Flanders Field: Battlefields, World War I

Here is the relief map of the Salient, the front formed by the British, Canadian, French and Belgian forces, at Ypres, Belgium. It is spelled Ieper on modern maps. A "salient" juts into enemy territory, making it particularly vulnerable - see the large poking area on the map here. Nearly surrounded. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypres_Salient. See also //dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/pd49/places/ieper/salient. Photos and history; and later post here. Photos of the Salient - ttp://www.worldwar1.com/pharc002.htm

Years of warfare in one place. There were three battles at Ypres - resulting in the town's total destruction. First in 1914, defending against the German push to the sea. Second in 1915, where trenches and gas were used. The area is flat, making trenches imperative. Third in 1917, known as the battle of Passchendaele. In 1918, the Germans were finally pushed back by an offensive at that time.

Newspaper yesterday: young people are not learning the history of the world wars, for lack of school hours and setting other priorities. Teach your own. Find Flanders at www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders.

Antwerp: Best Docks Restaurant and Hosts -The "Pan-Earth, All Cuisines"

Art! Food! Conversation! Fufu if you want it! Any culinary tradition, you get it. Feel right at home.

A must. The Pan-Earth All Cuisines restaurant. Down by the docks (Bonaparte dok). It is set up to serve the world's merchant marine, read about the world-wide maritime (tanker, and other commercial freight?) fleets and the countries at //www.immigration-usa.com/world_fleet. Here are the water transportation occupational information: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos247. No job security, one voyage at a time, several months each, 4-12 hour shifts. Long time away from family, no healthcare? About 1/2 unionized? See site.

The chef and owner of this fine jewel of a restaurant says he wants to give a taste of home, a little warmth, to the sailors and merchant seamen. The food is not just for the merchant mariners, though. We recommend it to everyone.

The Seamen's Institute is nearby. Here is the work of the Institute in New York, but it appears to be virtually world-wide in offering services and training to seafarers, including those settling in an area. See www.seamenschurch.org/444.asp. Search also for the Institute in Newport, RI and Philadelphia. Wikipedia has it starting in Hong Kong. See //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamen's_Institute.

I was sure I wrote down his name, but I can't find it. He said he can prepare any cuisine worldwide, as requested, from anywhere. Dan ordered steak and mango, and I had African (Congo chicken).

Should have ordered fufu or asked for pounded yam but was too slow to think of it. Rice received and excellent. He said to order the piccadillo next time. Everybody got in the pictures.

He is a fine chef, and the portrait was done by an admiring patron when he opened this restaurant. Go there. Enjoy.

But, remember that the port area has lots of other recreational offerings going on, so expect what you see. People earning a living. We stopped in one place first, then chose to move on. Not that it was not friendly - the people were. But they didn't serve dinner. Fine.

Antwerp: The Water View Floatel

Where to spend the night, when the cute, smaller places near the old town are ful: Try a floatel.

We stayed in a cabin on a converted Norwegian cruise liner now permanently moored in the docks area, called Bonaparte dok (after Napoleon - looking up what he did here). See the docks area at www.ontoeurope.com/features/2005/mar05/antwerp. This may be becoming a museum dock. The ship is the Diamond Princess and it dates from the 1950's. See it at //travel.webshots.com/album/46573935PPAdXt. Breakfast restaurant included. Excellent choice. See www.hotels-belgium.com/antwerp/diamondprincess.

Plan to spend more time in Antwerp than in Brussels. Commercial, like Brussels, and cosmopolitan, but also more walkable, and with active navigation and big castles. Much destroyed in WWII, but also much reconstructed. See Antwerp overview at www.trabel.com/antwerp; and its history at www.trabel.com/antwerp-history. Trabel means travel, if you do a search on that.

Antwerp: Art - Rubens; Medieval Architecture - the Butcher's Hall

1. Antwerp art: Peter Paul Rubens, painting, see www.trabel.com/antwerp-rubenshuis. I believe this one was from Antwerp. He of the robust ladies. Do an images search on Rubens. Diets, begone. Far more healthy to balance enjoyment of life's calories, against fashion.

