Day Not so sure…Haha

It has been a great experience thus far and the kids are simply more and more about the places that they have been visiting.  This morning we have booked the number #1 tour guide in London and we are learning and stopping every chance we get.  Make sure you ask your kids about the particulars on the city of London such as the size of the city, the population, the history of fires, the history of kings and queens, etc.  They should be able to answer it by now. 

Big Ben Smith

Admiral Nelson-Trafalgar Square

The tour around the city of London was simply amazing, as not only did we stop at the sights you would expect, but the information that we received at each one was impeccable. Having trouble getting all of our sightseeing tour pics posted right now, not sure whether it's computer based or dead tired based, will post more upon return.

Green Park - Buckingham Palace- Canadian Memorial

It has been one of the best experiences that I have ever had in Europe with students…we have had intense and relaxed and a lot of walking throughout the tour.  They have ups and downs but as you will see, we are ending on a high note with an evening of culture and enjoyment……but before we break for that we need to visit the Churchill War Rooms.  Sorry about the break in communication but it was a long day and night of fun and excitement for the kids mixed in with a lot of speed walking for the next Olympics.

The Churchill War rooms were the heartbeat of the British war effort, especially the bunkers during the air raids.  Everything is set the way in which it was 70+ years ago and the adjoining Churchill museum is a wonderful look at probably one of the most beloved Brits of all time.  In fact, JFK said that Churchill was one of the most important figures in human history...wow...The kids also loved learning about the man who’s face is so recognizable in this area of the world.            

What they didn’t know was the very personal side of Churchill and his affinity for painting and his family.  Churchill’s history is one of a noble past but as a child his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, basically ignored him as he was sent away to boarding school at the ripe old age of 7.  From that point on Churchill became very involved in the defense of Britain as a soldier and eventually the defender of the country during its most trying times.  

There really wasn’t much that Churchill didn’t do...he was elected, he was basically fired, he was re-elected and stayed a member of parliament until he was 90 years old.  HE was hated by some, loved by many and respected by all for his efforts to defend his country and the whole of Europe.  What many of the kids enjoyed was hearing about his wit....if you were unaware Churchill was known for his quick wit, dreadful honesty, love of cigars and of course his drinking!!!  He was also the first commoner of Britain ever granted a state funeral...far from a common man.  The last exhibit was a video of the funeral back in 1965 I believe, not long after his 90th birthday and 70 years to the day that his father died.
    But it was his wit that caught most of the kids attention by a number of the quotes that Churchill is given credit for....for example this comment was made in parliament... 

Mrs. Baddock: “'You are drunk Sir Winston, you are disgustingly drunk. 

Churchill: 'Yes, Mrs. Braddock, I am drunk. But you, Mrs. Braddock are ugly, and disgustingly fat. But, tomorrow morning, I, Winston Churchill will be sober.”  

Or another one of my favorites....

 “Lady Nancy Astor:  Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea.

Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.”

And of course he also had a serious side as could be heard with such quotes as”

            “Keep Calm and Carry On”

One that we hear quite often today as a part of many other types of slogans, and an even more serious tone with the famous:

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” 

In the end, these kids are learning a great deal in a very short period of time....these are those WOW moments that we all look for in teaching...I like to think that I get these all the time in class, but I just don’t.  It’s not that we get it everyday on tour, but we certainly have more opportunities at times with the exceptional experiences that we have at our disposal.  

The group finishes up their tour and they head to dinner for the traditional fish and chips.  Tonight’s dinner will be a rushed one for them, none for me, as I have rushed back to Wembley to pick up our tickets for the international friendly between England and Chile, along with a bout 65,000 other people.  What else is there to do on a Friday night?

Olympic Square

The dinner is finished and the rush begins!!!  Speed walk and have run will not cut it…. I am waiting for them with the stream of people coming to the game!  After a quick change to warmer clothes we head to the stadium and feel the electricity for our first international football match.  I have been to MLB, NFL and NHL games and this is very similar but with a decidedly European flair with signing and chanting of course the presence of two nationalities that are passionate for their sides.  Trying to use as many European football terms as I can as to not sound ignorant.   This is also Frank Lampard’s 100^th international cap which is a big deal…that means he has played 100 international games in his career and he actually receives a cap for his efforts for England.

