Antwerp, Bruges and Flanders Fields

The second half of our holiday took us from the Netherlands to Belgium. The first stop was Antwerp, known for it's diamond industry, medieval cobblestones and startling architecture.  I really tried to find a diamond as a souvenir but failed.  There were just too many to choose from!

We were successful in visiting Ruben's House Museum. Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish painter from the 1600's. In his home in Antwerp, he painted and collaborated with other artists to create baroque styled artwork. Not only was the art impressive, his home was spectacular, designed after Italian palaces.

Ruben's chair. I didn't take too many photos inside as I was in awe the whole tour.

He had a huge garden with water features, and sculptures. Shea took this opportunity to work on his burn. 

Antwerp is also known for it's huge cathedral that dominates the city's skyline. Inside, it is decorated with art by Rubens and impressive stained glass windows. The steeple is considered the most impressive in Europe. 

After analysing this statue (it's of a man, Brabo, throwing a giant's severed hand), and doing a bit of reading, we learnt what 'Antwerp' means: hand throwing. 

Like Amsterdam, Antwerp is full of wonderful buildings.  There are just fewer canals and bikes. 

Enjoying the nice weather. 

Antwerp has the most beautiful train station that I have ever seen. When we first arrived, it was hard to focus on finding our way to the hotel because the station's dome roof and clock draw all your attention.

 Our time in Antwerp was short but we managed to see all the main sites. It was then off to Bruges where we never tired of quoting scenes from In Bruges.

The famous Bell Tower which we did go up.  It is quite narrow at parts.

Like so many other towers we have climbed, the stairs are worn by all the people hiking up and down.

Views of the city from the top. Bruges is a beautiful city.  We even lucked out to arrive on the hour as the bells tolled above our heads for two minutes.  

Still in good spirits after the climb.

City Centre

Bruges is not that large so we walked across town to see the windmills.

Bruges was an important trade city back in the day.  This is the area where most of the major trading took place. The wealthy also lived in these homes.

We spent some time in the Beer Museum where you could sample various Belgium beer at the end. 

 We booked a fabulous tour of Flanders Fields to fill our final day of holiday.  I would highly recommend this tour as the guide was exceptional in explaining the history and focusing the tour on various sites that are of interest to the small tour group (we were accompanied by four Australians).

Between 1914 and 1918, 185,000 Commonwealth lives were lost at the Salient (an area around Ypres, Belgium).  Today, there are more than 150 different cemeteries marking the final resting place of both identified and unidentified soldiers.  There are 71 monuments commemorating those who are missing in action with no known grave, memorials dedicated to military units, and preserved landscapes of old battlefield sites.

Map of the Salient

Our first stop was St. Julien where Canada commissioned a monument dedicated to the Canadian 1st Division in action on April 22-24, 1915 (18,000 soldiers). It was the first ever large-scale gas attack against the Allies. The Canadians were involved in heavy fighting, with 2,000 casualties.

It's always so nice to see the familiar Canadian sign font and styling!

The Brooding Soldier. All trees and soil were shipped in from Canada to make this monument truly Canadian.

At reversed arms stance.

Our next stop was Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world. There are 11,962 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated at this location, 8,374 of these burials are for unidentified causalities. While there, the Australian military were present for special events to honour their dead.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

Our next visit was to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele.  At this location, from July to November in 1917, more than half-a-million casualties were sacrificed for a mere eight kilometre gain by the Allies. This battle became a symbol of the great futility of the violence of war in all its horror.

One of the original signs from WWI.

The first battle began on July 31, with British troops assaulting German trenches. For the next month, hundreds of thousands of soldiers on opposing sides attached and counterattacked across sodden, porridge-like mud, in an open, grey landscape, virtually empty of buildings and natural cover. Few gains were made.

Notice the lack of farms and buildings in the second picture and the abundance of shell holes.

In early September,  Australian and New Zealand divisions were brought to the front lines.  The results were the same; the Allies would bombard, assault and occupy a section of enemy ground only to be thrown back by the counterattacking Germans.

On October 26, it was the Canadians turn to fight, led by Lieutenant General Arthur Currie. For the next two weeks, four divisions of the Canadian Corps took turns assaulting the Passchendaele ridge, with gains of only a few hundred meters each day and with heavy losses of life. Conditions were horrifying for the troops who huddled in waterlogged shell holes under the almost continuous rain of shellfire. The mud did have one benefit of cushioning many of the shells that landed, preventing their explosion.

The land after battle.

On November 6, the Canadians launched a large-scale attack on the ridge. They succeeded in capturing it and the ruins of Passchendaele village from the Germans. On the final day of this four-month battle (November 10), the Canadians secured the remaining areas of high ground east of the Ypres salient. 15,654 Canadians lost their lives in Passchendaele.

Canada's Casualties from WWI.

Outside the museum, they had reconstructed trenches and dugouts which showed the different building techniques used by the Germans and the Allies.  They were fine but the ones in Vimy were far superior.

My artistic shot looking through a peep hole. 

The trenches.

 There were also re-enactments taking place (sort of) outside the museum.  Basically, it was a bunch of people dressed up to look like they were from WWI. They also had a few vehicles and tents which you could explore.

Old!

What Passchendaele looks like today. It is a very beautiful site.  

There was an area called Poppy Gardens. For every country that fought in Passchendaele, they had a red fence thingy (technical term) to look like a poppy on the ground and the country's flag. It was easy to find Canada! The re-enactment people were even stationed there. 

Some of the tents and actors. It was lunch time and they all had to get their rations from the cook. 

We had beer instead!

Remember how some of those shells did not go off when they landed because the ground was all soft and muddy?  Well, that is a major issue to this day.  After the war, the locals moved back to where their homes used to be in Passchendaele even though the government said not to. This lead to a lot more civilian casualties after the war, from people accidentally setting off these bombs by either stepping on them or when they were moving them to clear the land.

Today, children in Belgium are taught at an early age to never touch any shells they find on the ground and to tell an adult so it can be removed safely.  In Canada, we were taught to stop, drop and roll if you catch on fire.

Some recently discovered ordnance.  They move them to the side of the roads and they get picked up and detonated on Fridays. 

Our third museum was the Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres (pronounced Wipers). This museum told the story of the whole First World War through the stories of many different soldiers, nurses, and civilians. They also had a wonderful exhibit called Canada in Flanders which presented the story of the Canadian troops in Belgium. Ypres was also a very pretty little town.  Because it was destroyed during the war, they have rebuilt it to how it looked before the war.  Unfortunately, WWII happened and a lot of buildings were destroyed again.

Did you know that more than 80% of all Canadian soldiers died between Ypres and the French border in the first two years of the war? This picture is of the Canadian Highlanders kit.

These are some of the Canadian military pins from WWI that have been found in the various battlefields over the years. 

The White Hall before and after the War. This is now the building of the Flanders Fields Museum. 

The Hall today. They did a good job reconstructing it to look like the original.

 The final stop on the tour was to an Open Air Museum where they have preserved trenches and various articles left after the War.

Some of the many shells that were collected from this one site. 

The trenches.

Although long and intense, I absolutely enjoyed our quick tour of Flanders.  It is a beautiful area with a somber history.  I think the various governments, locals, and militaries have done an exceptional job in preserving the past, honouring the lost and moving ahead with life.

With this being our second trip to Belgium, I think it is also safe to say that we can also scratch this one off our list of places to visit.  That is two countries complete!

Black sheep are awesome!