Day 8

Ready for day 8?? I sure was. After nearly 10 hours of sleep I was ready to start the day. We were going on our second Quasimodo tour and this one was of Flander's Fields and the surrounding area. Now it's time for a little history lesson. I'm sure grandpa knows all of this already, but I need to inform the rest of you. WWI was started in 1914 because of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand (the second?). There were the 3 main powers, Germany, Austria and Hungary, and then the Allies, which was everyone else, including the British, Belgian, French, Canadian, Australian, New Zealanders and eventually the US. Now, Germany wanted to overtake France and the easiest way to do this was to go through Belgium. Even though Belgium was a neutral territory, they had signed a treaty with the British that they would not let anyone occupy them. So King Albert upheld his end of the deal and told Germany no. They were pretty upset about this, but thought the Belgium would be an easy 5 day fight. They were very wrong. It took the Germans 32 days to capture most of Belgium. Once they had occupied 90% of the country, there was a small 10% left between them and the French border. And with the help of the rest of the allied forces, they never broke through. This area was called Flander's Fields. So after getting all of that information, we went to our first stop which was the Canadian monument remembering all of the lives lost there. It was very interesting and tall! We hopped back on the bus and went to several other monuments including the British Cemetery and and the New Zealand monument. It was a lot of information to take in but it was very emotional learning about all of this history. After that we drove over to a farm and were shown several of the remains that keep getting dug up as farmers expand. Every year Belgian farmers find around 29 unexploded shells just buried in the ground. They're supposed to turn them in, but sometimes they keep them. And our tour guide came very close to us with these artifacts. I feel that even in our enclosed van, some damage would have been done. Thankfully nothing happened...this time. After our brush with death, we headed off to Tyne Cot Cemetery which was once the location of the German bunkers. There were so many graves there, but the saddest part was that almost 80% of the graves were unknown. Many of the headstones read "A Soldier of the Great War Known Unto God." There was a wall surrounding the cemetery and all of the names of the missing soldiers believed to be dead were written on them. There were over 35,000 names. Our next stop was the Polygon Woods Cemetery. This place is one of the highest places in Belgium, which isn't saying much at 65 meters above sea level. But it was a very important place during the battles because it gave the occupier the upper hand. They could see what their enemy was doing at all times and could successfully thwart them. Maybe that's why it changed hands 18 times during the war. This is also where the Australian memorial was located. After spending some time in the cemetery we stopped by the Hooge Crater for a museum visit and lunch. The museum had all kinds of remains from the battle fields including replicas of each of the different soldiers. There was also a very large exhibit of ammunition, hopefully all ones that had detonated. We also learned about an excavation sight that we would be visiting later in the day. After lunch we traveled to Hill 60 which is a completely preserved battlefield. The only difference between 1918 and today is the grass that is growing there now. Bunkers are still visible, craters from where the shells exploded are there and there are even 2 undetonated mines somewhere on the field. Don't worry, I was very careful when I was walking. This place was amazing. It was so emotional being on land that so many people had died on. The British army had set forth a plan and had set up 24 mines in underground tunnels. At exactly 3 am on a night that I don't remember, the British detonated all of the mines killing more than 10,000 German soldiers in only 20 seconds. We also got to see some German and British bunkers that were still standing even after the explosions. Our next stop was the city of Iepers (Ypres) which had been completely demolished during WWI. Even though the city was around in the 9th century, every structure in that city is not more than 85 years old. Thankfully someone had drawn many of the town structures and they were able to replicate the town hall and main cathedral. We visited the Mennin Gate which was built in order to remember all of the unknown fallen soldiers. After that we went through the city and explored for a little bit. The second best ice cream shop was in Iepers, but sadly, I did not make it there. After we explored, we got back on the bus and headed to the excavation site that I mentioned earlier. A few years back they had found these trenches that had been filled with water. They successfully pumped out the water, and restored the Yorkshire Trenches and Dug Out. We got the opportunity to walk through them and see what it was like for a soldier at the lookout and firing posts. And what I thought was concrete at first turned out to be fossilized sand bags. It was incredible to think that soldiers had walked these very trenches and had fought battles there. Our last stop for the day was an old British dressing room, which was basically a place for soldiers to get patched up before they were sent to the real hospital. Now this was probably the eeriest part of the entire tour because we actually got to go inside these underground rooms. We stood in the very same place were "surgeons" operated on soldiers, were many of the soldiers died and were many of their lives were saved. It was all very moving. I spent the drive home thinking about all of the lives that were lost and how hard Belgium had fought and was truly inspired. When we got back to Bruges, I knew that I needed a pick me up from all of that history and decided to stop by the number one ice cream shop in all of Belgium. And yes, it was the best ice cream I had ever had! Double scoop pistachio and chocolate. After that we stopped by Astrid Park and then the grocery store for dinner. Yummy spinach and mushroom pizza. Even though it's not authentic, it is very tasty. Tomorrow we head out at 6 am for the Netherlands!!