August 9, 2013

We were traveling through Belgium during a historically significant time. Almost exactly 99 years ago, German forces invaded neutral Belgium en route to conquer France in the opening moves of WWI. The Belgians refused to roll over to German demands for surrender, and they were summarily smashed, leaving supposedly siege-proof cities in ruins and the countryside ravished. However, the unexpected patriotic defiance of the Belgians helped stall the German advance, and even more importantly, partially forced the hand of the British to become involved, as defenders of the small country’s neutrality. This is a really too-condensed version of the events- Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August” is a fascinating and quick read about the first few months which I highly recommend.

We were heading to the city of Ieper (Dutch), or Ypres (French), which was a strategic location on the Western Front. The British Expeditionary Force notably held off a German breakthrough attempt here in October and November 1914 before both sides dug in their trenches and the long years of trench warfare began. The city remained essentially on the front lines throughout the war as neither side was able to make any significant progress offensively. Persistent artillery shelling all but completely leveled the city.

Today, the city has been rebuilt. There is a supposedly well done WWI museum in town and given the fortuitousness of our timing, there wasn’t a question of whether or not we would be going to the museum.

First, we had to get into town. Our campground was within walking distance of the museum, but there was a large wall and moat between us and where we wanted to go. Ypres is an ancient city, with early reports dating back to the 1st century BC, so the moat wasn’t too surprising to find in the middle of town.

On the moat

Tunnel through the wall

We had a nice walk through town to reach the museum. There are a number of old buildings, which seem typical of European cities now. Apparently, the Flemish knew we were coming and named a restaurant or bar after us!

Free beer right? We’re family! No? Ok…

The museum

The museum was really well done. It was pretty small, but absolutely packed with artifacts and information about the war in general, but with a focus, of course, on Ypres. Unfortunately, a majority of the displays were behind glass, so Jenny didn’t get a lot of pictures.

Typical American uniform

The section on American involvement was small and tucked in at the end. I hadn’t fully realized it, but the US really only stubbornly entered the war towards the end. The abbreviated display seemed like a subtle reminder that although the American involvement was critical and decisive, the French, British, Russians and their allies bore the brunt of the horrors.

Tunnels under the front

There was a fascinating display on the sappers, who built massive tunnel networks underground in order to place explosives to blow craters under enemy trenches. It brought to life some of the harrowing depictions of life underground found in Sebastian Faulk’s “Birdsong”, a book both Jenny and I read.

Tools for navigation

Drawings of the “new” Ypres, rebuilt from the rubble

We planned to leave Belgium the next day, so we had to have a Belgian waffle covered in nutella. It was just as delicious as you would imagine.

Finally, a Belgian waffle

August 8, 2013

Distance: 41.2 miles                     Climbing: 1384.5 ft

Rainy mornings make everything a little more complicated. Packing up wet items can led to mildew and general funkiness. Plus, it is no fun putting your rear on a wet seat first thing in the day. So, waking up to a bright sun was just what we wanted. We were able to dry out the rainfly and our tarp while we made a cup of coffee.

Packing up on a sunny morning

Things started out nice and mellow. We were headed for Ypers, a city that was pretty much completely destroyed during WWI and now houses a renowned museum dedicated to the conflict. The cycling was easy with a few rolling hills. We passed through a couple towns, but everywhere feels a little depressed. Belgium appears to have been hit a lot harder by the financial crisis than it’s neighbors.

Different kind of windmill

Apples

Brew kettle artwork

We got a little excitement in the afternoon. As we were pedaling through a town, with vehicles behind and approaching us, there was a horrible sound and I was falling off the bike. The screw holding my seat onto the post had snapped in half. My seat and several pieces had gone flying in different directions and were scattered over the road. Somehow, I had received a huge bump on my shin too.

Well, riding a bike without a seat is challenging. Considering nothing seemed to be open in Belgium, we had no idea what to do. The scene of the disaster was coincidentally in front of a bike shop, that was closed. We found a supermarket and hoped they would have a hardware section. No luck. Chandler had recently replaced his broken seat post and still had the hardware from his old seat. We first attempted using his screws, but found them to be a size to big. So, he made the hole bigger by filing it with the threads of a spare axle skewer (he aspires to be a cross between Bicycle Repair Man-man-man and McGyver). But after all that the bolt was slightly too short. Finally, we just replaced my post with his old one. Now, my seat swivels with every pedal. Not ideal, but better than no seat.

Attempting to file the hole

We made pretty good time to Ypers after the seat excitement. We weren’t really inspired to stop anywhere. If you haven’t already guessed, we weren’t real impressed with Belgium, especially after our lovely time in the Netherlands, which set a high standard. We more or less cruised directly to Ypers and found a campground within walking distance of downtown. Our neighbor ended up being an engineer from Canada, so we stayed up chatting a little later than intended.