We spent a weekend in Bruges in September and were spoiled with amazing sunshine the whole time. We’d booked a day trip to see the battlefields of WW1 and were not disappointed. The tour was based around the area of Flanders which saw some pretty intense fighting throughout the war. Amazingly each year over 200 tonnes of old munitions come to the surface in the farms of Flanders. When farmers find them they just leave them on the side of the road and wait for the Army to come to destroy them. We visited a number of different grave areas, including the largest Commonwealth cemetery at Tyne Cot, some incredible museums, one of which recreated the feeling of being in a trench (almost too realistic at times), and the Menin gate in the town of Ypres.
Inside one of the museums was an installation by the NZ artist Helen Pollock, created with clay from the Coromandel. Quite a moving experience as it was placed in an area where many New Zealanders fought and died.
Bruges itself while very pretty was a bit ho-hum and really expensive, although we did enjoy a few fabulous beers. We were glad we did the tour for a whole day otherwise we would have got a bit bored (only so much ‘wandering the pretty cobbled streets’ you can handle in one year). Stopped into Brussels on the way home on the Eurostar and scoffed some frittes with mayo and a couple of waffles cause you have to if you’re in Belgium. It’s the rules.
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