Tag Archives: Ypres
Watching The World Cup
It is arguably the biggest sporting event in the world, even bigger than the Olympics. Also held every four years, the FIFA World Cup dominates most of the world for a month or so – pretty much everywhere except North America. Here the sport that the rest of the world refers to as football has […]
Five Countries, Five Churches
It’s Sunday, a day of rest and worship, and I thought today I would let the pictures tell the story. On our trip to Europe in July we visited a number of churches, some to worship in, others as tourist and cultural attractions. Today one church from each of those countries. We’ll start with St. […]
Visiting the In Flanders Fields Museum
In 2009 I was in Ypres, Belgium for a day. I made the In Flanders Fields Museum my first stop. In 2014 it was a priority once more; as I wanted Vivian too experience it too. The Museum is located in the medieval Cloth Hall in the centre of town, a building completely destroyed during […]
The Last Post
Tonight at 8, for the 29,758th time, the Last Post, the traditional salute to fallen warriors, will be played at the Menin gate in Ypres. It’s been a nightly ritual since 1928. Volunteers from the Last Post Association (and sometimes hundreds, even thousands of others) gather each evening to honour the British Empire dead of […]
In the Trenches of Passchendaele
The years between 1914 and 1918 were the wettest Europe experienced during the 20th century, or so I have been told. Those years coincided with the trench warfare in France and Belgium, literally millions of soldiers facing each other from trenches they had dug a few metres from each other. With the bad weather, to […]
Walking The Walls
One of the major differences I have found between the North American and European communities I have visited is the matter of walls. In North America we really don’t have any. That’s due, I assume, to the newness of urban life on this continent. By the time the settlers began building cities walls had in […]
Rebuilding Ypres
At the end of the First World War Winston Churchill suggested that the town of Ypres, in Belgium, be left as is, a pile of rubble, a memorial for those who died in Flanders fields. He is reported as saying “a more sacred place to the British race does not exist.” The former citizens of […]
Answering The Call
The wall is full of plaques, almost as if there is not a spare inch of space left. St. George’s Memorial Church is an English speaking Anglican establishment in Flemish Iepers (that’s Ypres to us Canadians). The church, built after the First World War for those Anglophones working in the area, was funded entirely by […]
Keeping Score in the War That Never Ends
A century later, it haunts them still. The last Canadian veteran of the First World War died in 2010, and I would imagine that is pretty much the case in most countries. The generation that fought and survived the bloody battles in France and Belgium from 1914-18 has now passed into the history books. But […]
Franz Liszt Played Here
In downtown Bucharest it seems there is a plaque on every second building, indicating some semi-interesting historical information to be shared in Romanian, English and French. Unable to resist the printed word in any form, I looked at the plaque on Capsa House, and discovered that its claim to fame was a recital given there […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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