World War I was to be the war that ended all wars.
Just before World War I Australia had a population of nearly 4.5 million. During World War I over 421,809 Australians served in the military, so nearly one tenth of the population. Over 60,000 Australians lost their lives and 137,000 were wounded. The majority of these died in Europe, which is nearly 17,000kms from Australia, even though we also fought in the Middle East and Africa during the war.
I have previously been to Australia's other "War Mecca", Gallipoli in Turkey. So as we were in Belgium on holiday, I thought it would be good to see the site which effected and cost Australia quite largely nearly a hundred years ago.
We decided to visit the
Tyne Cot Cemetary. Which is in the middle of the "Western Front".
I liked this one as they were from Sherwood Forest, made me wonder about the Robin Hoods of the day who would be very resourceful in their needs.
They have a memorial register, so that you can look for those in your family or friends that served and lost their life in the region. As you can see there are only a few of my family there.
Scarily enough one of them is a G Masters!
The Cemetery is very well kept by the Belgians and through money from the UK, I believe. It is certainly a fitting tribute to boys, and they were mostly boys, who fought and died here.
We were lucky there were some war verterans visiting from Canada, of course not WWI vets.
It just gave a realistic feeling to the environment
We were lucky that while there a Scottish piper came and played a solemn tune.
You can see a video of it at the bottom. I hope so anyway....
Sometimes I think cemetaries look best in black and white
Especially in the weather like this with bright sunshine and white headstones.
It almost looks like a people lining up for a pilgramage which I guess to an extent is true.
The sun will always rise
But the sun will never set on the memories of these brave men.
I ordered a lovely brown Kasteel
With such a pretty base to the glass, that really is a treat to have nice individual glasses to each beer. I just don't think it would work in Australia for some reason......
Marty had a Palm beer and it must have been good, or my stories are really boring.... I am hoping it was a good beer, but truth be known.... it was just ok.
We stopped near an Australian memorial, it was lovely as we were the only people there, in the middle of a small forest with a manicured lawn and some time to reflect.
To the fifth.
Then we popped into Ypres/Ieper (which looks like leper if you aren't concentrating) for a poke around.
There were some great ominous looking clouds about too.
Threatening, yet fluffy and nice.
In Ypres there is a memorial to the soldiers of WWI as many were killed defending the area around Ypres. Ypres itself was almost completely destroyed in WWI and so the town is only 100 years old, but you really couldn't tell.
J.J. rest his soul.
I couldn't tell which photo of the fountain I liked more.
So you got two.
We stopped off for our first (and only) Belgian waffle, I asked for chocolate at first he thought I said chicken..... man my English must be getting worse!
Then we did a little shopping, ahhhhh chocolate.
I then looked at, but refused to buy, some cherry beer. It is just kind of wrong, no?
After getting our little hearts, and stomachs, focused on food we decided to have a meal. It was a great idea, as it was the best meal of the entire trip! We went to the restaurant De Ruyffelaer if you are ever passing through, you must stop in. It is really great.
I had Rabbit
And Marty had the poussin
Before we headed towards the memorial at sunset.
For the daily tradition of the last post. Certainly an emotional moment and there would have been a good 300 people there, mid week in September, quite impressive all round.
