Ducks around Ieper (Ypres)

My previous visits to Europe have been focussed on restaurants and food.  The trip in 2008 was focussed on WWI and WWII battle sites in Belgium.  Okay, there was also great food and restaurants as well as it always is with our family.  


I won't even begin to put history lessons in here.  I will leave that to my son-in-law and that at another time and place.  He, being a history teacher with a passion for war history, was our own remarkable personal tour guide around the battle sites in Belgium, making it interesting and informative.


Below are two links for those who would like to delve further into Diksmuide and trenches in particular as this is where this set of photos were taken.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_warfare
http://www.trabel.com/diksmuide/diksmuide-trench.htm

Yes, the trenches have been recreated in concrete and there is no mud as we were there in July and there are poppies growing everywhere, softening the harshness of the images from WWI.  Yes, it is not an exact re-creation, but would I not have been seriously scarred in my mind to have been exposed to what the soldiers on both sides had to live through in this area of conflict?

The surroundings are flat, flat and flat, giving quite a different outlook on the the importance of a vantage point such as Hill 60 and why it was named as such.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hill_60_(Western_Front)

After visiting the trenches, we stopped at beautiful Ieper for lunch.  And of course visited the town hall which has an excellent museum, In Flanders Fields.   http://www.inflandersfields.be/  
It is still difficult for me to believe the utter devastation of this area, even seeing the photos, and that the city has been entirely rebuilt to how it looked in 1914. 
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/town-ieper-history.htm

Lunch with the ducks.  After all the rolling of the eyes and groaning when the ducks were brought out of my handbag, the kids played the game with me very well, pointing out picture opportunities and making sure the ducks were fed and watered along with us.


Before going to Europe on this trip, friends were astonished that, firstly, we were going to Belgium and then that we were going to stay for two weeks.  Even the passport person at Brussels airport was amazed when daughter and son-in-law told him how long they were staying in the country.  'What are you going to do to fill in your time?'


I loved our time in Belgium  It was easy to get around, wonderful scenery, great food, wine, beer and chocolate.  Great place to visit.

Ducks in Bruges

This is going to be mainly photos as I have so many of ducks in Bruges - mainly the real ones.  Bruges itself is beautiful.  

A canal in Bruges, most of them are this pretty.

Blue Duck and Little Duck posing on the canal.

The real ducks across the canal hanging out on a landing.

Yes, these are not ducks but what the heck, wouldn't you take photos of them as well?

Looks like a female version of Little Duck except she is a cake of soap.

And chocolate ducks - we are in Belgium after all.

I have cropped this photo as didn't need to show the pearl G-string on the mannequin, I will leave that to people's imagination.  I was very disappointed that they were using a duck in this display for a sex shop!

And lastly, this was a duck we met while we were having late afternoon drinks beside the canal.  He really had attitude, eating the beer snacks that were thrown to him and even stole a cigarette out of my hand when I held it down out of the way of everyone else at the table.  Those were the days when I still smoked.

Long live all ducks - feathered, rubber, soap and chocolate.

Ducks in Champagne 2008

After Paris, my son had arranged for us to travel to Reims where there was the guided tour through Veuve Clicquot building and cellars, lunch at the Manoir in the hills and then back to Reims for a visit to Krug cellars and dinner at a local brassiere with our local hosts.  Wow, what a day.  And that is the meaning of the heading - no, we did NOT eat ducks cooked in Champagne.  Though the thought...................

The ducks were allowed to come out of my handbag very quickly when we were in the private tasting room at Veuve Clicquot while we were left alone for a moment between our tour and the guided tasting of the wines that make the famous champagne.  The ducks looked very happy being surrounded by all that glamour and yellow diffused light. Definitely suited them.




That was the end of their frivolity for the day.  They were not allowed out in public again for the time we were in Reims.
Lunch at the Veuve Clicquot Manoir in Verzy, maybe this picture explains why the ducks were not allowed to come out.

Between the Krug tasting (which I left early, there really is only so much champagne a girl can take in) and dinner, I retired to the hotel for a much needed relax and soak in the bath. 

As the ducks had been cooped up in my handbag for so long they enjoyed a wallow as well.  

The next morning we packed the car, no mean feat with the four of us travelling, had a wander around Reims and the beautiful cathedral and then continued on our travels to Belgium.

Decorative duck at Hotel des Templars, Reims.  Okay, couldn't resist taking the photo.