The Gravensteen castle, Gent, June 2009, a photo post - And news about this blogs posting schedule.

Posting schedule

Up until now I have been updating this blog/vlog six days a week, I have been doing this because it is a new blog and it needed a few posts in it's archives. This kind of posting schedule creates too much pressure, to keep up long term. And so from now on I intend to update this blog at least twice a week sometimes there will be a third post in a week. So on to the photo post.

Photos of the Gravensteen castle

As promised here are some photos of the Gravensteen castle in Gent (Ghent).

The front

The back

A couple of details of the walls

The inevitable moody, dark, black and white castle shot

BBE

The Gravensteen Castle, Gent, June 2009

Slap bang in the center of the historical center of Gent (Ghent) is the medieval castle Gravensteen.
This clip is a combined view of the front and back of the castle. On Monday I will be some photographs of the castle.

The Gravensteen Castle in Gent (Ghent)

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A Gent canal boat - June2009

This is a bit of a travel tip for anyone visiting Gent (Ghent) in East Flanders. The center of the city is chocked with wonderful old architecture, which is laced with some lovely canals. A nice way to see the old center of the city is by tourist boat and they are a bit of a bargain, €6.00 for adults and €3.50 for children(at the time of writing this). I managed to grab a clip of one of the boats, from a bridge over one of the canals.

A boat on the Gent canals

I think that there must be trolls under that bridge, if you look closely all the people on the boat have been abducted and replaced with other people while it was going under the bridge. OK a lorry prevented me from crossing the road in time to get the first boat coming out :)

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The South African Memorial, The Somme, September 2008, a photo post

Last year I had the chance to tour the Somme Battlefield in France. I was very impressed by, the recently restored, South African memorial. here are some pictures of the memorial at Delville Wood.

The entrance

The memorial itself

The museum inside the memorial

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The blog list and an aggressive nature clip

Blog Roll

It's time to start a blog roll. You can find it in the side bar, under the followers widget. I do not want to start off with a big list so I thought I would start with just three blogs and then add a couple more, every now and then.

MyKugelhopf - A blog of a travel blogger, foodie and chocoholic.

A Lady's Life... - An eclectic mix of comedy, life and things of interest in gerneral.

Heresy Corner - This is a journalists blog, that I use to keep up with current events, back in the old country (England)

Aggressive Nature

Well I was in the countryside near some water when something hit me in the head and made me turn around, where I saw something falling to the ground. It hit me hard and left a red mark that was still there at bedtime. It looked like it had killed itself, it was lying on the ground upside down, so I flipped it over and booted up the camcorder. In the end it turns out that it was just stunned. This is the insect thug.

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Art in the Citadel park, Lille June 2009, a photo post

Art in the citadel park Lille, some photographs

Here are some still images, to finish off after the last two video posts. They show some details of the sculpture. Useful links - Office de Tourisme de Lille - Lille, Wikipedia - Citadel of Lille, Wikipedia - Lille Citadel, Google Satellite Maps.

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Artist at work part 2 - Lille, France, June 2009

Artist at work part 2, Lille, France, June 2009

This is a clip showing some details of the sculpture that was in the clip in The Last Post. Useful links - Office de Tourisme de Lille - Lille - Wikipedia - Citadel of Lille - Wikipedia - Lille Google Satellite Maps.

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Artist at work - Lille, France, June 2009

As you may have gathered from my last post, I have recently visited Lille, in France. Getting away from the bustle of the city center, by heading for the park around the Citadel of Lille, I stumbled across an artist at work on a fallen tree trunk in the park. I thought that I would do a little posting series of his work. A clip today, another on Monday and some stills of his work on Tuesday. This first clip is of the artist, as he was actually at work. It was a pity but I did not get a chance to find out who he is.

Warning artist at work

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Lille - Attack of the giant dinobabies

Lille June 2009

Look what greeted me, when I came out of the train station of Lille, Northern France. It looks like some kind of temporary artwork display. There was going to be a video post today but these photos were burning a hole on the hard drive and I just could not wait to post them. for more info on Lille visit Lille - Wikipedia.

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Dolle Dagen Ieper part 4 (and last) the singing cyclist

Well it seemed a nice way to finish this little posting series, with a song. Just as I was heading for the railway station this guy came cycling and singing by. Whatever you think of the song, it is a hell of a lot better than my attempt at editing this :)

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Dolle Dagen Ieper part 3 a cracking car - a photo post

Wandering through the Dolle Dagen

I came across a bunch of cars that had been "Pimped" by a local firm. This is not my kind of thing but what they had done to this 2CV impressed me.

The next Bat Mobile?

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Dolle Dagen Ieper part 2 The Shell Hole stand

This is an example of one of the shop stands at the Dolle Dagen, it is from The Shell Hole book shop, which is owned by Patrick, a friend of mine. As you can see he sells other things apart from books, such as Trench Art and vintage post cards, his books are exclusively related to the Great War (World War 1).

