Day 6 - Another day on the bike

With a nice day forcast, today was planned as another day out and about on the bikes. We had a bit of a sleep in and picked up the same e bikes.

The sky looked a bit ominous and it was a bit cool when we set out. We rode out through the country side to the Passendale area, not too far from Ypres. It's one of the areas where the Australian's were heavily involved in fighting during WW1. We've visited here previously, but not at a leisurely pace on a bicycle. The ride was mostly through rural country side. They've had a very wet spring and a warm summer, so everything is lush and green.

We happened across a strawberry farm that was selling their fresh produce from a vending machine, so we stopped for some fresh strawberries.

We called into Tyne Cot and Polygon Wood Cemeteries. If you've never been to the front, it's hard to describe. There are cemeteries everywhere, and they contain hundreds (some thousands) of gravesites. Some known, some unknown soldiers. Most of them are very quiet and peaceful spots. They are all very well maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission - beautiful flowers and freshly mown lawns. These 2 cemeteries are a couple of the largest and both with many Australians. Tommeke the donkey lives right beside Tyne Cot and is a bit of a legend!

We stopped for a beer/wine and some cheese at a cafe run by the owner of our Air Bnb.

We also called into a new memorial called Brothers in Arms - which is an Australian based memorial. The sculpture was made by an Aussie, of 2 Aussie brothers who fought in WW1. One of the bothers cradled the other brother as he died in his arms. It's a memorial about siblings who have fought and/or died during war. We also read of the Seabrook brothers from Australia - all 3 died on the same day 😔

There was also a cafe/bar at this site - it contained lots of Aussie memoriabilia (including a Pies hat). We tried some bitterballen (thick meat stew, crumbed and deep fried) - it was pretty tasty.

We also visited a friend today - Conrad, a battlefield tour guide who Kate first met. He's since guided a group of us Sheahan's. He's battling brain cancer, so it was lovely to spend a couple of hours with him and his wife Katrien.

We dropped the bikes back - we only covered about 40km today! Look, they have rubber 'chains'.

We then found a few beers (although mine was more like a soft drink - so sweet).

In Belgium, each beer has its own special glass - imagine the bars and the amount if glasses required. Some sell hundreds of beers. This was one of the bars tonight.

Tomorrow we head to Brussels for an evening night to Barcelona.