We arrived in Antwerp this morning and decided to take a side trip to pay homage to the brave soldiers who lost their lives fighting for freedom at Passchedaele and Ypres.
Our first stop was the Tyne Cot Cemetery in Ypres Salient, Belgium nearby where the Battles of Passchedaele took place. The fields around the cemetery are filled with poppies earlier in the year, too bad we missed seeing that sight. We were told that there are close to 12,000 graves, two thirds are unnamed. The battles were so fierce and the soldiers were not well prepared, their uniforms and weapons were mostly from 1800s wartime and not a war in 1914. So sad.
We also went to see where John McCrae wrote the poem ‘In Flanders Field’ on May 3, 1915. He was a field surgeon with the Canadian forces and wrote his poem to honour a friend who he had watched die the day before, during the second battle at Ypres.
It’s been an intense day, listening to all the tragedy of war and seeing bunkers and fields where the soldiers fought and died.
When we got back to our ship we decided to lighten things up a bit. What fun to play music trivia and help work the music machine.
Did you know that Neil Diamond’s song ‘Sweet Caroline’ is not the most streamed song – we never would have guessed.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 