NCL Cruise Day 2 - In Bruges - In Flanders Fields Museum

In Ypres, we headed into the In Flanders Fields Museum.

I will note that on the bus on the way there, a Euro fellow and his kid insisted on signing "In Flanders Fields" loudly, gratingly, and atonally 4 flipping times in a row.

Had they done it for a fifth time, I likely would have buried them In Flanders Fields.  I mean I get being excited and all, but that level of bad singing -- repeatedly, gets rather annoying, this was nails-on-chalkboard quality.

Anyways, it was a relief to get off that bus and into the museum.

The museum is considered one of Europe's best and for good reason.

The museum recounts the history of the First World War in Belgium, and has artifacts aplenty, and preserves and presents many accounts of the fates of those who fought in it.

The museum is rather dark, as befits such a subject, and tends to have subdued or reddish lighting throughout. As befitted the place, people were rather quiet and respectful as they moved through the museum.

It's a great and detailed museum, with a truly excellent collection and cohesive narrative of Flanders in the First Word War.

It ends with you stepping to a hallway leading to the exit, festooned with drapes that list the Wars and casualties in this wars since the War to End All Wars ended.

In short, the Great War really, really, did not end all wars, but you already knew that.

Interestingly enough, some wars in the list are referred to by their English names, and others in French, or Flemish.

After the museum, the tour group broke up to get some lunch on our own.

I got together with a family of guys from Georgia and Virginia who were together for a family trip, and went to a pub with them.  Very nice folks, and we had a great time and conversation.

I had a burger and frites.  

In Belgium, never call frites "French Fries".  The Belgians are rather sensitive about that, and maintain that it was they and not the French who are the inventors of that which we call french fires.   Both the burger and the frites were amazing.

Then we re-boarded the bus for our last stop on the tour - the place that made In Flanders Fields immortal.