After a pretty good, at least comfortable sleep, we got up and were on the road by 9am. We headed North-west with a final destination of Ypres, Belgium. If you are not up on your World War I (WWI) history, Ypres was a very import part of the Western front.
On our way to the first site of the day, we stopped at Oostande, on the coast of the English Channel. While it looked like a nice place to be in the summer, today it was cold, windy and dreary. Worth seeing, but not the highly of the day.
We carried on to the Trenches of Death, a preserved raised trench line on the banks of one of many Belgium water ways, the Verschen Dijk. Although restored in 2014, the preserved trench system and pill boxes are a reminder of the horrifying end of life for many WWI soldiers on both sides of the conflict. The narrow halls provide a confined and claustrophobic feeling that would have been cold and very wet.
We stopped at the museum in town, a large pillar style building that offers a panoramic view of the local battlefields. After a couple pictures we decided not to climb the tower (9 Euros each). Being the early spring, most of the landscape in Belgium lacks any colour.
Our next couple stops were quick and informal, simply small concrete buildings that were bunkers, both German and allied.
We made our way through single lane back streets and allies, even doing some off roading in a construction zone and finding a really cool old school windmill.
Unfortunately, many Canadian's forgot the First World War, and they do not realize it was the greatest and most traumatic episode in our history. Six hundred thousand soldiers went overseas and more than sixty thousand were killed, many of which lay in either unknown location or unmarked graves. It brought us great pride and deep sadness seeing the names of these soldiers inscribed in stone that will last much longer than their stolen lives.
Located in Zonnebeke, the Passendale memorial museum was a somber and frustrating stop. We really enjoyed seeing the ruggedness of these parts of Flanders fields, it would have been hell trying to fight though the cold and muddy fields. In remembrance of the 100 years of war (2014 – 2018), the museum constructed a large poppy display dedicated to each of the major contributing nations to the battle. First we toured Australia and the USA; both with incredibly memorable and well thought out to commemorate their contributions.
Sadly, we toured the Canadian monument third and apparently Canada decided not to contribute to the exhibit. Certainly not comparable to contribution during the Great War!
Our final driving destination of the day was the Tyne Cot Cemetery, with about 12,000 graves, it is one of the largest Commonwealth cemeteries in the world. After the war, the British collected soldiers bodies from the surrounding battlefields, of which only 3,800 could be identified. They constructed Tyne Cot Cemetery as their final resting place. The site is breath taking, chilling and it is impossible to visit without feeling the sorrow for the excessive loss of live.
If the 12,000 white head stones was not powerful enough, the site houses an impressive wall that documents some 35,000 other soldiers names of which are believed to have been killed, but their bodies had never been found.
Sadly, 35,000 names is not the whole story and really only begins to tell the story of the unknown graves. We learned that this wall was an extension of Menin Gate, a triumphant arch that inscribe the remainder of the 90,000 soldiers that were never found after the war.
The arch has been the national memorial for the Belgians, commemorating the sacrifice of so many lives daily with a Last Post ceremony. To say this ceremony was touching pails in comparison to the emotion we felt. I am unsure if it was thinking about the young lives lost all day, standing at so many unmarked graves, or the chilling ambiance under the arch; we were stone cold sad. It was an emotional ceremony with three buglers that professionally piped out the last post; For the Fallen Poem; and an amazing choir singing songs that forced tears throughout the crowd.
