Your English speaking driver guide will meet you at your Brussels hotel at 09:00AM and drive you to Waterloo.
In the 13Century, along with Bruges and Ghent, Ypres was one of the great Cities of Flanders though it later entered a long decline. In the First World War it was the fulcrum of the Ypres Salient, a bitterly fought-over enclave protruding into the German lines, and the town was almost completely destroyed. After the war, it was rebuilt in traditional style. Today, it is a focal point of commemoration of the terrible slaughter that took place between1914-1918, while the countryside around is a vast necropolis with around 170 military cemeteries and many other reminders of war. Be side visiting the town, we will discover:
St. George’s Memorial Church: The interior contains many poignant memorials, among them that of Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force.
In Flanders Fields Museum:
This innovative museum opened in 1998, retraces the history of W.W.I, in a most compelling way. The museum pays particular attention to the experiences of ordinary people, evoking the terrible trench
warfare end everyday life behind the front.
Tyne Cot Military Cemetery:
In the Third Battle of Ypres, the British – mostly Australians and Canadians – paid for an advance of 8km/5mi towards the ruined village of Passendale with almost 400.000 casualties. The cemetery here is the LARGEST COMMONWEALTH WAR CEMETERY anywhere, with 11.856 tombstones.
DIKSMUIDE
In October/November 1914 it was one of the strategic points in the Battle of the Ijzer when the Belgian and French units put up heroic resistance to the German advance. The bombardments were so intense that the town disappeared from the face of the earth. In Diksmuide, we will discover the famous “Dodengang” . For four years, Belgian soldiers resisted the German advance in these dug-outs, which became known as the “Trench of Death”. Visitors can walk through the two long trenches, in which the sandbagged parapets have been faithfully reproduced in concrete.
We will end our tour in Ypres, at the Menin Gate. This most important British memorial of the First World War, It commemorates the names of 54.896 soldiers who have no known grave. It stands on the site of the old Menenpoort, the gateway guarding the road from the little Town of Menen to the East. This was the route taken by countless thousands of soldiers marching to and from the front line. Every evening at 8pm, traffic stops and the buglers of the Ypres fire brigade sound THE “LAST POST “ |
Tyne Military Cemetary
