Belgium

Shortish train journey from Luxembourg to Brugge.  Our main purpose for going there was to visit the Passendale area where my grandfather was invalided out of  WWl, and also to see the graves like in the 'Flanders Fields' poem.  Met an Aussie couple on the train and swapped details as they were interested in coming out with us the next day in the rental car we had booked.  They had seen Brugge in a film with the title 'In Brugge', and decided it was worth a look.

Arrived in Brugge and realised we had run ouf of superlatives! The whole town is a UNESCO World Heritage area. Once again thank goodness for digital cameras,  we didn't know where to photograph first. The whole town was gorgeous. Didn't take too long to navigate around it on foot, so did quite a bit of exploring the afternoon we arrived.

Next day we hopped into the rental close to lunchtime and headed for the Passendale area.  Saw the largest Allied war graves site at Tyne Cot and, in my usual fashion, just dissolved into tears. So many wasted lives and unrealised futures. Very moving.

Decided seeing as the Netherlands wasn't far away we may as well pop over into a town there and see if anything was noticeably different from Belgium.  Had a nice beer at Oostburg. Along the way we drove through a little town called Beselare. As we drove along we kept seeing witches in windows and outside shops all through the town. I looked it up later and there is a festival and parade every 2 years, which was coming up on 28/7. Heksenstoet.

Had some time the next morning for some more exploration. One of the churches in town had Michaelangelo's Madonna & Child statue in it. It was placed well back from the cordon, and behind protective glass, so not too easy to photograph with the tablet. Caught train to Zeebrugge in the afternoon to catch the ferry to Hull.