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....