the art of structure

World War 1 fortification near Passchendale

Penn Avenue in the Strip District, Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese, Mellon Arena, & Consol Energy Center

The Colosseum

one day in Ieper

We spent a day in Ieper (Ypres), a town and a region continuously shaped by the First World War and its legacy.  Ieper's famous cloth hall, once left in ruins and rubble, now houses the remarkable In Flanders Field Museum.  

Tyne Cot Commnwealth War Graves Cemetery.  Dedicated in 1917, Tyne Cot is the burial ground for Commonwealth soldiers who served at the Ypres Salient.  There are over 10,000 graves, of which only about 2,000 are named.  It was designed to resemble an English garden.  We were there in February 2001. 

I went back in July 2009 and it looked like this:

The Ijzertoren: A monument to Flemish soldiers who served in the war.  The original structure was destroyed in 1946, allegedly by French-speaking radicals.  The current tower not only memorializes the Flemish sacrifices during the war, but also serves as a symbol of Flemish nationalism. The inscription at the top VVK - AVK stands for Vlaanderan voor Kristos, Alles voor Vlaanderan.

that quiet place

You're probably thinking to yourself, "Why Belgium?"  I get asked that question a lot, and before I moved there, my reasoning managed to be both cosmopolitan and narrow-minded.  I went to Belgium, I thought, because of it's proximity to other places.  Hop a train and ninety minutes later, I could be in Paris, Amsterdam, or Cologne!  Thanks to the Eurostar, London was only three hours away!  The best thing Belgium had going for it was the ease of going elsewhere.

Or so I thought.   A warm, sunny September day in Brugge promptly shattered all of my entrenched beliefs.

Belgium is flat land and gothic architecture, rowdy Saturdays and quiety Sundays, bicycles and beer.  It's as reserved and unassuming as Paris is in-your-face.  It could easily be mistaken for just another blurry landscape that the trains zips by.  But Belgium has so much more to share, once I took the time to stop and listen. 

The Grand Place in Brussels:

A foggy Ghent:

The Cloth Hall at Ieper (it used to look like this):

(the place with the flags has the best fries)

the seacoast at Oostende: