After leaving the coast of Normandy and the D DAY beaches, we were headed towards Belgium, with our goal being the ancient town of Brugges. We were winging it and stopped at a town called Arras.

 Would’nt you know it, this is a major WW1 town. The front lines were right outside the town limits and this quaint little town was virtually desvataed during WW1. They’ve rebuilt the place to spec.

Check here for more history and before shots:

On our way to Vimy ridge.

This is by far the largest monument we’ve seen. These pics don’t do the grandeur justice. It’s HUGE!

Thousands and thousands of names of soldiers etched onto the monument……

Sheep keep the grass short where men dare not walk. There are acres and acres of pitted landscape where bombs fell and many did not go off. They are still there, and mines too! Every year farmers and hickers get hurt or simply find old bombs from WW1

Warning signs:

Cemetary at Vimy ridge:

Ypres, Belgium.

When we arrived at Brugges, Belgium, it turns out the whole country was on holidays, and there was not a room to be found. We headed out with no real plans and discovered we were close to Ypres, where some of the  biggest battles occured during WW1.

Read about it here.

Every day at 8:00PM they have a memorial service at the Menin gate, where thousands of names are inscribed.

Crowds line up.

The town centre was virtually destroyed and rebuilt:

The next day I went by myself driving around, looking for cemetaries and such while the girls went shopping.

There were cemetaries everywhere!

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