserdam; and watched happy Dutch men and women arriving with empty bags and buckets and leaving with them over flowing with harvested goodies.

Next, on to The Hague to visit our friend Judith – but first we made a detour to Albert Hein (the local supermarket)..

‘say Kaas’

Essentials! for Heidi’s store cupboard – From left to right: Hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles to go on buttered bread), Chocoladepasta (choclate spread), Stroop wafels (biscuits), Stroop (the ‘syrup’ to go in the biscuits – or over pancakes!), Dropjes (liquorice), Fritessaus and Pindasaus (to make ‘Patat Flip’), Duvel (Belgian beer), etc.

Only available in Holland

We spent a few days catching up, reminiscing, buying Peter a new(ish) bike and cycling through the surrounding  polders

the locks and lifting bridges at Leidschendam

More cycling in the dunes and, of course, eating ‘Pannekoeken met spek (bacon) en stroop’

hills! in Holland!

Mmmm ‘Lekker’

Monday 14th July – we took a trip down memory lane. First stop, Voorschoten where Peter grew up

‘Het Warpen’ – Peter’s first local

House no. 1 – Prinses Margrietlaan

House no.2 – Palestrinalaan

And then time for food:

‘Saucijzen Broodje’ from ‘De Echte Bakker’ Mmmm

‘Patat Flip’ (chips with Pinda (satay) saus and Fritessaus (Dutch mayo – you have to taste it!))

And then on to Leiden via Leiderdorp (where Elaine lived and worked for three years)

 

Elaine’s Flat – first floor balcony in the middle

Elaine’s local

Leiden (Elaine’s favourite bit of Holland ..apart from a certain someone she met there!)

And then there’s the bikes..

One layer..

Two Layers!

4 kids, camping holiday on the bikes – No Problem!

or for something different – a ‘bakfiets’

Holland summed up; Bikes and flowers.

 

 

 

 

In Flanders’ Fields

On Monday morning (7th July), in fresh showery sunshine, we headed inland to the towns and fields of French Flanders.  As we drove out of Dunkerque we stopped at the main cemetery in the town, to visit the ‘British Memorial’, This commemorates the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Forces who fell in the campaign of 1939 to 1940.

Lining each side of the central avenue are columns bearing the names of the 4528 British Army and 6 Indian Army soldiers who rest in unmarked graves.  Next to this memorial are the graves of 810 soldiers from both World Wars, the majority of whom fell defending the perimeter of Dunkerque or during the evacuation operations in May-June 1940.

The town cemetery also contains the graves of both French and Belgian soldiers who fell in both World Wars.

After a brief lunch stop near the walled town of Bergues, we headed to the pretty town of Esquelbecq.

Just as you leave the town, you take a right down a small road between fields to ‘La Plaine au Bois’.

Here on 28th May 1940, over 90 British soldiers defending the strategic crossroads at the nearby town of Wormhout, were attacked and taken prisoner by German forces and were forced to stand shoulder to shoulder in a small barn.  A few hours later, in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention, members of the SS Adolf Hitler division (the Führer’s personal guard) threw hand grenades into the barn and then continued the massacre with machineguns! Only 12 survived and were later discovered by the local farmer’s daughters.

The site has become a place of remembrance and an exact replica of the barn was built along with planting 80 commemorative beech trees.

As we drove through the fields to our night stop in Hondschoote, we saw a variety crops being grown: – potatoes, corn, wheat, turnip and flax.  Unfortunately we were just too late to see the fields cover in blue flax flowers. Our wander through the fields also produced bounty for our dinner table; wild potatoes and a very tasty horse mushroom – Yum!

Flemish Architecture – Hondschoote Town Hall. Spot the ‘bottle arches’

Hondschoote

The next morning we crossed the border into Flemish Flanders, to find that our Garmin Sat Nav seemed to think Belgium didn’t exist! Fortunately we were able use our laptop and good old Autoroute to reach our destination; Diksmuide, Belgium.

The town of Diksmuide is dominated by the monstrous and oppressive looking 84m high IJzer Tower. Built by Flemish nationals it bears the letters AVV, VVK; “Alles voor Vlaanderen, Vlaanderen voor Kristus”.

The tower contains the Museum of the IJzer, it costs 8 euros each for adults, but was very informative and interesting, we spent four hours there! When you first enter the museum, you’re whisked up 22 floors in a lift for fabulous views of Diksmuide and the Flanders fields.

Then by taking the steps back down you’re taken through all aspects of the First World War;

Life in the trenches:

As the Germans surround the Allies, the Belgians stop their advance by opening the locks and floodgates at Nieuwpoort

 

“The mud, the horrible mud, the worst thing in the world, in which crawls an army…”

Life continues in the trenches for almost THREE YEARS of ‘stalemate’:

Comradery – All the trenches were inches deep in water. Clearing out the rats was a constant task.

There’s even time for art – working on the spent shell cases!

Life of civilians in both occupied and unoccupied Belgium:

Refugees from Holland and Belgium fleeing to unoccupied territory.

What would you take?

The ‘Propaganda Machine’:

Belgian Resistance paper ..perhaps they wished they had. Opening the floodgates was more efficient!

Cartoon in British paper.
The Vlaamshe Stem (Flemish Voice), a Flemish paper, was bought by the Germans, whereupon the whole staff resigned, as it no longer represented its title!

The current exhibition runs from 2014 to 2018, well worth a detour.

 

Just up the river from the tower are what were once called the Trenches of Death. Although very sanitized now, this 400m length gives you some sense of the scale and size these trenches which formed the 400km of the Western Front.