Ypres - Belgium > Reviews (4)

In October of 07 I went on a day trip to Ypres, Belgium. I was with my schools GCSE History class, as we had been studying The Home Front. So we had the option of taking a trip to Belgium.

I have to say going to Ypres was one of the best experience of my life. It is absolutely beautiful their, it is vintage and very town-like. Going in October meant it was absolutely freezing but that did not effect my feelings on the day.

We got to Ypres by coach from taking the euro tunnel and driving through France. I have to say being an experienced coach traveller (having been on 12 hour coach journeys) that was the shortest coach ride i have ever taken. It felt like 2 hours.

So our first stop in Ypres was to go to The Menin Gate. This gate is absolutely amazing, with names upon names of deceased soldiers in the war of any nationality. From Arabs, to Austrailians to Africans. Put together in this vast expanse of a gate and wall system. It is amazing knowing all who died for the war.
Right next to the gate happens to be the village square and cathedral which is also breathtaking because of its medieval-esque theme.
You are given the oppurtunity to leave poppys for the dead.

Our next stop was the In Flanders Fields Museum. I absolutely love the poem by John Mc Crae, which is its namesake.
The museum is huge, and a beauty in the eyes of an architecht. You can eat a quick lunch in its courtyard, and then enter the museum and learn about special people in the war. As you walk through the museum you are shown artifacts in numerous ways. Their is a section in which it appears to be part of the battlefield under your feet, in a glass section.

As you exit the museum through the doors of the gift shop, you are welcomed by shops upon shops selling Belgiums finest chocolate. Belgium chocolate is the best, especially their truffles.

Our trip their was not about buying retail goods, so my review can not help you in that department. However the chocolate shops are very good.

What we went onto see next was a German graveyard. I like the fact that even with all the hatred that many held against the Germans, they were still allowed a final resting place. Though the cemetary may be small, and quite dark, it allows the German soldiers to be laid to rest.

Transitioning from this graveyard to the main graveyard that we saw that day was strange. We changed from the dark, small and shadowed German graveyard to the light, white and open graveyard for the British and those part of the Commenwealth: Tyne Cot.
This graveyard is absolutely amazing, it is huge and each soldier has a white grave stone engraved with their crest. Along the walls of this graveyard are walls like at the Menin Gate covered in names of the deceased. Making the graveyard a huge memorial for the fallen.

The final place we visited was Hill 62, to begin was a small house in which you could buy drinks and food and in the back was huge casings containing war memorabilia, with photos which are quite disturbing.
Though once you exit the back way you enter Sanctuarys wood and Hill 62.

In which it was a front. This place is absolutely huge, and is filled with trenches and huge gapes in which bombs exploded in. You can go through the trenches though they are extrememly dark and low. Making your way through the trenches that soldiers used 90 years ago. Although if your wish is to not get dirty or wet, then you could walk through no mans land. It is weird saying that since soldiers would not have been doing so. Since Hill 62 is preserved how it was left with "wounded" trees and obvious signs of bombings and old sand bags with the rusting metal. It feels as if it did not happen too long ago.

The trip was a real eye opener it was good to see the sacrifices others meant for us today. I recommend all visiting Ypres, you won't be dissapointed.

For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon:

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is a music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncountered:
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end they remain.