Saturday 30 May

An absolutely beautiful day. Clear sky, sun shining, low humidity and not too hot.

We start the day with two bags of laundry and head to the laundrymat that the hotel reception staff have told us about. Found quickly (just outside the walls of Ieper) but instructions are all in Flemish/Dutch. A young woman WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH comes in and she is lovely. Who would have known that you have to put money into a machine which gives you a token which then goes into the washing machine? All is sorted.

I leave Tina and go back into Ieper main square to track down Shrapnel Charlie's address. There is a market going on in the main square and this slows me down (have to park a distance away) but I quickly get the address and a location marked on my map from the Info centre as he is well known.

Get to Shrapnel Charlie in a couple of minutes. Knock on the door of his tiny, narrow house and his wife answers. It is between 10.30am and 11am and he is not up yet as he had a bad night and is not well. She invites me in and goes to ask whether he will get up ... and there he is, Ivan "Shrapnel Charlie" Sinnaeve of Sint Jan. I am made very welcome and Ivan takes me to his workshop and shows me the full process. He melts some shrapnel lead and makes a NZ "lemon squeezer" hat right in front of me. For those who do not know his story, Ivan was a carpenter who had a work accident and could no longer be a carpenter. He can walk but spends a lot of time in a wheelchair. He started making models of soldiers out of lead from Ypres shrapnel. He is now well known throughout the world and receives many visitors at his very crowded house. He and his lovely wife are very hospitable. Ivan has a wicked sense of humour and is very knowledgable. It is amazing the things he has dug up from his own tiny property eg a .303 rifle with bayonet. As he said, you don't have to look too hard to find things in this area.

After nearly an hour I leave and head back to the laundry where Tina is waiting and she is happy. All the washing and drying is done. No iron but only a few things need one.

Back to hotel and then stroll for coffee, a look at the market and lunch is a sausage and onions in a bun.

Go through the In Flanders Fields Museum in the old Cloth Hall (excellent). You get a person to track as you go around. Mine was von Kanne - a German pilot who was killed by British air force over Poperinge in 1916. For those interested, look up Talbot House, Poperinge on Google.

Back to hotel where Tina gets an iron, a rest and watch FA Cup Final. Tina texting her brother in NZ - both Liverpool fans who, for one day, become Everton supporters.

I did a count up today and we have so far slept in 23 different places:
1 in Auckland
a hotel and the desert in Dubai (the most uncomfortable)
a ship
3 in Turkey
4 in Greece
6 in Italy
6 so far in France/Belgium

At 7.30pm we head out for the Menin Gate ceremony. EVERY night at 8pm a brief ceremony is held (ours was 7 minutes long). There were a couple of hundred people present. The Last Post was sounded by 4 buglers, wreaths were laid by groups and individuals (anyone is welcome to lay a wreath). There were young British men and women soldiers and a guard of honour from the Last Post Great War Society.

On to dinner. Our waitress was either not too bright or very new (maybe new). I ask what the soup of the day is and she says a word then tells me she doesn't know what it is in English and scuttles away. She comes back to tell us it is "Green". Sounds interesting so we order it! It's vege soup and is nice. I order Flemish beef stew and Tina orders veal stew. They come in caste iron pots to keep them hot and both are delicious and very filling. Excellent meal.