Blogs from Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 3

Bruges day 2 Flanders fields tour was much more intense than I had expected. Although I knew a little about world war one, hearing the stories told to us in a personal perspective with the grounds lying before me was very heart wrenching and sobering. The first stop off the bus was the German war memorial. The head stones are left unmarked and it is called the student graveyard as Germany had sent so many pupils, apprentices and young untrained volunteers that they were obliterated and basically used as canon fodder. There is over 45,000 German soildiers buried there and their names are written inside on the walls of the memorial. The Belgian government are still adding bodies as they are found. The first christmas during the first initial year of the war, the soldiers had ... read more

Well I managed my first ever drive on the wrong side of the road and after quite a long time - about 3 hours we reached Ypres. It took a lot of concentration and help from Sam who is a good navigator and reminded me where to look... at 8pm every evening there is a Last Post ceremony and while we got here about 8pm we checked into the hotel and just missed it. The gate is impressive and sad with all the names of the missing soldiers with no graves - 35000 in total. Need to go back into the car now and head gor Cologne so hope to update more later.... read more

Will ye go to Flanders? Ieper (Ypres in French; they speak Flemish here) is a beautiful little town half an hour north of the French border at Tourcoing. Given that it was completely flattened during World War &, they did an excellent job of reconstructing it. People coming back after the war had to locate where there house had been from aerial photos and start again. The town square, a.k.a. the Great Market, is like something from the set of a movie set in 1910, with long passages of sweeping arch-ways and big, square church towers. In fact, a lot in Belgium reminds you of that era; the train ticket inspectors look like something out of a Poirot episode, with little round Genderme style hats, drab grey uniforms and orange sashes. The border area in Northern ... read more

We’re in Belgium now. We arrived in Ieper (Ypres), in the rain, last Friday and were thrilled to find our hotel room had the most incredible view (see pic 1) to the Cloth Hall which was recreated after being destroyed in the war, and was also very close to Menin Gate. The hotel also had a great restaurant and we made the most of it that night... resulting in minor hangovers on Saturday. We set off in the car and visited a number of locations where A’s grandfather had been - Passchendale, Broodseinde Ridge and Dikkebuse. We also visited Hill 60. That evening we again went to Menin Gate for the daily and very moving performance of the Last Post (see pic 2). ... read more

Tuesday 23.2.2010 day 133 Belgian - Ypres (Ieper) We went to Ypres and the Australian 5th battalion memorial and cemetery in the fields of Flanders. It was very sad to see so many from Australian, NZ and Canadians die so far from home in a war that was not really even there’s. We found a grave of an Australian soldier call Flanders so he died in his ancestral home. We then drove to the Tyne Cot Cemetery the largest British Commonwealth was cemetery in the world there are 11,956 soldiers burries here. There are speakers that read out the names of the dead and then make you walk from the back though so you have to see the size of it. There was a group of young girl and boy military cadets there when we where ... read more