Getting historical with Christophe

You can’t beat having a local tour guide. Christophe was exceptional.
Before we met up with Christophe we had to rely on the very unhelpful lady at the Tourist Information in Ypres, and some British war enthusiasts. I’m not sure whether these Brits gave us poor directions or we were too stupid to follow them. In Ypres we visited Menin Gate, a large monument that pays tribute to all the Commonwealth countries who fought in the area in WW1. However, for some reason New Zealand soldiers are not listed on the monument, but are in Tyne Cot cemetery and a few other memorials. It’s amazing that the Last Post is played every night at 8pm at the Menin Gate and draws a large crowd each time. Rumour has it that Peter Jackson was there recently, perhaps something to do with a new movie???
In Zonnebeke we walked the aptly named ‘Australia Walk’ which runs along what was the front line in the war. We got a little lost, but did stumble upon a path that led right into the centre of a large cornfield. Thinking this might be a short cut to where we needed to be, we curiously followed along. To our surprise there was a monument in the middle of the corn dedicated to Canadian soldiers. So much history in the strangest of places!
Moving on to Christophe’s we went out to dinner in the grounds of an old castle. One of those rare experiences that you only get by hanging out with a local! Although hardly any locals even know about this place.
In the morning (after a Belgian breakfast of coffee and Nutella), Christophe took us to a WW1 trench and museum called the Trench of Death. It was here that the Belgians held off the Germans for over three years. It’s amazing that they have managed to keep the trenches as they were (I’m sure they are slightly better maintained these days). To wander through them and try and imagine a war was incredible, not to mention the thought that the world we live in could have turned out very differently had the Germans succeeded in crossing that river.
Speaking of Germans, next stop was a German cemetery. It was unlike any other war cemetery I have been to. Vladslo is one of the major collective German cemeteries in Belgium and is the resting place of 25,644 war dead. It also houses a sculpture created by Kathe Kollwitz called ‘Parents in Mourning’. Kollwitz’s son Peter is actually buried in the cemetery and I think it highlights that death is such an awful part of war and that it doesn’t matter which side you are on, the loss of a child is incomprehensible.