(no subject)
So I know that this entry is super late, but my habit of procrastination was brought to new heights. For our Remembrance day trip the school went to Bruges, Ypres (along with Flanders Fields) , Vimy and Beaumont- Hammel. The school as a whole stayed in a hotel at Bruges in the old town. The city itself is gorgeous with old architecture and churches and hospitals built right beside canals.
We didn't get much chance to explore Bruges during the day until the last day since most of the trip was based around WW1. The first day, Remembrance Day, was spent going to Ypres, seeing the Menin gate and the ceremonies there. The whole city was destroyed during the war and it was rebuilt in the same style as it had before. Most of the buildings you see there today that seem old were actually built in the 20's. The ceremony had representatives from Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and other members of the common-wealth that I've forgotten. Within the gate, they released poppies so they were floating in the wind, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of this since I was a very short person around very tall people. Also, at the ceremony, there was a 19 year old veteran of the Afghan war. He was part of the British army, but he was injured in such a way that he had lost both his legs, and only had part of one arm remaining. It brought home that even now there is war going on in the world.
After the ceremony at Ypres, we were taken on a tour of graveyards and a preserved trench system. It was really cold that day and I slept a lot while in transit from place to place. We stopped at Flanders' fields where John McCrae wrote his poem and the graveyard that he was talking about. There was a plaque in his memory and the poem also engraved. After, we went to see one of only four German graveyards in Belgium. There is only four because the Belgians only gave the Germans fifty years rights to the land on which their men were buried.
The trip was finshed by going to Vimy Ridge, seeing the monument then indulging in Hagen Daaz and Waffles (Brussles Waffles, not the other kind), chocolate and more chocolate.
P.S while in Kenya I met John McCrae’s great granddaughter…
P.P.S Pics will be coming soon ...
We didn't get much chance to explore Bruges during the day until the last day since most of the trip was based around WW1. The first day, Remembrance Day, was spent going to Ypres, seeing the Menin gate and the ceremonies there. The whole city was destroyed during the war and it was rebuilt in the same style as it had before. Most of the buildings you see there today that seem old were actually built in the 20's. The ceremony had representatives from Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and other members of the common-wealth that I've forgotten. Within the gate, they released poppies so they were floating in the wind, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of this since I was a very short person around very tall people. Also, at the ceremony, there was a 19 year old veteran of the Afghan war. He was part of the British army, but he was injured in such a way that he had lost both his legs, and only had part of one arm remaining. It brought home that even now there is war going on in the world.
After the ceremony at Ypres, we were taken on a tour of graveyards and a preserved trench system. It was really cold that day and I slept a lot while in transit from place to place. We stopped at Flanders' fields where John McCrae wrote his poem and the graveyard that he was talking about. There was a plaque in his memory and the poem also engraved. After, we went to see one of only four German graveyards in Belgium. There is only four because the Belgians only gave the Germans fifty years rights to the land on which their men were buried.
The trip was finshed by going to Vimy Ridge, seeing the monument then indulging in Hagen Daaz and Waffles (Brussles Waffles, not the other kind), chocolate and more chocolate.
P.S while in Kenya I met John McCrae’s great granddaughter…
P.P.S Pics will be coming soon ...