16-25 April From 1914 to 1918 Ypres Salient was on the front line of World War I. As I understand it Salient means bulge and the front line bulged around Ypres. Many people died here over the four years and the countryside is scattered with cemeteries - mostly Commonwealth as other nationalities mostly repatriated their dead. There are even 2 cemeteries in the city itself. There is a major museum here "In Flanders Fields" which explains the war and battles, and is very interesting. We took some rides into the countryside to visit some of the sites and cemeteries. There was a an art installation in the field - "Coming World Remember Me" especially for the 100 annivesary of the end of the war. It was placed in no mans land between the German and British lines - it was amazing to me how close they were. Each little statue (600,000 of them) represented a person that died in the great war. There were also some other modern art and poetry nearby. We also visited caterpillar crater and Hill 60. These are sites that were blown up from tunnels underneath and have been left pretty much untouched since the war. The largest Commonwealth war graves cemetery in the world is at Tyne Cot. About 12 thousand graves and 35 thousand people with unknown graves listed as well. All the cemeteries were well maintained but here was the first time we'd seen people working there. Of course, probably the most well known site is the Menin Gate which has the names of more than 54,000 commonwealth solders who have no known grave. At 8pm every night they play the last post, and often people lay wreaths there. We finally got to the last post on Anzac Day eve so there were a lot of Aussies there. We had stayed a couple of extra days in Ypres so that we could attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service at the New British Cemetery at Polygon Wood. We got up at 4:30am drove to the Parking Place at a nearby amusement park, and then caught the shuttle bus to the cemetery. The service started at about 5:45, about 15 minutes after we arrived - lucky as we expected it to start at 6:30 am. But the Lost Post was at 6:30 just at dawn. Very well organised with lots of senior people attending and wreaths laid by many countries. After the ceremony we caught the shuttle bus to the Anzac Breakfast that we had booked in for. We sat with a Belgium couple who attend every year. Then the shuttle bus back to the car. We were really pleased that we were able to fit our schedule around attending.
2 Comments
Rachel
26/4/2018 12:14:15 pm
You have just lived my dream trip! I have read or heard so many tales from all of those places.
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Ian
26/4/2018 11:25:33 pm
Lucky youse, almost the best place to be at the best time. Lovely springtime photos. Looks like it might be a hot summer!
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