YPRES

Pitched within a comfortable 20 minute walk to Ypres centre with the choice of either sauntering alongside the wide moat that surrounds the city or through natural parkland.  We experienced (temporarily) a definite increase in temperatures with that wonderful  feeling of spring in the air after such a cold and gloomy winter - a joy to hear the birds singing again.  

On our first venture into Ypres on the Sunday afternoon we found ourselves immersed in the frenetic fun of an international festival  - the main square was heaving with people, large crowds being entertained as they gathered around the varied street artists.   On our return the following day,  we were able to explore a virtually deserted and much quieter Ypres!

Cloth Hall

The imposing Church of St Martin's

The Menin Gate Memorial - bearing an overwhelming number of more than 54,000 names of  men who died in WWI and for whom there is no known grave.    

Menin Gate by evening: Each evening people gather at the Menin Gate to witness the daily ceremony -The Last Post  bugle call,  a tribute to the courage and self-sacrifice of all those who died defending Ypres.  An extraordinarily moving experience as one stands during the following 1 minute of silent reflection.

 

The Ramparts Walk - where we found the little Rampart cemetery  as well as popping into the little historical pub to enjoy a 'peace' beer - served in a stone tankard decorated with a poppy!

 

I've heard of a 'tree hugger' but what's this .......?

 

 

Tour of the War Cemeteries and Battlefields  -  Deciding on joining an official Flanders Battlefield Tour rather than going 'solo' was by far and away our best decision.   

We were guided by a passionate historian of WWI who gave such vivid accounts of both the  course of the war as well as graphic insights which conjured up gruesome images of the insufferable conditions those men endured, the horrific challenges they faced each hour of each day, fighting and living in constant terror, the uncertainty of life even from one moment to the next.   Standing in the peace and quiet of the countryside, surrounded by little villages that have been rebuilt out of the total devastation of war, it was quite impossible to imagine that on that very spot nearly 100 years ago the pandemonium of the battle of Passchendaele had raged.  

 

Tyne Cot Cemetery - largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world with 12,000 graves

The German cemetery at Langemarck

We visited the smallish Essex Farm Cemetery where Dr John McCrae was stationed during the earlier period of WWI and where he wrote the now very famous 'In Flanders Fields' poem:   

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

 

'Brooding Soldier' monument commemorating the Canadians first battle area

 

The Hooge crater - caused by the explosives laid by Germans who tunnelled under our allied lines -  now a calm and serene lake set in a pretty wooded area yet lying all around the rusting remains of weapons and ammunition - a reminder of the events of WWI in that small pocket of Flanders - eerie yet peaceful.  I had the experience of walking through an original communications trench - the remains of what was left after the explosions. 

 

Steve, our guide, beside the remainder of the communication trench

Those four hours of the tour left me feeling completely drained - profoundly moved and deeply saddened.  The futility of war, the tragic enormous loss of life, the suffering,  yet wars still rage around the world. 

But, on a lighter note, enjoying Ypres by night: