Before we started the day, we decided to have a cup of coffee. Hankins went into a coffee shop to buy two cups. "Do you want small or grand?", he was asked. Grand..he said. and that is how we ended up with two bowls of coffee.
As bad as the tour yesterday was, today was so much better. We took a group tour to Ypres, Belgium with about 25 of our closest friends. We visited the "Ypres Salient", a WWI battlefield that saw horrific losses on both sides from 1914 to the end of the war in 1918. Our guide, Dietrick, was excellent. He was an elderly gentleman, around 65 years old, and was very good in painting a picture of events that took place 100 years ago. We visited the trenches, the battlefields, the museum, the cemeteries, we walked the ground. What went on here is almost beyond comprehension. The war to end all wars. Did not happen.
Every day at 8:00 p.m. there is a remembrance ceremony at the Menin Gate to honor the fallen from the Great War. This has been going on since 1928. It was stopped during the German occupation and started back the day after they left. It is a perpetual ceremony.
We had a dinner of Flemish Stew before we left. Very tasty. (It reminded me somewhat of our beef stew).
A great day...Yesterday was a 0 on a 1 to 10 scale...today was an 11 on the same scale.
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| Flemish Stew |
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| A bowl of coffee |
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| another bowl of coffee |
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| 5th largest church in the world |
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| WWI trench in Diskmude |
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| Taps at Menin Gate "Last Post Ceremony" |
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| Menin gate |
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| Selfie |
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| old castle |
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| wreath laying ceremony at Menin Gate |
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| German cemetery, A Mother and father mourning their child. He was buried at the foot of the statue |
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| River scene in Ypres |
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| WWI trenches |
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| 19 underground bombs were set off uner the German positions. Results over 10,000 Germans KIA Bomb crater 100 years later. |
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