Exploring ashore

For those that misguidedly read this blog for sailing inspiration, I should probably warn you that this contains none of it. I apologise now for it being a truly ‘down time’ account of our 6 days spent moored in Blankenberge.

I have in the past expounded on the need to slow down and drink in places on passage and this is exactly what we have done here.

We took the train to Bruges and then, the following day, to Ghent, and they were both very pretty. Bruges particularly was like stepping back in time with an almost completely original centre of medieval buildings.

It seems that its prosperity declined with the silting of the river, thus losing its status as a trading port and it appears to be frozen in time at that point. It must have escaped the massive bombing that many northern European cities suffered from. It was packed with tourists and the prices seemed to be hiked as a result. Ghent seemingly didn’t escape the bombing in the same way, and more contemporary buildings sit alongside the older examples.

We hired a car to drop off our wives at Zaventem (Brussels) Airport and on the way, we visited the impressive Battle of Waterloo site and museum, much of which is underground.

Meeting David at the airport, we intended to spend the next couple of days visiting WW1 sites and what a trip this turned out to be.

First up was the German cemetery at Langemark where 44,000 soldiers are laid to rest, most of them in a mass grave. We then went to Tyne Cot cemetery, which is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in the World, stretching into the distance with 12,000 graves.

On to the Passchendaele Museum which was interesting. Passchendaele (the predictive text on my phone transposed this into ‘passing ale’) was the site of several fruitless campaigns to move the front forward, there were 600,000 allied casualties in 100 days of effort. From there we went to Hill 62 where there is a private, unembellished museum and original trench and tunnel network. Checking into our overnight hotel in Ypres (spelt Lepers locally), we visited the totally rebuilt Lakenhal (Cotton Hall) in the centre of the previously bombed out city. This impressive building houses the ‘In Flanders Fields’ Museum. There was an eerie silence for the ‘Last Post’ at the Menim Gate despite it being packed and it was followed by a moving recital by a Surrey School choir.

Heading further south and into France, the following day, we went to Vimy Ridge and the immense Canadian Memorial.

The Canadian Museum and trench/tunnel complex was impressive and pristine in its reconstructed form with young Canadian students as tour guides. It is difficult to show the extent of the mine craters and shell holes with 2D pictures, and the woodland has grown back since the devastated landscape of 1918 but one cannot fail to notice the peppering of round craters from the shelling.

Returning into Belgium, we visited the Hooge Crater Cemetery and private museum.

This was a focal point of the Ypres Saliente and suffered many gains and losses through the course of the war with massive casualties and devastation but little advantage either way.  The museum was very well presented, and we are pleased we sought it out and visited. We had seen 3D pictures in old viewers at the Hill 62 museum and there were more here. They had thoughtfully concentrated the goriest pictures in two viewers which you had to be tall enough to access. The pictures of dismembered corpses and even decomposing bodies and horses hanging in what remained of trees, was harrowing and the scenes of the completely decimated landscape belied the current verdant appearance and the twee reconstructions for the tourists. Our final WW1 destination was the Belgian ‘Trench of Death’ and museum which is on the Yser river in Dodengang. This was where the Belgians defended a position, for much of the war very close to the German fortifications. The extensive trench network, although reconstructed, was very informative and signed off what has been a fascinating and thought-provoking couple of days – I am so pleased we took the time out to do it!

Richard writes:

Nick, in his inimitable way, describes the idea of slowing down and taking in the atmosphere of the beautiful, historic places we have visited in the last week, or so. The reality is, of course quite different. A 5km frogmarch through the streets of Bruges, denying his crew any respite or sustenance, resulted in our wives deliberately holding back and walking at a snail’s pace, much to the annoyance of our skipper. The beauty of the magnificent churches and cathedrals was met with “another bleedin’ church” as he was dragged through the splendid Gothic arched entrances.

In the battle fields he, I think, started to sense some of the emotion of the incredible sacrifice made by thousands upon thousands of young men, a few just 15 and 16 years old, who had been blown to pieces by shell fire, ravaged by machine gun fire, gassed and drowned in mud. For those who have not visited, it is a pilgrimage well worth making although we will never be able to fully understand the absolute horror of it.

It was encouraging to see so many young people, mostly school coach trips, at various of the sites we visited. The youngsters were all so well behaved, polite and respectful and, in particular, the Canadian university students who were acting as guides at Vimy Ridge visitor centre. For me, the highlight was hearing the choir from Ash Manor School sing at the Menin Gate Last Post, which has taken place every evening at 8pm since 1928, except for a period during WW2. Very moving. Nick wasn’t with David and I, he was probably in the pub by then!