BreukelenMan

I'm traveling to Bruges, Belgium this July.
I want to go to Ieper from there. Are there trains or buses, etc. between the two towns.

Anyone been to the World War One trenches in Ypres?? What was your experience?!?

jsmith

A few years ago we took a quasimodo bus tour from Brugge. Worth every penny.

http://www.quasimodo.be/

laverendrye

There are no trenches in Ypres/Ieper itself, but you can find some which have been preserved just outside town at Sanctuary Wood near Zillebeke, where there is also a small museum.

However, in Ieper itself, you should not miss the In Flanders Fields Museum in the restored Cloth Hall. Another must see is the Menin Gate, which commemorates 55,000 Commonwealth soldiers who have no grave. The town fire department plays the Last Post there every evening at 8:00.

I'm sure that you can get there by public transport, but it's difficult getting around to the many sites in the Ypres Salient without a car. Otherwise, your best bet would be to take a tour from Bruges, as jsmith suggests.

MyriamC

http://www.ieper.be/eng/ is the official website of the city of Ieper (Dutch for Ypres) that gives very good information on what there is to see in town and in the neighbouring villages. You should have seen, at least once in your life, the battlefields and the various cemetaries. Very touching, even if this is more than 90 years ago. Try to attend the Last Post Service that is held every evening at the Menin Gate.

sandy_b

We (3 ladies) went to the Flanders areas in Mar 04 . . . we wanted to visit Flanders and the Ypres Salient. In the Ypres Salient battlefields, there are over 137 British military burial grounds and 40,000 unidentified graves are contained in these cemeteries. In addition to the cemeteries, four memorials list the names of the 90,000 soldiers whose bodies have never been found. There are two French military cemeteries containing the remains of almost 12,000 soldiers; and five German, containing 100,000 graves.

The "Last Post" is very moving, I'm afraid you might miss it if you go on a tour.

We flew to Brussels, took the train immediately to Bruges for a couple of days. Then we picked up our 3-day rental car and toured around in the Ypres area . . . drove to Antwerp and turned the car in, trained to Amsterdam for 3 days, trained to Maastrict, then back to Brussels . . . we had 10 days.

I typed up my travelog and would be happy to email it if you want . . . email me at [email protected], if interested.

Near Ypres, we stayed at Varlet Farms B&B, the most hospitable place I've ever stayed, this is a working farm and they also have a museum of WWI items found (and still finding) on their farm. Charlotte greets you with apple pie/coffee and a list w/driving instructions of all the WWI sites in the area . . . this is THE place to stay!

Hope you have as good a time as we did.
Sandy (in DentonP

jsmith

Unless Lode(Quasimodo)has changed his tour, Sandy is correct that you will miss the Last Post at Menin Gate.

The day of our tour in November 2002 was chilly and much of the time a very light rain was falling which gave the proper atmosphere to visiting those horrendous battlefields. You will visit Essex Farm where the doctor who penned "In Flanders Fields" was stationed in 1915.

If you want to prepare yourself for the visit, I suggest "They Called It Passchendaele" by Lyn Macdonald. The ISBN is 0-14-016509-6. Another book not strictly related to Ypres is "Nurses at The Front" edited by Margaret Higonnet. It contains excerpts from two American nurses who served at field hospitals behind the French lines. It would be difficult to find two books about war that are more human.

laverendrye

The doctor was the Canadian, John McCrae. You can read his story and how the poem came to be written at:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/s...irstwar/mccrae