After the national anthems, the game is on and the crowd s wild and the stadium of 65,000 is still about 15,000 short of capacity.  The English are probably supposed to be favored but Chile is small and fast, think Speedy Gonzalez fast, because there are a number of Gonzalez’s’ on the team.  After 5 or 6 great chances and awesome saves by the Chilean keeper, Chile’s best player Sanchez, who plays for Barcelona scored to settle the 60,000 English down, but send the 5,000 Chileans into a frenzy.  The end of the first half sees England squander a number of chances so they only have the 2^nd half to equal the score.  SO much for a friendly, they are tackling hard and the Chileans are diving like the entire Montreal Canadien team on a regular Saturday night!!(haha)  The crowd is getting upset with all of the flopping and the booing starts….our kids love that and join right in!  The game sees England fighting to tie the score but in extra time the best Chilean player has basically a breakaway and he cheekily chips the ball over the keeper to lead 2-0.  At that point I feel that Wayne Rooney should just drop the gloves and go with a Chilean, and then I remember where I am and what I am watching, football is much more refined than my beloved hockey.  Regardless of the result the atmosphere was great and the kids had another once and a lifetime experience.

Back at the hotel and the kids are packing and trying to catch some sleep.  The pilgrimage is coming to a close and I am very proud of each one of them.  The morning will allow us to move back into the city one last time and get to a more pop cultural area of London, a little place called Abbey Road.  The Abbey Road studios are still used today and are of course made famous by the Beatles.  The kids take their places and make their way across the cross walk, Dempsey even doing the barefoot walk along with Kinkora’s Michael Lawless to simulate the Paul MacCartney’s role in the Fab 4’s jaunt across the street.  The other neat thing about Abbey Road and the studios is that everyone that comes to visit this site out front of the studio signs the walls, a kind of a legalized graffiti.  IN fact the walls are repainted about every 6 months and that allows more Beatles fans to come along and place their own personal message for the band they love.  In my case it was a quick little message about my very first Beatles tune in music class at Sherwood elementary, Yellow Submarine.

Our Little Brother's from St. John's Private School

From Abbey Road we are taking one last trip to Picadilly for the last of your London souvenirs and then off to the airport for our flight home.   The kids are ready to head home, they are tired and want to get back to their families.  By the time you read this we will be in Toronto after a long flight up and over Greenland because of high winds over the Atlantic so it will delay our flight by about a half hour.  Signing off from a few thousand feet….chat soon!  Back in action and its 5:00 AM on Sunday and we are getting ready to head to Pearson.  I know you all know by now that we are here, but last night there was no WIFI so I couldn't post the blog.  My apologies for basically skipping a day and maybe you will check this morning.  I will actually have one more post that will finish things off...choose to do with it as you wish!!  See you all just before noon....if on time of course!!!
dc

Day 8(I think) – Au Revoir Paris…..Cheerio London

Great way to travel!

Early start today with a 5:30 wake up and a trek through the busy streets of Paris even at 7:00 AM.  The morning commuters must be nuts, road rage would be a common occurrence in my world if I had to deal with this everyday.  Once again the kids are great at being organized to be ready to go and by 6:45 and this gives us a needed advantage as we soon find out.  Once we hit the station to catch the train we literally take about 30 minutes to pass through customs and get ready to board which only leaves us about 10 minutes to board and get seated for our trip to London.  It is another rainy day in Paris and once we are seated on the Eurostar it starts to pour, thankfully we are dry and the kids, although tired, are excited to be moving on to London.  They have been a great group to travel with and I would certainly take them anywhere again.  I know my last group of 50, who if they are reading this blog during our latest excursion, will be upset to hear that the 2013 group is the best travelling group so far(knock knock).  In defense of the 2012 group, 50 people over 19 people, gives the smaller group an unfair advantage on size alone, that being said I retract my earlier statement and say that I would travel with both groups anywhere again!  Maybe as a retirement gift, both groups can travel with me to Europe in 2026, oops that was earliest retirement up until 3 weeks ago, so the trip will probably be scheduled for 2076 when I retire based on the new provincial pension plan.  I hope that at 105 I will still be able to keep up to the youngsters that Jordan and Charlie when they are about 80……

We have just entered the “Chunnel” as it is affectionately known and this is certainly a great way to travel and I hope to do it again someday.  We should be in London in a short period(about 1:30) and will be heading to our hotel near Wembley and then on to the city center of London for a day of excitement. We have a relatively relaxing day in London planned today, mostly because of the early departure time and distance of travel, but it will be a great day nonetheless.  Signing off for now…..kids are great and they will be home with you soon…until later from “Under the Sea” well under the channel really….

