Tuesday 24th April

Tuesday 24^th April

“Hallo” from Ieper & Kortrijk.

We woke to another delightful day on our European expedition; rain, a light hail, 18km/h cool winds, glimpses of sun and 7-12 degrees, but we enjoyed our hearty breakfast, boarded our bus and went back in time to 1914 with Georges our guide.

First stop, Tyne Cot Cemetery where 11954 soldiers from the Commonwealth Forces are buried; it is also the largest Commonwealth military cemetery in the world. Its vast area of white headstones highlighted the devastating, and now silent, impact of war. We were able to walk the grounds and found some notable names including, the two Australian Victoria Cross awardees.

Hill 62, a Canadian memorial commemorating the action of their troops defending southern Ieper was next on the list. The monument also overlooked the Sanctuary Wood Museum where we were able to walk through an original section of the woodlands and follow the trenches built by the British forces.

Polygon Wood was next on our itinerary. A lunch stop at Cafe De Dreve where we met Johan Vandewalle. Johan discovered five Australian soldiers buried near his Café and shared his story of discovery and his passion to build a memorial to highlight the essence of eternal friendship to people of all ages. Johan was very proud to have helped with the history gathering behind the movie “Beneath Hill 60”.

Georges then took us back Ieper and the Menin Gate, which holds the names of all the missing fallen soldiers.

TO THE ARMIES
OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WHO STOOD HERE
FROM 1914 TO 1918
AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD
WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE

We then walked around the town boundary and followed the moat and city walls back to St Georges Memorial Church.  

Before dinner chocolate again became the focus. Many frantically explored the Ieper town square, making purchases to replace the presents purchased the day before… which had already been consumed ;)

We regrouped for dinner, then hightailed our way back to our hotel. There we worked on our choralography under Mr Rand’s direction - stay tuned to hear about our anticipated performance for our sister school still to come.

Tomorrow, we will attend the dawn ANZAC day service at Polygon Wood (3.30am wake up), so it’s “goedenacht”, or goodnight, from us!

Reecey

PS: lots of love to Mason & Bria; Daddy will be home soon xxoxx

                                                          Tyne Cot Cemetery

                                                              Tyne Cot Museum

                                                          On our Tour

                                                         At Hill 62 Museum

                                                       At the Hill 62 Trenches

At Polygon Wood