Day 13 Passchendaele-Ypres 29 April 2018

Our first stops were to show us on the first Australians killed in the war (October 1914) and the Zillibeke Cemetery 3 km east of Ypres, which was the cemetery to the rich and famous, known as the Aristocrat Cemetery. Initially only the important or wealthy officers would have tombstones but there was a push to have every soldier to be commemorated as opposed to being buried in a mass grave.

The local cows are called Belgian Blues, she seems to be a happy cow.

We visited the site of the Christmas Truce 1914.

Not only did we find more unexploded ammunition but there is a giant unexploded mine. They had one that destroyed a field in 2015, hopefully their farm will not become airborne.

In our travels we passed a series of German bunkers that had to be occupied by some German WW1 re-enactors who had come from Frankfurt.

We visited the Hooge Crater Museum for lunch.

We visited the Flanders Museum in Ypres in the Cloth Hall.

 Ypres in flames.

Here is a messenger dog. I think the message will say, "Get me outta here"

In Ypres for tea, we ate at the Captain Cook Restaurant – go figure. We had a lovely meal of hearty Flemish Stew.

Tonight we visited the Menin Gate and Elizabeth laid a wreath in memory of her lost Great-uncle Norman Jones. Sue, a teacher from Canberra, laid one with her friend Helen in memory of Sue’s lost relative, surnamed Isaacs who served with the 57^th Battalion, seeing action at Fromelles 1916 before being killed at Zonnebeke, Belgium in 1917. 

To be honest it’s amazing that anyone survived at all. The Menin Gate Lions had been here on loan from the Australian War Memorial but they have gone home already.