From our hotel!!!!

Ok I am back…when I just read what I had written previously I just noticed I said “at our hotel near Wembley”  well if we were any closer we’d be sleeping at midfield!!!!  I mean that, we are about a driver and a wedge away from one of the most famous stadiums in the world.  When we arrived today we couldn’t believe it and then our driver said he was surprised we had rooms here because there is a soccer friendly tomorrow between Engalnd and Chile…What???  Well we are currently looking into tickets and will know tomorrow, they seem to think it won’t be a problem as it is not sold out and the tickets are going for cheap!!!  The entire group is going to go together for another once in a lifetime experience, we all can’t wait, although not huge football fans(yes I am a HUGE American football fan, but you can’t say soccer over here…it’s a national crime I think) many of us are sports fans and this will probably never happen again!  I will let you all know if it works out!!!

Wembley at night

So back to our tour….short blog again tonight because of our travel today and other than Piccadilly and Wembley today was a day of touring and seeing what London has to offer.  People continue to ask me when I travel and when I return, what places do I like the most. I often respond that Belgium is my favorite, because of its quaintness and size as well as the friendliness of the people along with the ability of many Belgians to speak many different languages.  I love France as well, Paris is historical and beautiful and not always easy to get around in…but each time I come back to London I truly like it more and more.  What A great city…gigantic size wise in population and space but a beautiful city  nonetheless!!!  Today we were able to get into city center about 4 PM and head to Oxford Street which is the richest shopping area in London…it was in full Christmas swing already!  I have never seen anything more festive and decorative!!!  From there we headed on a brisk 30 minute walk to dinner through a crowd of what must have been 15000 people on the sidewalk and we made it in record time for another wonderful meal of curry chicken, naan, rice and curried potatoes….we have been so lucky with meals on this trip…it has never been better!  I cannot thank EF enough for the majority of the choices that they have made.  If I write that my good friend the “very wonderful Mary Erskine” took care of this then I will owe her a lot.  Plus I will know if she is actually reading my blog as she said she was!!!!  This is a test starting now Mary….let’s see if you are paying attention!!!

On Oxford..major Department Store 

All the way down Oxford Street...amazing!

Piccadilly Circus

From dinner we head to Piccadilly Circus which is the Times Square of  Europe and the kids are having a great time after a long few days of travel and remembrance!  I am happy for them as a group.  Not once has one of our kids been late, not once has one of them needed to be spoken to about decorum…truly a great group of kids!  This goes for Kinkora and SJJH as well, well a couple of the Kinkora boys need to buy a watch, but another great group to travel with!!!

I sign off for you and hope that you are enjoying the blog and feeling connected to your kids!!  Take care and wish us luck on tickets!

Dc

Day 7 – Taking Paris by Storm, with no rain for a change

No more rain for today as far as we know…..our say started with losing our bus driver Freck.  The kids all say their goodbyes and they are sad.  I can attest that Freck is one of the nicest people I have ever met and he truly cares for the kids he has been driving through Europe for the past 5 days.  Freck waits for us to grab our new bus that we will be using for our tour of Paris today.  We meet Francisco our new driver and he greets us with a bit of harsh commentary as to what we are to make sure we do not do over the next couple of hours!!!  We want Freck back and so does Tom!!!  Regardless we are stuck with a cranky driver as we head to city center for our tour of the wonderful city of Paris.

Tower looking East

I will let you know in advance that this may be a short one because of our day, and the only memorial of the war that we will visit today is at the Arc de Triomphe, Napoloeon’s Triumphant Arch, which houses the tomb of the unknown soldier of the French and also is home to probably the worst traffic in the world. In fact, any accident that takes place in the round about surrounding the Arc, which is where twelve lanes of traffic converge, is not covered by insurance…..you get hit by another car and you are on your own, real life bumper cars, just like the ones at Sandpsit just more expensive.

It takes about 50 minutes to get downtown and it looks like a really bad traffic day for sure….we are now almost an hour late for our guide, but when she picks us up she is still in a great mood.  In fact, she tunes the bus driver in a little and he seems to relax somewhat as well.  

