Ypres, Belgium

13TH AUGUST 2018 YPRES, BELGIUM

On the way to Ypres we went to the World War One museum and Memorial Garden at Paschendale...

then to Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing which has a very moving experience.

We then went to Hill 60, another important site in Australian World War One history. From Wiki - "In 1920, Hill 60 was bought by Lieutenant-Colonel Cawston who later sold a half share in it to J. Calder. In 1930, Calder donated his share of Hill 60 to the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission), which maintains it as a battlefield memorial park." - which means it is one of the few war sites that has been untouched since the war (apart form the sheep that graze on it).

Then we headed to Ypres for lunch and visited the In Flanders Field WWI Museum - this was an interesting museum though a lot of the information we knew from the museum at Paschendale but the museum was crowded so many displays were difficult to see and the museum gives you a special wristband like a watch which you put on some displays so they are in your language and this was hard to use with so many people around, there was also no direction/arrows so everyone would flow and move on instead of crowding everywhere.

After heading to our B and B we walked back into Ypres for dinner and to the Menin Gate - another war memorial where the Last Post is played at 8pm each night - not a dry eye in sight as people reflected on all the lives lost.