I was inspired to take this journey after years of seeing the photographs that History students at the College where I work come back with after completing a similar visit. I decided I had to see it for myself and I'm glad I did.
I'm going to start with my day tour to Flanders Fields. My tour guide for the day was Nathan (see the www.visitbruges.org website for more information) and a more knowledgable tour guide you would struggle to find. There were eight of us on the trip, all British, American and Australian. Not 10 minutes into our journey and we were all marvelling at the knowledge of our guide, as he recounted dates and statistics from the First World War. I learn far more about the Second World War in school, so it was all a welcome education for me.
The tour was very packed, with lots of places to visit during the day, and we started at the Langemark German cemetery, a very sobering place where mass graves of german soldiers can be found. The visit is perhaps more harrowing when you learn that almost all those buried there were 15, 16 or 17 years of age. We learnt that they were sons of eminent German officers, sent into take the town of Ypres because they thought it would be easy - not to and thousands were slaughtered.
From Langemark, we stopped off at a private garage and saw a store of recovered war munitions, ranging from rusty guns and grenades to unexploded shells. There were so many, but we were informed it was just the tip of the iceberg.
We moved on through the drizzle and cold (which seemed appropriate given the conditions the soldiers of the time often fought in) and went to the British Tyne Cott cemetery. Although there were no mass graves there, all too often we did see headstones which read, 'A soldier of the Great War, known unto God'. How sad. We went into the excellent museum there too and saw many recovered artifacts of the time and read many heartbreaking letters, including some from officers to relatives back in Britain explaining how their sons and husbands had met their end.
The Passendale Museum was the next stop to view the many artifacts on display and get a taste of life in the trenches. This included a section in which you can smell what the different poison gases used in the war were like - I could detect an odour in the Mustard gas, but could smell nothing with the deadly chlorine gas. The accompanying explanations make for disturbing reading as to how thousands of troops died. There were also video screens dotted throughout the museum, showing footage from the time. Particularly upsetting was the footage of a soldier clearly suffering from shell shock, who reacted with sheer terror at the mere approach of an officer; I had to walk away and compose myself before I could rejoin the group.
Our visit took in a real British trench and its German counterpart. The difference between the two was stark. For a start, the German trench had only recently been discovered and was well restored, while the British trench still had its hastily erected corregated iron roofs and was so shallow that no one would have been able to stand upright. The mud also gave an indication of the conditions of the time.
Inevitably the tour included Ypres itself, where we enjoyed a pleasant pub lunch, and we also visited the Flanders Fields Museum and the impressive Menin Gate. I would very much have liked to be there in the evening for the moving Last Post, but that did not fit in with my plans. Nonetheless, it was well worth a visit and the sheer number of names listed were moving on their own.
It's hard not to dwell on just that one day, so poignant was it. However, there was more to my trip and in particular Bruges was a delight. The cobbled streets and canals make for a very pretty picture, as do the windmills dotted around the edge of the river. It has some good architechture and beautiful art, but perhaps my favourite part are the shops. Paying obvious homage to its chocolate and beer, there are many wonderful places to visit to enjoy both. The choloate shops are on every corner (or so it seems) and theintricate hand-made chocolates smell even better than they look!
Brussels was my final stop and though nothing like as pretty as Bruges, it has it's impressive pieces of architechture and bustling squares, not to mention more chocolate shops.
It's hard to dwell for too long on the chocolate or beer (or the sign that quotes Homer Simpson's love of the latter), given the day tour I took. The phrase 'Lest we forget' came to mind repeatedly and for that reason alone I'm so glad I took this trip.