2. Medieval structures. These . can be huge - and not just the castles. Here is the new Butcher's Hall from 1515 - built then to enlarge the old Butcher's Hall, from the 1200's, both for the Guilds. Each end of the building has a different facade? I do not believe there are two separate halls, just different angles of the one building? See www.aviewoncities.com/antwerp/vleeshuis. The striping effect of the stone plus the size - Antwerp's glory century.

Antwerp Legends: Brabo and the Flung Hand; Langewapper at Steen

1. Antwerp's Stories: Brabo. Here is Town Hall, in the main square or Grote Markt. Look at the left - the statue on one foot like a baseball pitcher. That represents Brabo and the Legend of the Hand.

The fellow is a Roman soldier, Brabo, who saved the day. He chopped off the hand of the giant of those times who was exacting a high priced toll from all comers. The soldier chopped off and flung the hand in the river - and the town adopted the hand as its symbol after that. See Brabo statue write-up at www.visitbelgium.com/antwerp.


2. Now meet the Lange Wapper, or Langewapper, the statue in front of Steen Castle - steen meaning stone. The Steen is all that remains of an old citadel, see www.1911encyclopedia.org/Antwerp,_Belgium. What are those people... oh, for heaven's sake! Gone!

One explanation is that Antwerp's 16th Century Jesuits, see site on Jesuits at www.newadvent.org/cathen/14081a., objected to the attention given to this gentleman's attributes and ordered the lop. Leaving fertility seekers at a loss. Tut. See www.trabel.com/antwerp/antwerp-steen. The statue is so prominent that anyone would ask. FN1

Many other tourist websites give no whiff of this anatomical background of the statue, pointing only to the quality of the shapeshifter, including from giant to small, or trickster as at www.pantheon.org/articles/l/lange_wapper. See more stories at www.belgium.be/eportal/application?languageParameter=en&pageid=contentPage&docId=25539
Others offer both angles: here is a site supporting the endowment element, as well as the demon or shapeshifter: www.holidaycityflash.com/zOut%20of%20the%20Ordinary/strange_statues1.

See stories about Langewapper at FN 2.
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FN 1
Etymology. Wikipedia wants to know the origin of the word "twerp." See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twerp.

Perhaps Antwerp's clerical cultural bleeping here, as to the hapless partless Langewapper, triggered the pejorative "twerps" as to the censors. For other brilliant speculations about twerps, see www.thefreedictionary.com/twerp; and more on derivations at www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=t&p=24. Following the thought here, perhaps Antwerp's Exuberance Restoration Committee could hold a referendum to reverse the dismemberment after these 400-500 years. Members only. The Mannequin Pis survives in Brussels, after all. See www.sobi.org/photos/places/Brussels/pis/index. Age discrimination; overzealous culture reframing, leading to dull. See ec.europa.eu/employment_social/publications/2003/cev403001_en.pdf.

FN 2
Here is one of the Langewapper stories: it supports the trickster theory, not the accoutrement. It is in Dutch. See legendesantwerpen.homestead.com/Langewapper. See translation, below, from babelfish.altavista.com/tr.. To get your own translation, copy and past it to any other translation service on the net.
...............................................................................................
This is the fair use translation Babelfish result:

"On a beautiful spring evening were the children still lets play on the stone square, then a visible rich lord came there aanwandelen. He had a large pocket which put full snoep,* all sweet heerlijkheden* which you could consider also but. He distributed them with generous hand to the children, but at the same time walked away he continuously more of the stone square, of keel. He started how longer how more rapidly to run and it was crazy thereby that he distributed more and more snoep. The screaming children continued keep track of him. Eventually were themselves they without them at, already a complete end on the Boomsesteenweg* and suddenly that generous Mr had disappeared, as solved in air. They could hear only spotlach* still its and then knew them that them flies long had followed."

