Ypres and the Great War

Day 3 in Belgium was a discovery of Ypres and the surrounding area, best known as the major battle fields of WWI.

This beautiful cloth hall in the centre of town is the house to the best museum we've seen in Belgium yet, the In Flanders Field Museum.

This museum also had a booklet on a self-drive tour of the important landmarks in the area. The plan was to follow the path to Hill 62 and the Canada memorial.

This is our trip

Just a few minutes out of the city centre, we stopped at the Essex Farm Cemetery, the place where John McCrae wrote the infamous poem, 'In Flanders Fields.'

The cemetery is small, but nice

and has been visited by people from around the world.

These are the actual sandbags that lined the area where McCrae worked as a doctor

This room is a concrete area under the ground where, we assume, McCrae worked.

This is a copy of McCrae's final product in his own handwriting

and us standing in the place where history happened

Futher down the road we stopped at the German soldier's cemetery.

It is the resting place of 44,061 German soldiers.

all of the gravestones have the names of atleast 8 soldiers

in the distance, you can see the stones lining the ground

These figures stand in respect. It is a statue made by a Munich artist.

Our next stop was at the St-Julien memorial, a momument showing a Canadian soldier, bowing his head and resting his arms on the end of his gun.

It is a beautiful and moving monument


with the traces of other Canadian vistors written in the frost

The most moving monument of all (for me atleast) was the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth military cemetery on the continent of Europe.

With the sun beginning to set, the graves were often silhouetted

In a place of such magnitude, you want to see every stone, just to show your respect, but at this cemetery it could take all day; a sad reality of war.

There were many Canadian stones

unfortunately, many mark a place for an un-named soldier. Another young man, lost in the masses of war

Our military tour ended at Hill 62.

This Hill and the woods around it were the front lines of the Allied forces for the 4 years of the war.

In the forrest here, you can walk through the actual trenches of the Great War

Though they are rusted and aged, the power of their presence is almost tangible.

In the distance you can see countless craters left by artillery throughout the many battles.

Here you get a glimpse into the reality that woul dhave been. The trenches would have zig zaged their way through Belgium to Switzerland.

Standing on this site, and walking through the trenches was miserable enough, I can only imagine what it would be like in the snow of a cold February night, in the frozen mud, as guns are fired and friends die. There was a quote at the museum that says it all perfectly: 'I died in Hell- they called it Passendale.'

The road leading to this site is now called Canadalaan. It is lined by Maple trees and marks the place of the Canadian front line during the war.

The road leads to the Hill 62 Canadian War Memorial

Eventhough it was dark, and we didn't see much, I'm still glad we were there.

Now more than ever, I am thankful for the sacrifices made by so many Canadians. The injuries and deaths that led to us being able to travel freely throughout the world and to live a safe and healthy life are not forgotten. This visit to Ypres will forever keep these men, and all those who have fought for the lives and freedoms of others, in my heart.