We have a great tour of the city by bus we a number of stops that you will see along the way.  Unfortunately the tour is being held up by crazy busy traffic.  The guide explains as we try to pass by the National Assembly, that the French are the kings and queens of protesting, and today is one of those days.  That means that there are a full contingent of Gens D'Arme out in partial riot gear and they are holding up plenty of traffic in our general direction.  I guess they had a little thing called the French Revolution, so maybe they are justified to be prepared for these things.

TOSH on the West side of tower

Napoleonic Military Church

After about 30 minutes of not moving in traffic we forgo they drive up to Notre Dame, so Victor Hugo and his hunchback will not be getting a visit from islanders on this trip.  We continue passed the Assembly and head up to the famous Champs D'Elysees where we are going to be dropped off for a little window shopping.  Actually, we head first to the Arc and the tomb of the unknown soldier and then the kids are allowed to walk along the Champs on this beautiful fall day.  THere are actually a number of places that the kids are able to shop and bring back gifts for all of you, not sure if that happened,  just kidding most of what was purchased was not for them.....another tribute to the type of kids we have.  The trek up and down the 2 KM Champs brings us back to the Arc and now we are off to the Louvre for the afternoon before heading to supper and then a memorable finish to our day and tour in France.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

We have our first hiccup in lateness of the trip here, none of ours, won't go into detail but a couple of boys from Kinkora should have purchased a watch because they are a "little" late as we wait by the Arc.  No worries cause all are safe and the weather is beautiful, and we will laugh about it later!!
Finally off the see the Mona Lisa....

 I won’t be going into anymore expressive details of the day right now, instead I will probably just post some pictures because I am fading fast......footnote to that, I faded fast and fell asleep....it's not 5:45 and we are up to get ready for London and the Eurostar.   If you give me a few more hours sleep I will try to recount much more about what went on today while I am speeding along in the Eurostar in the morning.  

I will end by saying that we had a great ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Every single kid went to the top and we had a great view on a very clear evening.

I feel like I am doing a disservice to our day, but with a few hours to go before we have to get up and catch the train, I’ll leave you with some photos…besides a picture says a thousand words…so be prepared to read a 30,000 word essay on our day in Paris!!!

Au Revoir et a demain! (I promise I will finish)

Dc

Post Script Note After falling asleep...I forgot I need to give the Steele family an update into Charlie's journey to "Italian Stallion" status...tonight atop the Eiffel Tower Charlie had his pic taken with a number of girls on tour from Yorkshire county in England, we do have picture evidence just not in my possession as of yet!  I have told him he has moved up a status level from Acadian miniature pony, to simply Acadian pony!!!  I also told him they were probably light headed because of the atmospheric pressure of being up so high and weren't thinking straight....just kidding, he is working hard at making "friends" globally on this tour!  Off to the train!!!

Day 6: A Salute to the Somme....Stories of New Zealanders, Newfoundlanders and the British and a final farewell to the North of France and Freck

A dreary cold morning cannot dampen our spirits as we head off to visit a number of memorials in the area that are extremely significant in their own right.  We have seen and felt the Vimy experience and the kids have grown because of them.  We are now off to see the memorials of Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval, but prior to that we are heading down under…well not down under as you may think but pretty close.  We are closing in on Wellington Quarry which was constructed around the city of Arras and was a series of about 12 miles of tunnels that were used to house soldiers during WWI and in WWII were used to protect the people of Arras from the violent shelling that occurred in the area of Arras.  The kids look some cute in their mining helmets that we have to wear in order to enter the quarry.  The underground that I was referring to is down an elevator shaft about 60 feet below the surface and is completely amazing. 

The quarry itself is dug into the chalk that is located in the area and in total all of the quarries in the area are able house over 24,000 soldiers during that time.  The New Zealanders that were mainly responsible for the area we are visiting have named certain parts for th

e regions of their homeland, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington being the most famous.

At each new area of the tunnel that we stop we are greeted with more sounds from years past, video footage of images and the headset translators fill in the details that we are seeing around us, and a tour guide that is explaining everything in detail to solidify what they are learning, a little more on the 6 foot blonde translator later on.  It is a new exhibit and a very impressive one once again and we are truly lucky to be able to fit all of this into our tour.

