Lest We Forget

After seeing the Tour de France we continued on to Ieper were we planned to camp for the night and attend the Last Post commemoration in the evening. It was pretty cool that we could walk from the camp ground and across the bridge on to the city ramparts that took as to the Menin Gates. The Menin Gates we built after WW1 to honour those soldiers from the Allied Forces that died but were unable to be given a burial because they could not be identified or were never found.



It is pretty impressive that this tradition happens every night of the year. There were at least 300 people there on the night we went. After the Last Post finished we walked around the gates. The names of the Australian soldiers started on one wall, went all the way up walls around the stair cases and around two more walls.

The next day we went to the "In Flanders Fields Museum". This museum has been recently upgraded and was reopened in June this year. As part of your admission you get a poppy bracelet that contains a microchip that makes the displays interactive in your native language.

It was a great museum. It started out by explaining the social and political scene at the time. It then went on to explain about the changes in warfare and weapons, propaganda used and the numerous campaigns.





We then went on an "in Flanders Fields" car route. This took us past the Brooding Soldier monument and to Hill 62. Watch the movie Hill 60 (Australian) if you want to find out the significance of these hills and the Messines Ridge. We also went to a private museum were they have preserved some of the original trenches. It was a little bit disappointing as it was very expensive to get into and it was a bit run down. Some interpretive signs would have helped.

It was a very informative and educational morning.

Jake

Location:Ieper, Belgium