Our French and Belgian Adventure August 2018: Day One - Travel and Ypres

[Em4owen]

Index and Pre-trip

Day 1: Sunday 19th August: Travel and Ypres

Our adventure begins with us being woken up by a 4am alarm. We quickly got dressed and started packing the final bits into the suitcase. Ashley woke up at this point and so I got him dressed and gave him his milk. I got some food ready to take for our dinner and breakfast, as well as some snacks. Initially I’d packed everything in our big cool bag but when we got into the car, I discovered there was no room and so I transferred everything to smaller bags. I think this was why I ended up forgetting Ashley’s special milk cup. This would come back to bite me throughout the holiday.

I left Hayden to get up until last as he’s such a heavy sleeper so I got him up, dressed and gave him some milk which he took with him.

Luckily, we left dead on 5am as we’d planned and were soon whizzing down the road in the dark along the quite roads to Folkstone. The Dartford crossing was easy and because we made it before 6am, it was free. I think we arrived about 6.30am, stopping off at the service station for toilets. The boys had refused the cinnamon rolls I had made and the apple danishes I had bought but after learning everything was closed at the service station, they had to eat them! Our original train was at 7.36am but because we were so early, we got booked onto the 7.20am. As we were called however, somehow we got loaded onto the 7.06am!

The Eurotunnel was really quick but very dull. You have to stay seated in your car, on the train, unless you need the toilet. Somehow I expected it was a bit more exciting than that but it is only 30 minutes! It seemed much quicker and stress-free than the Eurostar. Because our cottage was quite a long drive still, about 3-4 hours, we decided to visit Ypres on our way down. By the time we disembarked, it was about 8.40am, Belgium time. The journey was really easy and we arrived in Ypres, around 9.45am.

It was really quiet and surreal thinking we were in Belgium, plus we’d been up since 4am so it felt like lunchtime! We found somewhere to park in the town centre outside some cafes. We were pleased to discover parking was free on a Sunday, although it took us a while to work this out! We unloaded the boys and decided our first stop would be the Menin Gate which was a lovely 5-10 minute walk away. Ypres was a beautiful place, with cobbled streets and historical buildings everywhere.

Market Place

I vaguely remembered parts from when I did the typical school trip there for GCSE History. We took a few photos and Owen and Hayden walked up to the top. I opted to stay behind with Ashley who was less than pleased he had to stay behind!

The Menin Gate

After this, our next stop was the Flanders Field Museum.

It had great reviews online and was located inside the Cloth Hall. It cost us 9 Euros for adults and children under 7 were free, so only 18 Euros, which wasn’t too bad. We were each given a band with a poppy one which you can scan at certain points around the exhibition to learn more about local people and their lives at the time of WWI. We were also given a voucher for money off other museums in the area and in France related to WWI. Unfortunately, we never had time to do the others but it’s certainly useful to someone who is doing a tour of WWI sites. The exhibition was quite busy and full of adults so I felt very conscious taking two under 5s around. The boys enjoyed some parts but we inevitably did a whistle-stop tour!

We finished around 11.15am, according to my notes, so were in there for about an hour. We made use of the facilities, bought a magnet and pencil for Hayden in the shop (3 Euros) and then wandered around the market square for a little while.

Just before 12, we decided to have our lunch. I’d looked in advance for places to eat that would be child-friendly and have a vegan option and came across Ypres Burger, which was basically a fast food restaurant but had excellent reviews. We weren’t quite sure what to do when we arrived and were clearly the first customers of the day! We were warmly welcomed and told we could take a seat and order or order straight away. We chose to sit down and browse the menu first then Owen went up to order at the counter. I forgot to take photos, I blame the tiredness and that it was at the start of the holiday!

We had: Owen – chicken cheese burger; Me – Veggie burger;
Ashley and Hayden – kids box which consisted of 2 chicken nuggets, a small burger, chips, a juice drink and a toy (a plastic car).
Owen and I also shared some chips and each got a coke to drink. It came to 28.60 Euros which was a bargain! The food was okay but I didn’t like the taste of the Veggie burger patty. The boys barely ate their food and I ended up eating most of their chips! It filled us up though and it was perfect for the boys. We left around 12.30pm.

Our next stop was the Yorkshire Trench which is a free site to visit. It consists of a reconstructed trench and some information boards and is located inside an industrial estate.

When we arrived, it was only us and so the boys enjoyed walking multiple times through the trench.

Another family arrived as we were leaving which was perfect as again I was conscious of how loud Hayden’s voice is, a theme which continued throughout our holiday!

Our final stop was Bedford House Cemetery. Owen had researched online that one of his Great Uncles was buried here and so we set off to find his grave. The cemetery was huge but also beautiful. We saw a few on our trip and they are all so well kept.

It ended up taking Owen three attempts to find the grave despite having the row and number written down! It turns out Owen doesn’t know his Roman Numerals. He does now though!

We left the cemetery at 1.45pm. We had hoped to visit Paschendale 1917 but we had told our Cottage owner that we’d be there around 4pm and the SatNav had predicted the journey would take over 3 hours! It lied and it did that to us a few times on the holiday!

We carried on through to the cottage, which was located in the French speaking Wallonia part of Belgium, in what is locally known as ‘the boot of Belgium’ because of its shape and I think everyone apart from Owen had a nap. I never used to nap in cars until I had children and so I think I’m always tired, or that’s my excuse! Anyway, we arrived just before 4pm so it was perfect! The cottage owner, Christophe greeted us warmly and enthusiastically and we proceeded to unload the car and unpack.

The cottage was beautiful and much to our delight we discovered we had cows, goats and chickens on-site. There was also a play room for the boys, which Ashley in particular loved. We loved the old-fashioned charm of the cottage and much of this part of Belgium, the countryside had the same feel to it.

Some cottage photos:

All shops are shut on a Sunday in Belgium so we had bought supplies with us to make dinner and breakfast but I’m glad I had read about that before we had arrived! The cottage was brilliant – bigger than our home and we had cows, goats and chickens to look at which the boys enjoyed. There was also a playroom and toys outside for the boys. It was perfect and I was so happy with our choice!

I rustled together toast, beans and Thomas spaghetti for dinner which we had about 6.30pm and then we put the boys to bed. I had a shower and read my Kobo for a bit before going to bed at about 9.30pm, I think. It had been a busy day!

Total Spends: 49.60 Euros