*
aanwendelen: not found yet
snoep: nibble. See www1.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.
heerlijkheden: not found yet
Boomsesteenweg: not found yet
spotlach: not found yet
...................................................................................
Other Langewapper info - do your own translation of this - is it a story or a comment? I have not done this translation. //stadsspelen.blogspot.com/2006/05/stadsspel-antwerpen-in-de-voetsporen.

Belgium - Brussels in the middle of partition discussions

Have some escargots - snails - from a street vendor in the main square in Brussels. Brussels is an anomaly - located in a Flemish area, but with French speakers. The escargots come in big paper cups with lots of broth and a little plastic fork.

Belgium in the news. Hartford Courant 9/12/07 at A8. About like seeking like. In Belgium, as with other countries gravitating into different corners (the Czech Republic 15 years ago separated from Slovakia; Yugoslavia separated into components Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia), here comes Belgium.

Its language-culture divides into Flanders with the Flemish speakers in the Northern section, bordering with the Netherlands and some of France; and Wallonia with the French-speakers in the Southern section, bordering with a great deal of France, some of Luxembourg, some of Germany and a little of The Netherlands. Brussels, the capital, is in Flanders but is French-speaking.

Belgium is considering options. At least, it is on some tables. Maybe more areas of self-rule will result. The North is more prosperous than the South - some interest in moving health issues, transportation and the justice system out of Brussels and more into each section. Brussels is a thorny issue. Everybody wants snails.

Brussels - Michael Jackson and a great concert venue

A concert with Michael Jackson was pending - lots of construction and scaffolding going up in the square. The relationship has not been all friendly. Michael Jackson was held to have plagiarized a song, written by Belgian twins, in a court case and ruling by a Belgian Court, 9/11/07. See//ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/070911/entertainment/entertainment_belgium.

Orientation sites

Getting to know Belgium: This describes the languages, Dutch in north, German in some eastern areas, French in the south. //europa.eu/youth/travelling_europe/index_be_en. There is also old Flemish. It says it is geared to young people, but that is silly because we all want to know these things. I know some chronologically challenged by virtue of few years who are old old old in heart.

Brussels Chocolate

That is the chocolate factory-museum in Brussels, just off the main square. Splendid samples, see the process start to finish. Musee du Cacao et du Chocolat. See and smell how it is made, get the walk-around tour, and taste. Belgium has been known for its chocolate since 1912 - see //www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=brussels@35&cur_section=fea&feature=30005

Bonbons at risk - the waxy ersagz chocolate without the high proportion of real cocoa butter and not substitutes, vs. the real thing. See New York Times 6/25/07, commentary by Mort Rosenblum. "While discerning chocoholics will for over whatever it takes, those who can't pay will never know chocolate."

Personal note. Agree. Once represented a Spanish client who rewarded the entire office with the most fabulous European chocolate I have ever tasted. Here is the history of chocolate. //www.chocolatelovers.com/history. For all of us, it was swoons.

Some time, before you die, go and pay the most you cannot afford for the best real European chocolate you can find, and you may be inclined to boycott the US supermarket style manufacturers' lesser ingredients. Some things are worth it. It is a matter of principle: profit vs. the common good, the common good being that taste.



While in Europe, take advantage of every opportunity to go through a real chocolate factory and eat this "elixir of the gods" before it is beyond us.

Bastogne - Battle of the Bulge 1944-1945; Ardennes

World War II's Victory in Europe Day, VE Day, is May 8 each year. Mark that on your calendar if you are abroad at that time. It is an important date in Europe, where the experience of war is direct and devastating. This was the area of the Battle of the Bulge. See //www.awon.org/bastogne/. There were still veterans' groups there, several days later. The museum there has large exhibit and experiential areas, see the awon.org site for photos of it, and maps, and military strategy.

See also these sites for photos, and then an account of the military activity at Bastogne://www.army.mil/CMH/reference/bulge/images; and www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/Bastogne/bast-fm. Go to the home page first, and only use the later address section to see you are at the place we reference. These events are becoming remote - This was not my generation's war. We were too little. Maybe you were not born.

