Flanders Field

Beguinache with nun

We did a walking tour of Brugge in the morning starting outside St. John’s Hospital. One of the more interesting stops was 17^th century alms houses, now turned into senior housing as small apartments. We passed by the nests of 52 swans which are a reminder of when the people revolted against the emperor and killed his tax collector by the name of “long neck". Nearby we walked through a Beguinache, a place where single women could live. The wars and crusades meant that there were more women than men. For years women could only be wives or nuns, you couldn't live independently. But here they could make lace, earn a good income and live together. Today only 7 nuns live here.

Michelangelo Mary and Child

In the Church of our Lady of Brugge,  we saw the only Michelangelo statue that left Italy during his lifetime. Mary and Jesus are not in the typical pose, but instead they are both looking down. The church it was intended for was going to have it mounted high, but it was never built. A merchant from Brugge bought the sculpture and brought it here.

In the afternoon we went to the town of Ypres which was the site of four major battles during World War I.The German plan was to quickly invade Belgium, a neutral country in order to invade France. Britain had aided the founding of Belgium as a neutral country in 1830 with the promise to defend it, if it was attacked. To prevent the Germans from sweeping through the country, the Belgians opened the flood gates, flooding the fields the Germans wanted to sweep through, and stopped them from advancing on France. Thus began the trench war, the British and French against the Germans attacking and counterattacking for the next four years with neither side gaining significant ground. Both sides created a series of trenches, tunnels, and underground shelters firing guns and shooting mortars across the no man's land. Machine guns, gas warfare and tanks were introduced to gain an advantage, but it just resulted in more deaths. The 3^rd battle of Ypres alone resulted in 500,000 deaths in 100 days, over four million bombs were used. The Flanders Field Museum recounted the war year by year, but one comes away with the feeling of the futility of war.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

We visited two British cemeteries, Essex farm where Colonel John McCrae was stationed in advanced dressing station and wrote the poem “In Flanders Field” and Tyne Cot, the largest where over 60% of the graves are to an unknown soldier.We also visited the recreation of a WWI trench as well as indications of where the tunnels and excavated rooms were. Because of the wet winter A Frames were used to keep the soldiers feet out of the water filling the trench. While this battlefield is over 100 years old, each year 100 to 150 skeletons and 150 to 200 items of ordinance are found. After our day we had to agree that these graves were silent witnesses to the desolation of war".

In the evening, we attended the daily ceremony at Menin Gate Memorial, the local fire brigade plays and British Children lay wreathes in remembrance of those lost in the war.