Flanders itinerary reaction

My wife and I are planning to spend 5 +/- days in Flanders the first week of July, after a week in Paris. Would very much appreciate reactions to my draft itineray and any ideas (changes/additions) you wish to offer. We%26#39;re interested in scenic towns/small cities, lots of side street strolling, parks for reading/people watching, etc. We%26#39;ll deal with the tourist crunch which seems inevitable (I guess we%26#39;re adding to that crunch), but want to be abel to get away from it at well.

Here are my thoughts:

--Train from Paris, through Brussels to Gent, which we will use as our base. Based on my reading, it seems to offer a lot of nice sites/options/etc., without being too large and crowded. It also seems to have easy access to our other day-trip options.

--Day trip to Brugge (priority) by train

--Day trip to Brussels (likely but not definitely) by train

--Day trips possibly to Ypres of Kortrijk (train? or is it best to do that by car for a day?)

T--rain back from Gent through Brussels to CDG for mid-day flight home.

Reactions...and thank you for yur helpful advice.

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The only comment I would make is that I don%26#39;t see the need for a car for the itinerary you mention: you can get to Ieper (which I highly recommend for the In Flanders Field museum) by train from Gent Sint Pieters, changing at Kortrijk, in 1h11 minutes. Of course, if you want to stop in other places, especially smaller ones, you might want a car.

If you want to stop in Kortrijk on the way to or from Ieper by train you must ask for a VIA ticket (i.e. ask for a ticket to Ieper via Kortrijk). Even if you have to change at Kortrijk (and by the way the final destination of the 2nd train is Poperinge) , if you don%26#39;t have a VIA ticket you must take the next available train, it is not allowed to interrupt your journey to visit the town. With a VIA ticket, which costs no more than the normal ticket, you are allowed to stop for up to 24 hours.

In July you might notice the (local) tourist CRUSH on trains between the coast and Brussels, especially at weekends, but it%26#39;s no better on the roads.

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If you want to see some of the historical WW1sites you will be better of with a car %26#39;cause they%26#39;re not in Ypres (Ieper) proper. Cemeteries, sites and monuments are scattered all over the Westhoek. There%26#39;s in fact a very interesting route that you can drive.

Here%26#39;s what I found on the Ieper website:

The In Flanders Fields Route (82 km) leads you through the southern Westhoek. A central position is taken by the numerous relics and monuments that remind us of the First World War. The route, that starts in Ypres, first follows the Ypres Salient. For four years, harsch battles were fought here. The landscape is full of military cemeteries: Essex Farm Cemetery, Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Langemark, Tyne Cot Cemetery, ... Then the route leads you to the woods of the Heuvelland. The landscape is determined by hills, like the Kemmelberg, the Rodeberg and the Scherpeberg. Next to cosy villages in the Heuvelland (Wijtschate, Wulvergem, Nieuwkerke, Kemmel, Dranouter, Loker and Westouter) you also visit Mesen, near the language frontier. On your way back, you visit the hop region of Poperinge. Via Vlamertinge you come back to Ypres.

Price for this map: € 2,50 (for sale at the tourist office)

Also interesting to visit are De Ijzertoren (Yser Tower) and De Dodengang (the Trench of Death), both in Diksmuide. Another route, the Yser Front Route (79 km), is also outmapped and for sale at the tourist office in Ieper.

Both are interesting, not only historically but you will see something different, completely off the beaten path.

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thank you very much...sounds very interesting and worth a day-trip.

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