Giethoorn to Ypres

It is about 280 miles from Giethoorn to Ypres and so we had the motorway and kept the speed at around 80 where we could and apart from a stop to pick up some sandwiches and a loo break we arrived at our destination after about 4. 5 hours later which is not bad considering the distance.
The Dutch motorways have an excellent road surface unlike the Belgians which do not ,and as soon as you cross the border you can tell the difference

We are staying in the Ariane Hotel where we have stayed once before and thought it nice and its handy for getting to the Menen Gate where they hold the service each evening at 20.00 which is what we plan to do tonight.
However as soon as we arrived at the Hotel we had a cuppa and changed the ferry trip date and time as we have decided to come back one days early rather than risk getting delayed and Noel missing his important consultant appointment on Wednesday evening.
So following a brief rest we walked down to the Menen gate where already people were beginning to gather but the weather was grey and slight rain in the air, but as we were there at about 7.30 pm and the event not scheduled until 8 pm we found a little bar and availed ourselves of a glass of wine for Noel and and a small beer for Jennifer.
At 7.50 pm we left the bar and walked the twenty yard's to join the already quite large crowd of people who arrived and there were schoolchildren and just about every age and many Brits and so it is not possible to get a good view. Its a shame they don't erect some large TV screens to enable those people at the back and also those with height challenge to enable them to see what is happening.

The event only takes about ten minutes and for the amount of people there it goes so quiet and when they last post is played there is a moments silence and then the background noise starts to rise and people wipe their eyes and start leaving.
The gate is covered with the names of all the fallen in the first World War and its emotional to see so many wasted lives due to politicians and war mongers, is there a difference I ask myself?. So after the service we walked back in the light rain to the Hotel and went to the restaurant for an evening dinner. One has to remember that in France and Belgium on a Monday night many restaurant are closed and so the Hotels do well. The Arianne has a very good restaurant and so I went through my performance regarding 'No Garlic and Onions or strong spices' anywhere and this meant I ended up with a nice plate of  fish which was excellent.
And so to bed