4. In Flanders fields.

If it's Sunday, then it must be Belgium....or to be more precise, we must have arrived in the port of Zeebrugge.

We had debated whether or not just to have a wander around, but in the end decided that a trip to the WW1 battlefields would be more educational as well as being something that should just "be done". Thus, after an hour or so on the coach we had out first stop at the Tyne Cot cemetery. One cannot fail to be both moved by the sheer number of headstones, most unnamed, but also by the way the cemetery is immaculately maintained by the Commonwealth Graves Society. 

A short ride away was the next stop, the Menin Gate memorial at the entrance to the town of Iepers (or Ypres as it was known during the time of the terrible WW1 battles). Every evening at 8pm the local fire brigade plays the Last Post at the Gate, invariably to a large crowd. Unfortunately timings did not allow us to stay for this ceremony but it is undoubtedly an emotional occasion. 

At both Tyne Cot and the Menin Gate are inscriptions of the officers and men who were known to have been at Ypres during the battles and whose remains have never been found. We discovered a W. Jepson at the former and an E. Jepson (Company Sergeant Major, Royal Lancaster Regiment) at the latter; I have no idea if these gentlemen are direct descendants but they must be on the family tree somewhere. We subsequently discovered while visiting the museum in the town that there were some 15 Jepsons who lost their lives at Ypres and for the record, there were at least twice as many Talbots killed.

The museum itself was well laid out and although a little lacking in larger exhibits, the stories, diaries and commentary related some of the human stories of the misery and horror of the conflict. Having said that, I seriously doubt anyone can fully appreciate just how awful life in the trenches and on the front line really were unless you were there at the time. Ypres itself was totally destroyed during the conflict and from 1922 has been rebuilt in a modern style very sympathetic with it's former self and is very pleasant indeed.

The afternoon stop was the city of Bruges, a very picturesque city and also very busy not least because it was holding a big pop festival over the weekend. We had a guided walk along the canal paths, over bridges, along narrow streets lined with shops brimming with souvenir chocolate and through bustling squares. As you can imagine on a hot afternoon, this was working up a thirst so we found our way to a microbrewery so to sample one of the local brews. The Brouwerij de Halve Maan (or the Half Moon Brewery for any non-Dutch speakers) offered a large selection of beers and we opted for something called "Straffe Hendrick", which, as it had been triple filtered and was 9% proof certainly left us feeling a bit strafed by the time we had to leave.

We managed to buy a small quantity of chocolates but as we were already running late did not have any time left to sample any of the famous frenchfries. Therefore the only option was to get a few fries from the Trident Grill when we were safely back onboard the ship, and thus were were indeed able to complete a checklist of the three Belgian essentials, beer, chocolate and chips.

So today, Monday, is our first sea day and time to sit and relax and catch up with news. The North Sea is calm, the sky is cloudy, the temperature somewhat lower than previous days, and as I write, one of Crown Princess's sister ships has just passed sailing southbound on our port bow.

The afternoon's entertainment has been interesting.  We went to the theatre to listen to "An audience with Terry Butcher" ... yes the ex-England captain is aboard. He was billed as a legend of the beautiful game, but from my memory serves me right, our Tel was one for hoofing the ball as far upfield as he could....nothing beautiful about that. Anyway, he chatted amiably about everything from football agents to being on tour with Gazza and it was a very pleasant hour.