The kids are doing pretty well with being so far underground and the fact that we are in constant motion probably alleviates any fear that we are so far down.  That is until the kids start getting hit with some big drops of water from the roof of the cavern, I can see a slight look of concern on their faces.  Actually the moisture is what gives the chalk its strength, in fact dry chalk would not be great because it is much more brittle and easier to crack and break, so rest easy.  Obviously we made it back up.  The only thing that may have kept us down was the guide, and that would only be because she did not like ME!  Well I can’t say that she didn’t like me for sure, but she certainly did  not give me a warm fuzzy feeling when she told me the questions she was asking were to be answered by the students and not by me!!!!  In my defense, my students were not answering and I began by trying to whisper the answers in their ears and they still would not respond.  So in order to alleviate the awkward silence I start answering the questions, well at least until I am told not to anymore.  Luckily Charlie, my wingman, takes over and tries to kick in with some answers and is doing a great job of alleviating the silence.  After getting back above ground to warmer climes and warmer feelings of our group, we are off and on our way to Beaumont-Hamel. 

Team TOSH

The rain has picked up and the drive is about 30 minutes tops but unfortunately for the Gosse family we are unable to get down to the cemetery and do a grave rubbing.  There has been a massive amount of rain in the north of Europe over the last 2-3 weeks and the valley below the famous “Danger Tree” is a mud pit and is inaccessible.  Nonetheless, the experience of Beaumont is almost second to none when you hear the stories of the brave Newfoundland boys and the large number of casualties they incurred on July 1, 1916.  Which is why on July 1^st in Newfoundland, prior to their joining of Canada in 1949, that day was set aside as their Remembrance Day, and even to this day the morning of the first in Newfoundland is widely recognized with acts of remembrance and then they party like the rest of us on our nation’s birthday.

Kinkora crew

This is my third trip to Beaumont and the stories of then men who died here that morning in 1916, which was a part of the greater Battle of the Somme, always strike a chord in my heart.  Although the same story is generally told each time I come here, hearing that not one street in the city of St. John’s in 1916 did not have a lost soldier on it, after the numbers were finalized.  IN fact, of the 240,000 people live in the Dominion of NFLD at the time, 1000 men sign up to fight overseas.  On the morning of July 1^st, 25 minutes after the battle had begun the men left St. John’s road trench, and 15 minutes later, of the 780 that had gone over the top only 110 survived unscathed and only 68 of those could make roll call the next morning, it works out to an approx. casualty rate of over 80%.  They had about 250 yards to advance to lower ground, in a valley below no man’s land and they were unable to move that far.  Their objective was to get to the “Danger Tree” two and half footballs fields away and were unable to get there because of such heavy artillery by the Germans.

Danger Tree

The entire memorial is centered on the famous caribou of the Newfoundland Regiment and it is simply beautiful.  I am always proud to come here because I always feel that both sets of islanders have many of the same qualities and it is truly a beautiful place, even in the pouring rain!

Thiepval

From the Newfoundlanders we head up the road a few kms away to the British equivalent of Vimy, Thiepval.  This monument is dedicated to the dead of the British Empire and this memorial alone has over 77,000 names on it whose names have no known grave.  This is my 2^nd visit back to Thiepval and this time it is extra special.  When I first started planning this trip, I was building, along with a great deal of help from EF and my good friend Mary Erskine, we were centering it around the November 11^th ceremonies, but the fact is once you get to this region there are a million places, monuments and sites to visit and I always want to do them all.  In our case it is difficult because of the cramped event times, but we are getting to this high points and its awesome, but I said extra special because my good friend from Kinkora, Kevin Bustard gets to be the first in his family to visit and see the name of his great grandfather Bustard on the memorial. 

This is always a special time and I have been a part of this little moments in life a few times now, 3 on this trip alone, and I love the feeling of pride that beams from people’s faces when they see the names on the graves or the memorials.

Kevin and the Royal Rifles

We board the bus one last time and head to Paris, after tomorrow morning we will no longer have Freck Vandenmuelen our wonderful bus driver from the Netherlands, he has been by far the best driver I have ever had from EF, the kids love him.  He is the first driver I have ever had that accompanies the kids on all the exhibits and dinners and he seriously looks out for them while we are walking to and from the bus.  Another set of eyes is always helpful, even with this group of kids, and throw in the fact that the kids want him to come makes it all the better.  We have about 2 hours plus to Paris in a fairly heavy rain, so sleep is in order for myself and many of the kids.  Paris will be a great experience for the kids, but will mean a little more vigilance with their belongings and being attentive to travelling by the metro and subway, but I think they are up for it even in their tired state.

