Road trip to Ieper

We drove to Ieper to see the Flander's Fields Museum. We realized that although WWII looms larger in the American consciousness, the reason that WWI looms larger for Belgium is that the war was for four years a static war fought on Belgian soil. The town of Ieper (Ypres) was leveled. Americans did not come into the conflict until 1918 and the war was over in November. The static war was a gruesome trench war.
Here is a figure of a horse trying to bring shells through the mud.
Some of the trenches were like underground villages, very difficult to maintain in the wet. Winston Churchill said he would like to have Ieper remain as a memorial to all the British troops who died there, but the people of Ieper rebuilt their city. The museum is in the old Cloth Hall.

The Cloth Hall at night.

The Ieper Cathedral was also leveled and rebuilt. This is a bust of St. Nicholas in the cathedral.