Cemeteries and Memorials

Outside Ypres lies one of the largest WWI cemeteries, Tyne Cot. I think of about 12,000 burials there, 8,000 or so are of unknown soldiers. World War I cemeteries seem to be scattered everywhere in the area, as most soldiers were buried near where they died instead of being placed in one large cemetery.

I was interested to learn that WWI had units of bicyclists who carried machine guns. Every army had a cyclists division.

The German cemetery across town is a little starker. Perhaps it's my country bias, but at the various Allied cemeteries I often feel appreciative about the sacrifice the soldiers made. Here at the German cemetery I just felt like what a waste and tremendous loss it all was.

Mike found some Eberles on the list of soldiers with unknown graves, even a Richard Eberle, the same name as his father. They are probably not relations though, as Eberle is apparently a common name in southern Germany and Austria. 

In the town of Ypres is the Menin Gate, honoring 54,389 WWI soldiers with unknown graves from the British Commonwealth, where every night since 1929 (except for 4 years of German occupation during WWII) a Last Post ceremony is performed. I find it pretty incredible that so many people come every night to honor the fallen soldiers after so many years have passed. There were choirs who sang, a prayer given, wreaths were placed, a minute of silence observed and soldiers played 'Last Post' on their bugles. 'Last Post' was traditionally played in the British military to signal the end of the day. It's a touching ceremony honoring those who died for their country.

War History Tour

Camille has been studying World War I in school this year, which inspired us to visit some of the important sites and museums about that war. Our first stop was Passchendaele where they have reconstructed trenches on an original site. 

Anya realized the helmets were very heavy and not all that comfortable. 

All you need to do is add some lice, rats, standing water and winter temperatures and you can imagine how comfortable the soldiers were.

Here are bunkers at Essex Farm. John McCrae was working here as a medic when he wrote his poem "In Flanders Fields." 

Hill 60 is a small hill in the generally flat landscape, making it of strategic value during the war.  The pock-marked landscape is from craters blown by mines during the war.

In the town of Ypres is the In Flanders Fields Museum, an exploration of World War I. It's one of those modern museums full of videos, music, and interactive displays, as well as objects and written material. I'm all for that style. When I go to a museum I'm generally not in the mood for reading long essays of material. I've got a short attention span - entertain me! Maybe entertain is not the right word for the subject, but I definitely learned more about World War I than I've ever learned anywhere else. (But don't get the impression that I've ever gone out of my way to acquire a lot of WWI info). I'd highly recommend this museum for anyone. You can also climb the bell tower of the Cloth Hall while attending the museum, which is what the above photos are from.

We also found a World War II site to visit. La Coupole, about an hour from Ypres in St Omer, is the site of a huge underground bunker built with slave labor by the Nazis during World War II. They planned on using it to launch their V2 unmanned bombs on London. They ended up not ever using the site, as approaching Allied armies forced them to abandon the site in 1944. The museum has a lot of sobering information about Nazi atrocities. In fact, I steered Anya away from viewing some of it.

La Coupole also has a 3D IMAX theater where they were showing a film about the D-Day invasion. It was informative and interesting without being too graphic for children.

Weekend in Ireland: Ring of Kerry

 Camille is fond of photo-bombing.

It was so hard to decide what to do for our last day in Ireland - so many choices! We'd narrowed it down to the Ring of Kerry or the Dingle Peninsula. After our hotel concierge told us that on cloudy days it's hard to see anything on the Dingle Peninsula, we went with the Ring of Kerry. It was a foggy, misty, sometimes rainy day. So pretty, but sometimes difficult to take pictures and not always inspiring for getting out of the car. We did get out of the car long enough for the girls to touch the Atlantic (they've now seen the Pacific, North Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic) and walk through the town of Sneem and sit by the fire in a cafe, and stop for some brief excursions. It is such a pretty drive though.

We debated on whether late October is a good time to go to Ireland. On one hand, the fall color is gorgeous, some prices were lower and we were able to drive the whole Ring of Kerry without a hint of traffic or crowds anywhere. On the other hand, we didn't get any blue skies for our pictures and some of our activities were limited by the weather. One thing is for sure though, three days is definitely not enough to "do" Ireland.

Weekend in Ireland: Dublin & Cashel

This last week we spent a long weekend in Ireland, getting a very quick introduction to the country. We arrived Friday night and spent our first full day exploring Dublin. We visited Trinity College to look around and see the library and the Book of Kells. This is just how a library ought to look.

The rest of our day we spent shopping, wandering and eating. Dublin is a manageable size for exploring on foot with lots of shopping, restaurants and cute streets.

After a late start, our second day we picked up a rental car and headed east to Killarney. On our way, we stopped by Cashel to see the castle there. Unfortunately, half the castle was covered in scaffolding, limiting our pictures. We were still able to enjoy the stunning panoramic views across the countryside and nice walking.

Celebrating 20 Years in Prague

The art nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha lived in Prague for some of his life. You see a lot of that style around town. I especially liked this apartment building doorway - the owls, the weaving vines, the monster head over the door, the swirling iron gate. The amazing thing about Prague is how much beautiful architecture there is. Street after street, neighborhood after neighborhood of beautiful buildings.

The Weeping Wall of Wallenstein - made to look like stalactites. BTW, I look a little underdressed here because I packed completely wrong. I brought all these light sweaters and a rain jacket, which were just what I needed in England in August. But Prague in September was HOT. At least it felt hot after our English summer.

Hidden throughout the stalactite wall are faces of little monsters, snakes and frogs. It took us a while to spot them at first. They kind of blend in when you're looking at the whole, large wall.

We chose some rather quirky entertainments in Prague. Mostly, we wanted to sit eating in cafes and wander aimlessly. And that's what we did, except when we were visiting this KGB museum, with the most animated, enthused tour guide you'll ever encounter, or at the museum of communism (no eccentric guide, yet I learned a lot), or at a marionette version of Don Giovanni. 

My parents were nice enough to watch our kids while we took a trip for our 10 year anniversary and also for this trip celebrating 20 years. It's weird to think that for our 30 year anniversary, our kids won't require watching anymore. At least we sure hope they won't.