Albert, France, is smaller than Cambrai, and the town square offers one of the loveliest cathedrals with a gold statue of Mary holding up the baby Jesus. As the War Historian Gordon put it when he gave us directions to this particular cathedral, you can’t not see it – you will simply spot it because […]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I met Gordon Hall at Varlet Farm, the B&B where my husband and I stayed in the Ypres area of Belgium. Gordon is a Tour Guide whom I’m quite sure had no idea he was actually an answer to my prayer about using my time in Europe wisely. […]

The next day we checked out of Charlotte’s lovely B&B, but before leaving the Ypres area we visited Poperinge and Talbot House. This was a home several miles behind the Allied line where a Chaplain simply called “Tubby” operated a house and garden where soldiers could come and find peace, a little entertainment and above […]

We started the following day with a wonderful breakfast, then packed a lunch provided by Charlotte: sandwiches, fruit and chocolate (who could be in Belgium without eating chocolate?). Our route through the Ypres Salient was thoroughly planned now, thanks to Charlotte and her guest, Gordon. The itinerary took us through Passchendaele, where thousands of soldiers […]

I’ve just returned from the ACFW conference in Minneapolis, which is why I missed posting at the end of last week. It was great to reconnect with old friends, brush up on craft related topics, think about the business end of things, and oh yeah, eat food that someone else cooked!Here I am with four […]

We packed up our little Nissan Note rental car and drove south to a little town about an hour from Brugge, called Poelkapelle. It’s just outside of Ypres, Belgium and was to be another of those moments that are sprinkled throughout our trip. Little did I expect there would be a Tour Guide staying at […]