Upon arriving into the city of Paris, I notice that Scott has taken 789,998,987,000,765,999 pictures to this point.  They include an Ikea on the outskirts of the city, a toll station outside of the city from both sides of the bus, Staples headquarters outside of the city, grass, water, pavement, etc.  Olive I pity your 27 straight evenings of slide shows at home!!!  Haha

After dropping our bags, we hit the ground running, literally to catch the train into the heart of the city and for our supper and eventually a night, albeit a rainy one up on Mont Matre.  I will sign off for now because Kevin is sawing 9 cords of wood beside me and I need to affix some sort of contraption to my head so that I can sleep.  My device of my noise/snore cancelling headphones has fallen through because I discovered on the first flight that my expensive headphones were broken in their case, will need to investigate when I get home, so I do the best I can to get some sleep, but Paul Bunyan, who is about 2 feet from me prevents a full nights rest!!!  Haha at least he is a great daytime travelling companion!!!  Take care everyone and I hope that you are enjoying our stories.  It is fun writing them and the kids all enjoying reading them as well….in fact this morning at breakfast I was in bad stead because I had not posted before I went to bed.  They had nothing to read in the morning!  Tomorrow will be spent at the Louvre and touring the city of Love as Charlie, my budding stallion had put it.  Actually I have referred to him more of an Acadian miniature pony so far because he has been shot down by so many European girls at this point.  Sorry Jo, but with a little coaching yesterday and today he has finally made some inroads and has gotten some responses as we meet different groups from around the world.  I will update further to see how his equine status changes tomorrow….but for now we will leave him at miniature pony status but I do need to give him A+ for effort!!!  Take care and chat tomorrow!!!

dc

Day 5-The Ultimate Experience

Remembrance day in Europe…..I have had a great influence on a lot of firsts for the these guys and they have been wonderful travel companions to this point and I know they will be going forward.  But today we are all “rookies.”  Yes I have been to Menin Gate in Ypres, and yes I have been to Essex Farm,  and Tyne Cot and Passechdaele, but not on the most important of all days of the year when it comes to honouring the dead who made the ultimate sacrifice for us to live as we do today.

We are not up that early this morning with a simple 7 o’clock wake up and hit the bus by 8:45 to make the 30-40 minute trek to Ypres.  Cold morning at 3 degrees, always appropriate for these somber occasions in order to place some perspective on the conditions that were experienced many years before us.

WE arrive early for the Poppy parade and the sun is out and it is starting to warm up a little.  There are probably a dozen or more regimental or pipe bands marching ahead of us and the streets are filled with people preparing for the most famous remembrance day ceremony in the world.  We are preparing the kids to watch the ceremony from the main square of Ypres after we make the 1 km trek from the entrance of the Catholic Basilica and it will be a great venue to watch from on the big screen that is erected in city center.  As we begin to march the bands are playing and the pride to be a Canadian representing all of our country here at this ceremony is evident from the kids.  Although it is to be a somber celebration we are definitely proud of the Canadian efforts in this area so many years ago and that deep pride is certainly welling up in all of us. 

The arches of the gate are in sight and we are continuing to march along into what we think is the restricted area….the thing we are very welcome into this area and we are extremely happy about that.  Instead of watching from city center we are matching directly through the entire procession of spectators and through the main arches of the gate to have a front row seat to this wonderful ceremony.

As with many ceremonies of this nature the Last Post and Reveille as well as the two minutes of silence, there are many wreaths to be laid by dignitaries from many of the Allied nations.  Throughout you can see that we have a great view of all of the proceedings.  Nearing the end of the ceremony we are approached by Belgian national radio system and they ask in of any of speak French, I quickly find Alex and Ben and they are interviewed for the better part of 5 minutes.  Following

the interview, the interviewer came to Tom Quinn and I and said that he was really impressed with the students and was quite taken aback when he posed the question of whether the would be able to do what happened so many years ago and take up the call if needed, to his surprise both boys answered that yes they would mainly because of what there relatives had done before them.  They get it and I feel very good about what we are doing with these kids on these pilgrimages.  I  also have to mention that we marched out as well with the veterans and dignitaries...Tom has said that he has never had one group ever march through the gate let alone twice and eventually a 3rd time because we need to get through the gate on the way to our next stop, and we actually get a police escort!!   

