Day 17: Sunday 13 April 2014

A short drive today from Bailleul to Ypres via Poperinghe.  Poperinghe is a small town just over the border in Belgium, so the language, food, people change in the matter of a few kilometres.  The town is about 10km from Ypres and during TGW it was just out of the range of all but the biggest German guns.  Consequently it became a major staging point for British (including the men of the AIF) soldiers who would move from there to Ypres and then on to the front in the Ypres salient.  We are talking about 100s of thousands of troops.  So, even though most of the civilians of the town had been evacuated enough remained to provide the types of services that men on active service would be looking for.

Two British army chaplains decided that they would set up a house where men of all ranks could try and take a break from the war, where they could get a cup of tea, a quiet place to write letters, have sing songs around the piano, leave messages for friends and relatives and walk and relax in the gardens.  It was called Talbot House after one of the founders and was often referred to as Toc H (army signalers alphabet at the time).  (I won't go on too much about this but have a look at Talbot House on the intynet thingy, it is really very interesting).  Anyway Talbot House is now a museum and very well done, when you turn up at the entrance you are given a tablet and you can follow a self guided tour with commentary etc on the tablet.

The other claim to fame of Poperinghe has a different feel about it.  There is a courtyard in the town hall where at least four British soldiers were executed for various crimes such as desertion.  The courtyard now has a memorial to the soldiers executed there.  You can also visit the cell where they were held the night before their execution and there are some information panels about the men and the reasons or their execution.

Execution post at Poperinghe

 Anyway on to Ypres.  Driving in through the winding back streets of Ypres I came across the natural enemy of the GPS......road closures.  There was some sort of festival on in the market square so a lot of the roads in the area were closed.  Eventually I found my way to the Albion Hotel, familiar to myself and Flashy from our previous stay in the town, and guess what, I got Flashy's old room, if only these walls could talk (only kiddin).  For Flashy's info the Albion is undergoing huge extensions an extra three stories going from the back of the original building to the next street.

Flags - Albion Hotel, Ypres

Eventually got have a beer in the market square and watch my second most favourite form of entertainment, after karaoke of course, street theatre.  Has there ever been a more pointless form of entertainment than street theatre?

Market square and cloth hall

Delicious Belgian beer

This evening I attended the last post ceremony at the Menin gate.  I will talk about this a bit later as it is getting close to drinky time and I have a voucher for a free "regional beer".

Suffice to say that the day finished with dinner of prawn croquettes, Flemish stew and a couple of beers.  I slept like a babe.