Tour the battlefields of the Western Front

From the Belgian town of Ieper the landscape of Flanders looks flat but as you drive north and east a previously indiscernible ridgeline becomes apparent. It was this 'high' place that cost the lives of so many Allied and German soldiers during the battles of the Western Front in the First World War over 90 years ago.

Begin your tour of the battlefields in Ieper, formerly known by the French form of Ypres. It is a tidy, prosperous-looking town and only when you look closely do you realise none of the buildings are more than 80 years old.

The surviving citizens determinedly rebuilt their town from the ruins, including the impressive Cloth Hall, which now houses the In Flanders Fields museum.

In 1918 a man on horseback could see from one side of the town to the other, such was the extent of the destruction.

The museum is excellent, with photographs, film and interactive media bringing the historical timetable and personal experience of war to life.

The penultimate room attempts to give visitors an idea of what it must have been like to travel through no-mans-land on the frontline.

First stop after Ieper is Essex Farm, where Canadian medical officer Colonel John McCrae patched up casualties brought straight from the front and wrote his famous poem In Flanders Fields.

Moss-greened concrete bunkers and ossified sandbags sit beside the small cemetery and memorial pillar.

Within weeks of the outbreak of hostilities the British Expeditionary Force was virtually destroyed as a professional army but the Germans had also fought themselves to a standstill in this new-style of mechanised war.

So began four long years of trench warfare and intermittent carnage of unbelievable proportions as the Allies desperately defended key access to the channel ports.

The next stop is Vancouver Corner and the dramatic memorial The Brooding Soldier.

This marks the area where Canadian troops withstood the first German gas attacks in 1915, losing 2,000 soldiers in the process.

From here the ground slowly rises towards the 'hill' of Passendale. It is only when you get up onto the higher ground that you can comprehend the advantage of visibility even 85m can give.

This whole region is scattered with cemeteries and memorials. You can choose which of these to visit but the largest and most significant is Tyne Cot.

With a new visitors centre opened in 2007, Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world and the most important reminder of the bloody battle of Passchendaele.

Tens of thousands of soldiers died here in 1917 over a period of one hundred days, gaining only eight kilometres as they stormed the German positions - concrete 'pillboxes' that reminded English soldiers of Tyneside cottages.

There is a museum in Passendale and also five minutes down the road at an old chateau in the town of Zonnebroke. This does a great job of representing the rat-infested quagmires soldiers were forced to live in and fight through.

In the basement is a recreation of the dugouts and tunnels that increasingly became home for the Allied troops from 1917 onwards. After the battle of Passchendaele there was not much left above ground.

Every night at 20:00 local time the last post is played beneath the Menin Gate. The school groups mix with other tourists and locals to silently witness this simple ceremony honouring the fallen.

Above the buglers the 35,000 names of unknown dead rise in columns and an official promises that we will remember them.

This battlefields tour is an easy day trip from the beautiful medieval town of Bruges. Sign up for a tour with one of the tour companies or hire a car and drive your self.

A useful guide is Major and Mrs Holt's Pocket battlefield Guide to Ypres and Passchendaele, published by Pen and Sword Military.

Talk to the Bruges information centre in 't Zand for advice. Europcar, has the most central car rental company at 59 Sint-Pieterskaai and hires compact cars from around €70 per day.

For more information see the Ieper, and Bruges, tourist information websites.