Following the ceremony we are off to the Flanders Fields museum that is located in the famous Cloth Hall at city center Ypres.  It is a beautiful dedicated completely to the 5 Battles of Ypres that entirely destroyed their city and the men that fought so hard to defend it, both losing and gaining control numerous times of a large parcel of land in the region.

From the museum we are off to Essex Farm to meet with the ghosts of Flanders Fields and the dressing station where Mcrae was posted when he penned the famous poem.  After a number of minutes of wandering through the rows of graves and going to view the famous bunkers where McRae was stationed for his work, we gather the students at the altar of the cemetery for a special reading of Flanders Fields.  With 3 verses(Breanna for us) and 3 schools represented we have wonderful representation and observe a moment of silence on November 11^th in the most appropriate of areas for the poem to be recited. 

Leading up to this tour many people from various outlets, whether they be friends or news media have asked me what I think it will be like to be in this area for Remembrance Day.  I am still searching for the true answer, but the kids are helping me find my way.  I think I can answer the question in this way, I feel more and more pride to be a Canadian when I see the way the kids handle themselves and although I may struggle with getting older, if feel the more that I am able to reach out to these kids in this way the better off we will all be in the future.  The torch is being passed and I am very excited to say that students from Three Oaks are playing a major role in that.   So if that doesn’t seem like an answer, I somewhat agree and maybe my answer should be that I enjoy November 11^th more than December 25^th sans religious ideals!!!!

ON to Passendale or Passchendaele as we spell it….the museum in this area is one of the most interactive that I have ever been to.  This one was another first for me and I am so glad we built this into the tour.  We often considered cancelling some of the museums and keeping the kids outside, and you might think that all of the graveyards are all really depressing, but you need to be here to understand the dynamics.  The cemeteries are places of somber reflection and some have said that they are emotionally draining, but I think they are positively uplifting.  Maybe that comes with 4-5 visits, but when I see what someone will do for a cause and suffer from leads me to the point of thinking I can do almost anything.  The museum itself gives the written history but then takes you below the château that it is built in, and makes you explore the soldier’s life 30 feet under ground for hours and days on end.  Following a 15 minute underground excursion it then takes you on the next wave of the soldier’s life and that is in the trenches.  A really wonderful experience and another first for me and not just the kids on this day….not sure it could go any better. Haha!!!

Not my picture...was't that sunny and warm~

From there we visit Tyne Cot cemetery which commemorates the battles around Passchendaele and is home to over 11, 900 graves and another 34,000 names of soldiers who have never been found.  These numbers are staggering when you think of PEI as a whole and a number of our major communities and the limited number of people that we have on PEI.   Tyne cot is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in Europe and as I said before the perspective on the numbers is more than glaring.  The other interesting thing about Tyne Cot is that they constantly read the names and whose images that are available of the dead that are buried there.  One very stoic voice reads the names at a constant rate, so not a moment goes by that the name and the age of a soldier isn’t being heard.

We are now set to go back to Ypres from the evening ceremony, but first we build in a little surprise for the kids as we head to Saint Juliaan, more commonly known in Canada as Vancouver Corner, to see the #2 memorial to the Canadian soldiers in Europe, the “Brooding Soldier.”

       Upon heading back to Ypres after already a full day, the kids prepare themselves for the evening ceremony.  This ceremony is the standard ceremony that takes place 365 days per year at 8:00 PM every evening and we are going to be a part of it.  The three schools are going to lay wreaths and Jayk and Olivia are going to represent us and lay the wreath within the Menin Gate official ceremony.  Each time I come back to Ypres the Menin Gate ceremony holds a special place in my heart as it acts as a daily reminder to the sacrifices made by the soldiers of this era.

I hope that the pictures replace the thousand words that I wish to say, but it is now 1:45 AM and I need to get some sleep…I promise that I will post just a single series of pictures to outline more what has been done.  But for now I hope that I have done a decent job of letting you know what great young Canadians that are coming home to you!   I hope that you all had the opportunity and made time to attend your local Remembrance Day ceremonies and that you took the time to thank a veteran for what they have done.  Before long they will be gone and those "thank yous" will be no longer useful.  Trust me, I have experienced that in my own life and that is the “cross”, and maybe the “torch” that I have written about,  that I bear going forward.  So long until we arrive in Paris via Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval…another great day ahead in a few short hours!!!

dc

It is now 7 AM here and I am going to try to post a few more pics of what the kids saw yesterday...think of the impact....