Ypres

As a sober precursor to our alpine passes and classic rally routes road trip, Ross and I crossed Belgium to Western Flanders in order to visit the grave of Granny’s favourite brother, Tom Hodge, after whom Dad is named. He is buried at the Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, between Ypres and Poperinge. On such a gorgeous spring day, it was impossible to envisage the wretchedness which visited this place almost a century ago.

At the end of the day, together with about 1000 others, we attended the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate which is inscribed with the names of 54,896 allied dead whose remains were never found and interred. This emotive ceremony has taken place every evening at 8 pm since 1928.

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Leuven

Together with the usual suspects from Ingrid's maths department, on Saturday we attended the Zythos Bierfestival in Leuven, in the Brabant region of Belgium to the east of Brussels.

The infamous Pink Elephant makes another appearance.

The immense Brabanthal hosted about 100 breweries featuring over 500 very different beers.

Downtown Leuven by night.

The traditional end-of-evening kebab stop.