Poppies

Ah, the poppies.  

 2014 marked the 100 year anniversary of the first World War.  To remember the somber occasion, the moat of the Tower of London slowly became a field of ceramic poppies.  The installation, called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Blood,  almost 900,000 flowers were "planted" leading up to the 11 November.  Staggeringly, each poppy represents a British fatality in the war.

 Starting in August with the "waterfall", the art installation grew and grew to encompass the entire moat.  Soon, this became a huge attraction, with people standing in lines for hours and congesting central London and some of the busiest tube stations in town.  All the tube stations had signs asking people to use alternate routes to get to the Tower as millions made their way to see it in the final weeks.  This made me nervous- I get agitated in the friendliest of crowds and waiting for hours in such crowds is bound to ensure that by the time I got to the front of the line, I would be a sweaty clammy mess of angry angst and cease to be impressed by anything.  

I chose a rainy night to make my pilgrimage.  It was crowded, but do-able.  It also happened to be the last night before they started uninstalling after Armistice Day, so I really waited until the 11th hour on this.  

It's just....incredible and moving and somber.  However, I did openly mock a man who was front and center on Skype on an Ipad and having a loud conversation about how his day was with the tinny speakers turned up.  Was he a New Yorker?  That was my best guess.  It's a war memorial, have some humility and respect.  Save the laugh with your blokes for later.    

It was hard to grasp the scale of it, but the entire moat was filled and you would need a drone to capture the entire thing on flim.  Ah, but that is where the BBC steps in.  Now that the installation is being deconstructed, you can buy a poppy!  All the proceeds go to charity.  

You can still see it- I heard that the cascade will be left indefinitely, and there is an exhibit in the Tower itself about the military history that it played during the war.  I haven't bought a ticket for the tower in years- maybe the first trip I took over to London ages ago- but I remember it being well worth the price of admission.  There's so much creepy dark history here, it really made for an appropriate and dramatic backdrop.      

Impressions of Belgium

It's flat and it's wet.

There's a lot of farmland, dotted with small towns with their austere churches.

There's a lot of history here from the past hundred years. Lots of Great War cemeteries and battlefields.

I found a gunner pilbox in the middle of a town.

Everywhere we went, people asked us about the upcoming US election. The opinion all over Europe is very pro-Obama. One guy commented, "Everyone I meet from the states is voting for Obama. So who would vote for the other guy?". We could only conclude that the Other Guy's supporters just don't get out much.

We spent a night in Watou, where St. Berndardus is brewed. The brewery has a really cozy B&B attached to it if you don't mind the smell of malty hops invading your sleep.

Those tall post is where the hops are grown- they are all over this area and they call this the Hop Capital of Belgium. They had just had their hop-harvest, so the hop fields were a little bare.

Watou is right on the border of France, and the Mont du Cats is close by on a hillside, where the monks make cheese and beer. We took the pilgrimage up the hillside in pouring rain, giving the monastery a rather mysterious air to it.

Watou also had a fantastic little town square filled with good places to eat.

We had the best dinner of our trip at 't Hommelhof.

It was a fantastic find- they are making fresh, locally derived food in inventive ways, but not too fussy. I love places like this.