A country's parades, and tributes, and the museum and other reconstructions of war events, anchor history better than textbooks. Here is the memorial to the allies from their sacrifices in World War II.

There is continuing gratitude, even homage, to the Americans who fought here in WWII, and the principles they fought for in that era; and sadness and disbelief about the present.

There is a fine view from the top of the memorial.

Precaution: If you have small children at the museum, watch them closely, because it is realistic, strobe-lit, maze-like, and loud, to recreate some elements of battle itself. Easy to get involved and a child may wander.

There is basically one way through, however, so keep going and the child will probably reappear. Only recently a war museum like these opened up in this country - the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, opened 12/2006. See www.libertymemorialmuseum.org/.

Don't miss the American memorial, a star shape, and go to the top, for the people they helped.

Antwerp, Diamonds, and Jewish history: Brussels, Antwerp, Other in Belgium

Jewish history in Belgium. The diamond cutters in Antwerp at the outset of WWII were 80% Jewish, leaving the industry decimated and the professionals fleeing to "Cuba, England, Palestine, and the USA." See History of Gem Cutting at www.khulsey.com/jewelry/history_gem_cutting_antwerp. They took about 90% of the diamonds with them, to keep them from the Germans.

Short history of the diamond trade. Antwerp was a center since the 1500's, then it deflected to Amsterdam when the Spanish took over Antwerp, then it recouped. See www.khulsey.com/jewelry/history_gem_cutting_antwerp. Antwerp was incorporated into the Netherlands in 1815, after the Napoleonic wars. Germans occupied the city during WWI, until 1918.

Any serious visit to Europe, and visiting the sites so meaningful to WWI and WWII, means close contact with Jewish history - Jewish quarters in the towns, many now assimilated into general residence areas for different people, others preserved, some vacant; and the graveyards dating back so far, and with the stones of remembrance on the headstones, frost-heaved ground, old, old trees. For "Belgian Jewish Heritage," see the Belgian Tourist Office site at www.visitbelgium.com/jewish.

In any town, if you do not see it right away, ask for the old Jewish quarter. There is a list of the major museums and synagogues. For non-Jews, there is so much history laid out at the Jewish history sites that it is a good place to start for any overview.
More blogs about Belgium Road Ways.

Waterloo - Napoleon, The Duke of Wellington,

June 18, 1815. Waterloo. Waterloo. An easy drive from a side-trip in Luxembourg. See//www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/waterloo. More at www.britishbattles.com/waterloo/waterloo-june-1815.

For all the hype, the battle was a pivot-point in history, the Anglo-Allies including the Prussians and their defeat of Napoleon. Good spot for children, with educational displays, movies, walks, panoramas. Also loud. Much cannon, shouting.

There are museums , panoramas and easily-walked areas. Here is a site that focuses on Napoleon specifically: //www.napoleonguide.com/battle_waterloo. See maps, biographical events.

Links, posts, archives

References to third party websites are in longhand, pending resolution of the direct linking and copyright issues raised in summary at www.bitlaw.com. This slowing up of anyone seeking fast information may meet some people's profit needs, but not the common good. There must be a way to provide reasonable compensation without tying everybody's wrists to ankles in flying from site to site as we like to do.

Posts here began in the chronological order of the trip, arrival to departure, then change as we update. We use posting dates as a way to organize material.

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Luxembourg - side trip

Luxembourg is tidy and well organized. It is also a place of castle after castle, and General Patton. Luxembourg is an easy drive from the Bastogne.

Follow General Patton there, to his burial place at Hamm Military Cemetery at Luxembourg City, and see the castles along the way. See Luxembourg Road Ways. From there, we came back to Belgium and to Waterloo.

Bruges -Once a Major Port

Bruges: Medieval, canals, once had a harbor. See the photos at /www.trabel.com/brugge/bruges-canals.htm.

Park at an outlying area, then take the little train to town, and walk.





