Up at six again, not by choice this time, my eyes simply popped open and wouldn’t close again. Six here is seven at home, so not surprising that I can’t make it to the alarm time set at seven local time. I start on yesterday’s blog and generally keep quiet in bed until seven, which… Continue reading Castle and chapel
I must admit, staycations have advantages: I can sleep in my own bed and stick to the routine I'm used to! The two museums on the list today are in Brussels and because we want to avoid the morning traffic jams, we take it easy in the morning and leave around half past nine. The… Continue reading Fossils and military history
Up at 7! If you've read some of my earlier travel posts, you'll notice that 7 is simply my natural hour to wake up. Apparently, this is a trend that persists even when holidaying at home. Anyway, despite the Belgian tradition of closing anything official on Monday (this includes monuments and museums), we managed yesterday… Continue reading (Medium) old history
Today is a gloomy day with overcast weather and a light drizzle, though this does not change our plans: we drive to Vladslo to visit the Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof. We haven't visited any German cemeteries in France, though we did not exclude them specifically from our plans. Here around Ypres there are several close by though and… Continue reading Around Ypres
The In Flanders Fields museum in the centre of Ypres opens only at 10 am, so we have time for a leisurely breakfast before leaving the B&B. We see a few big buses so we expect a crowd and indeed we're surrounded quickly by classes of schoolchildren. Doesn't matter, the museum is nicely organized so… Continue reading The Ypres Salient
We’ve prepared our itinerary from Saint Quentin to Ypres and timed it perfectly to arrive at the first museum at opening time. It turns out however that the Historial de la Grande Guerre in Péronne is closed on Wednesdays after October. It looks very interesting from the outside so we’re sorry to miss it, but… Continue reading The battlefields of the Somme
The view of Verdun from the hotel room is nice, but we decide to stick to the theme and so we leave for the Fort de Vaux after breakfast. We passed it yesterday so we decide to forgo the help of the GPS and find our way ourselves. Serendipitously, we stop at one of the… Continue reading The battle fields of Chemin des Dames
Dinner was great, we had the Menu de la chasse with wild duck, pheasant and deer and tea with mignardises in the lounge by the fire. The hotel is very charming, but we feel a bit out of place due to our age: most of the other guests seem to be retired. Alarm is set… Continue reading To Verdun
Arne picked me up at the Avis office in Como the day before around 6 pm. We drove to the B&B La Villa and visited Como after a quick shower and hugging the local cat. In the morning, I have several texts and calls from family, wishing me a happy birth day. Hugging the cat… Continue reading Como to Altdorf
Febe writes 