Finkele to Steenstratebrug (between Boezinge and Zuidschote, just north of Ieper)

Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 June 2015

14 kilometers, 2 hours 10 minutes

 After a morning ride into the nearby town of Reninge for supplies

we up-anchored (figuratively of course) and headed downstream to Knokkebrug and then south onto the Ieper-IJzer and, after a 180 degree turn so that we were bow-on to the wind, moored up at a free pontoon just before the Steenstratebrug (‘Stone Streets Bridge’) and toddled over the road to the delightful ‘Eetkaffee Steenstraete’ to enjoy a cold beer.

Steenstratebrug mooring with 'Eetkaffee' in background.

Later that afternoon we walked the couple of kilometres to the memorial erected in memory of the brothers Van Raemdonk and Fievez, made out of masonry from the German stronghold ‘Stampkot’. This memorial has become one of the rallying points of Flemish nationalism.

 Steenstrate, together with Langemark, are famous as being the places where chlorine gas was first used in WWI.

At the end of the afternoon on 22 April 1915, the German troops released approximately 150 tons of chlorine gas at the allies, which were dug in at the Northern side of the so-called Ieper Salient between Steenstrate and Langemarck. This meant the start of chemical warfare in World War I, which would only increase up to the point where near the end of the war in 1918 approximately 25% of all ammunition would carry a chemical payload.

In 1929 the veteran French soldiers of the 418th regiment at Steenstrate erected a monument in commemoration of the first major gas attack with chlorine gas. The memorial was made by the French artist Maxime Real del Sarte and realistically portrayed a soldier with his hands around his neck fighting for one last sip air. Two soldiers are already choked at his feet. The text under the monument read that on April 22, 1915 troops of the French 45th Division and the 87th Territorial Division were poisoned by gas and since then there were still casualties of this terrible weapon which was first used by the Germans.

 This monument was clearly a thorn in the foot for the Germans and they blew up the monument during the Second World War in May 1941. Which says something about the realistic expressiveness of the memorial. http://www.zilvercruys.be/monument.en.html

Wednesday, after first having to fix a puncture on my E-bike,

 we decided to ride a circular route to Bikschote-Langemark-Poelkapelle-Boezinge-Zuidschote and back to Steenstrate. Bikschote was almost deserted and, apart from a restored windmill which was not open to the public on Wednesdays,

 the road to Langemark and Poelkapelle was the best thing there.

Langemark was a bustling little town with a small morning market on the go and a Tourist Office without any sign that it was such (“As we are not open on Saturday afternoons and Sundays we don’t want to mislead people by putting up a ‘Tourist Office’ sign”!); but the big ‘drawcard’ was the very sombre, oak tree lined, WWI German cemetery, enclosing the graves of, and memorial to, some 44,000 soldiers including 3,000 student volunteers, named and unknown, who died in the area.

The names of unknown soldiers subsequently identified.

 From there it was on to Poelkapelle

Striking memorial in Poelkapelle

with its famous Stork memorial to the French WWI flying ace, Georges Guynemer, who went missing in action near the town on 11 September 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Guynemer

 Having been starved of frites for some time, it was much to my delight that we found an open kiosk and while Lynn enjoyed an ice lolly (to round off the duo of sugared pancakes bought at the market in Langemark), I feasted on ‘kleintje met mayo’ (a small portion of chips with mayonnaise) – the kleintje is enormous and Lynn had to help me finish the portion.

Delicious!

Then it was on to Boezinge (almost via Ieper in a vain attempt to find the Yorkshire Trenches) and Zuidschote in an effort to find somewhere to have a late lunch but it would seem that all the restaurants close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so it was back to the larder on board, and nothing wrong with that either!