Here is a picture gallery, in a curriculum oriented site: www.schoolshistory.org.uk/images/brugge/index.htm.
Museums - a day in itself. See //www.virtualbruges.com/museums/default. Do a search for Bruges and Hans Memling for this 15th Century painter, a focal point of many art history courses.

At lunch, try the river eel with herbs. Prepare eel yourself, here is a big website with lots of choices - fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=eel. Be prepared to park at a far distance, and then take a little train to town, built just for that.

For an overview of Belgium, and mention of the river eel with herb sauce, see the Expatriate Guide at www.expat-online.com/moving/Belgium/culture/foodandrink. The Expatriate Guides (for people living outside their home countries) are useful as a start in any country.

More on Belgian food: We also found fries served with mayo. Not bad at all. And snails served as street food.

Ypres, or Ieper (WWI) - "In Flanders' Field;" and Arras, France: Finding graves

World War I. Remote for many, current for us. See map at mapsofworld.com/world-maps/world-war-i-mapFinding people. We were looking for a relative who had served in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, Maurice McConaghy, and who fell near Ieper-Ypres during WWI. How to do that:

1. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website at www.cwgc.org/ is a good starting point, but he was not listed.

2. We then went to the Documents Office at Ieper. It is a records library. The clerk found the old cloth bound book that was written by the commander of the Royal Scottish Fusiliers. There it was: but spelled "Maurice McConaghey." Also described -where and how he fell. Spellings are not conclusive. Try other variations.

3. The Burial. Not all at big memorial parks. They buried many soldiers where they fell in WWI, so there are literally hundreds of vest-pocket size cemeteries all around France and Belgium. Ours was among the 500 pocket cemesteries near Arras, France - so of course we went there. We finally found it. Immaculate caretaking.

There he is. Lt. Col. Maurice McConaghey with the "e." Hello, salute, and yes, we do remember. He had also served in South Africa. We even found the record of the hospital ship online that brought MM back from South Africa, wounded.

The Canadian officer who wrote the famous WWI poem,"In Flanders Field," John McRae, and who died in 1915, had also served in South Africa. Wonder if they knew each other. For the poem, see www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/inflanders.

We left a pebble on the top of the headstone.

Ypres, or Ieper (WWI) - Menen Gate and WWI Salient; Flanders Field

Ieper (Ypres) was the site of prolonged battles in WWI. It is near the French border.

My uncle, who fought at Ypres with the Canadian Army, used to say that he and his companions called the place "Wipers." He was gassed, I understand. He did not talk much about the war.

The white square must be part of the windowsill?

I have heard the town pronounced as "Eeps" and"Eeper." Watch your map, and you will probably find "Ieper" now.

For a photo gallery, see www.freefoto.com/browse.jsp?id=03-07-0. The town is in West Flanders, and a war overview is at www.webmatters.net/cwgc/menin_gate. At the beginning, people would go out in their carriages and watch. For all sites, go to the home page first, and only use the rest of the address as is helpful.

People to remember: The poet who wrote the famous poem, in Flanders Field, was Canadian. Read the poem again, and about how and when it was written in 1915, at an Arlington Cemetery site -- www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders. His biography is at www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/firstwar/mccrae.

The town of Ieper is completely rebuilt, after its destruction in WWI. There are daily taps, and services at this gate. It heads toward the next town, Menen, and groups gather from all different countries here. We caught the rainbow.

Do not miss the exhibits at the war museum. Panoramas, scenes, reenactments, lights, sound.

Itinerary After The Fact

Belgium was part of a three-country two-week drive, beginning in The Netherlands, and extending into Luxembourg.

We entered Belgium after leaving the Maastricht area, the Netherlands, and went directly to the Bastogne area in time for WWII memorials; then into Luxembourg. From Luxembourg to Namur, Waterloo, Brussels, Ghent, Kortrijk, and Ypres (where a Canadian great-uncle fought in WWI, and a more distant cousin, in the Royal Scottish Fusiliers, died). From Ypres into France, Arras, to find the cousin (we did); to Bruges, and Antwerp.