Ypres, the Menin Gate, the Last Post and the fields of Flanders.

Ypres, Ieper in Dutch, is the Flemish city that the First World War left reduced to rubble. For four years it stood at the centre of a salient, a pocket of the front surrounded on three sides by the German army, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers died around it. It was later rebuilt exactly as it was, with its Cloth Hall and its cathedral, and today it is the place people come to understand that war. Every night, since 1928, buglers have played the Last Post beneath the Menin Gate.

How do you get there from Brussels?

By car, about an hour and a half, some 125 km on the E40 towards Ghent and the A19, which ends at Ypres. It is the best option if you want to see the cemeteries and museums in the countryside on your own. In the city, the Albion car park is just round the corner from the Grote Markt.

By train, about two hours with one change, at Kortrijk or Ghent. The station is a ten-minute walk from the centre. Without a car, the battlefields can be seen on a minibus tour that leaves from the Menin Gate.

What to see in a day?

In the morning, the In Flanders Fields Museum, in the Cloth Hall: two hours on the war in Flanders told by those who lived through it, and for €2 more, the belfry. Stroll around the Grote Markt and the cathedral and have lunch in the centre.

In the afternoon, head out into the countryside. By car, in a quarter of an hour you reach the Passchendaele Museum and, three kilometres further, the Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery on the continent, with almost 12,000 graves. On the way back, the Langemark German cemetery shows the other side. Without a car, the afternoon tour by Over the Top Tours covers the south of the Salient: Hill 60, the Messines craters and the site of the Christmas Truce.

At 20:00, the Menin Gate and the Last Post: arrive half an hour early. If you have time to spare beforehand, walk along the ramparts to the Lille Gate.

Day trip or one night?

It can be done in a day from Brussels, but the Last Post at eight in the evening forces you to return late: by car you reach Brussels at about half past ten, and by train it is tight. The best thing is to stay one night: an evening in the city and the Last Post, and the next morning the tour or the cemeteries to the north.

Where to eat?

On Sunday, the place with an open kitchen is De Ruyffelaer, grandmother's cooking in an old Flemish dining room, also at lunchtime. On weekdays, Klei, on the Grote Markt itself, has a lunch menu at €42 with local produce, and the Ariane restaurant serves in sittings designed to get you to the Last Post. Try the katteklauw, the Ypres bun, at breakfast.

Where to stay?

The Albion Hotel is right in the centre, 300 metres from the Grote Markt, with enclosed parking. The four-star Ariane Hotel, five minutes away, has free parking, a garden and a restaurant. For 11 November, book months in advance.

Ypres and the rest of Belgium

Ypres is far from the other day trips from Brussels: it is in the Westhoek, the western corner of the country. It combines well with Bruges, about 60 km away, or with the coast at Ostend and De Haan, less than an hour by car. If you are interested in the Second World War, Bastogne is its equivalent in the Ardennes.