The Shell Hole stand

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Dolle Dagen Ieper part 1

I went to a little event in Ieper this weekend gone, it was the Dolle Dagen. The Dolle Dagen happens two weekends a year in Ieper, all the shops set up outside stands in front of their premises and several other events and attractions, like beach volley ball, are usually linked with the event. This is the first post of four on this event, three video clips and a photo post. This clip really is better viewed in HD.

A little oriental street theatre

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Dunkirk September 2008, a photo post

back in September 2008 I had the chance to have a short visit to Dunkirk, in France. Dunkirk is of course famous for Operation Dynamo during World War 2. The town website is available through THIS LINK but this is only available in French. Enjoy my snaps.

Jean Bart

This statue is in the center of the town. It is Jean Bart, who was a privateer and played some part in defeating the English (Boo Hiss), who were threatening the town.

An old boat, under renovation

The Duchesse Anne, in the harbour

The town war memorial

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St.Martin's with bells on it

Just as I was walking to St. Martins, the bells of the Cloth Hall started chiming, so I decided to take a shot. This was totally unplanned but it was a case of "get it now or forget it", taking this into consideration, it did not turn out too bad and does show some of the architectural detail of the back of the cathedral with a nice bell toll in the back ground. This is the last in this series of posts about St. Martin's in Ieper. Hopefully I will get some more material from this cathedral at a later date.

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Some more ruins and another view of the tower of St. Martin's, Ieper

There where some ruins from St. Martin's kept behind a caged area (not sure why, perhaps they bite or something),the angels at the end of the area intrigued me. This is a quick view of those combined with another view of the tower from a different angle from the First clip.

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St. Martin's cathedral ruins from the Great War 1914 - 1918

Since St. Martins was totally destroyed during the Great War, between 1914 and 1918, the building that stands on the site now is a reconstruction of the original but to one side of the cathedral is one part of the building that was left as it was and there is also a small garden that contains some of the old masonry from the original building. This is a clip showing both of these.

Ruins

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The tower of St. Martin's Cathedral in Ieper

I have a few clips of St. Martin's Cathedral in Ieper, so I thought that I would do a little posting series with these. St Martins is officially a church, as it has no bishop anymore but it looks like a cathedral to me.

The Tower

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Gravelines September 2008, a photo post

Last year I had the great pleasure of visiting the lovely French town of Gravelines on the northern coast of France. It is a very beautiful little town with lots of historical sites to see. Here are a few photos from my trip.

(Official town website at Portail Gravelines)

A bridge over the town moat and some of the old town walls

A view from the town walls over the moat, showing the canal to the sea

The war memorial

Entrance to the old fort in the town walls from the old town

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The windmill of the Belgian National Tobacco Museum

On a cycle ride along the river Leie (Lys) I came across a nice view of the windmill of the National Tobacco Museum of Belgium, with the church bells chiming in the background, I thought that it would make a nice little snippet. From the wind noise on the clip I learned that you should shield the microphone on a windy day (this blog/vlog really is warts and all). There is a good article about the Museum through this link Smoke signals | Flanders Today.

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A WWII Belgian War memorial

This is a Belgian second World War memorial that can be found on a quiet country road as you drive away from the small village of Dadizele. It commemorates elements of the Belgian army who took part in actions against the invading German forces in May 1940. I could not get far enough away to do a pan so this is another shaky walk along, showing the battalion insignia.

And this is from the other direction with the image stabilizer on, which I thought I would show you because the image becomes annoyingly distorted (and not that much more stable). This is why I do not intend to use the image stabilizer again, with this camcorder.

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The train ride from Ieper to Komen (Comines)

I thought I would try recording the view out of the window on a train journey. This line goes all the way to Brussels but this clip is from Ieper to Komen (Comines), the first stop. It's a bit shaky to start with but gets steady after a little while. I find this very relaxing to watch, I will have to do more of these. This is a hell of a lot better viewed in HD,

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The Menin Gate, fields of poppies, November 2008 a picture post

I go to Ieper often and there will be more on the Menin Gate at a later date. For now I thought that I would finish this little post run off with a picture post of The Fields of Poppies, from November 11th 2008. This was part of the The Poppy Appeal to help raise money for The Royal British Legion.

Each poppy has an individual message from it's sponsor.

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Inside the Menin Gate

This clip really shows the "Warts and all" approach of this vlog. The stabilization feature, on my cheapo little camcorder, distorts the picture very badly, so I don't use it and that makes this clip very shaky indeed. This is a walk from inside the Menin Gate up to the old town walls of Ieper, showing some of the names of the missing carved into the stone, tributes left, the ubiquitous tour group and some guy from the local authority clanging around the crowd control barriers. If you want to view this full screen, it is best viewed in HD.

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The front of the Menin Gate in Ieper Belgium

Hi this is the first post on this blog or more accurately vlog. for more about and what this vlog is about check out the side bar. I thought that I would kick things off with a short clip of the front of the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing in Ieper, Belgium, unfortunately the light was not on my side and the memorial is in shadow. For more info on the Menin gate CLICK HERE.

The front of the Menin Gate

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