Ypres

Ypres

American Memorial

Flanders Field

May 26, 2011- Pronounced EE-pers

It took me awhile to realize I've been dating these wrong, but I'm caught up now. So is my sleep. Not so much for David. I laud my ability to sleep on buses.

I was informed that Quick restaurants are Burger Kings. In Australia they're Hungry Jacks. Wonder why they don't brand them like McD's?

Chocolate shops are as prolific here as bars were in ruined Pompeii. The difference is that these are still in operation and beckoning. So far we haven't had enough free time to indulge. That will be rectified. But I did sell lunch at Quick's short. I had a side salad that included goat cheese and diced pear. A step up from McD.

David is “out” as a rabbi and we're out as activists in the LGBT community. Didn't take long. We were in two separate conversations and had different reactions. Jim & Jan from Kansas were quiet while the people David spoke with were interested. We'll see how that goes as we spread the word. But wouldn't you know that Dewi, our guide, is half Indonesian and half Jewish. Her mother's family were refugees from Dutch Indonesia and Roman Catholics. They fled when Sukarno took over & ended up in The Netherlands. They were told to forget their native tongue and speak only Dutch. As Catholics they had a ready-made niche and so it went. Neither parent practiced any religion and Dewi was raised an atheist but is conversant about both religions.

International Hybrid

We got more history on the bus ride to Ypres. Belgium was part of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, ruled by Rome, Germans, & French. They also were under the Spanish Hapsbergs. After years of marrying within the family they produced heirs that all looked alike and had health issues. Now Belgium is a constitutional monarchy with a king. They declared independence peacefully from The Netherlands in 1830 & have no clue how to rule themselves. But Brussels is centrally located so has become the capital of the EU & NATO headquarters.

Talk turned to food and again we were told that mussels and white asparagus were famous here. We don't eat mussels and I heard a woman say she paid 18 EU for asparagus so that won't happen either. But I'm determined to eat meat. We passed big white beef cattle that are nicknamed "fat-assed cows" for the size of their meat producing rears & I'm eager to see about that delicacy.

Several houses we went by were shuttered & Dewi told us about a stereotype of Catholics. It is said they do that to hide what goes on in their homes. The real explanation is that hundreds of years ago Protestants lived the plain life. Occasionally their homes were checked to make sure they weren't ostentatious. They started forgoing curtains so that passers by could see how simply they lived without having to enter.

Flanders

Ypres was home to a brisk linen and wool trade. WWI brought that and the region to its knees. We met a local guide, Jacques, who took us to the Flanders Fields Museum (not called a war museum) and gave a brief overview before he let us loose on our own. I would have preferred to have him take us through himself. The entire town was destroyed between 1914-1918 when the Germans tried to capture it as a base to launch an attack on Northern France. They failed. Although the U.S. entered late (1917) they were instrumental in saving the area. Surrounding villages are bordered by cemeteries, trenches, & battlefields, but none are in the city limits of Ypres. Germans never got there. Jacques told us that because of detailed plans that were saved and with financial help from Brussels, Ypres was re-built as a medieval town eighty years ago. Bruges was heavily restored in the 19th century so my impression that it looks like a Disney replica isn't too far off.

As we entered the museum we were given ID cards for a person from Ypres who experienced the battles. Similar to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. we inserted them into computers and were updated as to their fates. Ours survived but a half million Allies and the same number of Germans did not. Part of that is due to the introduction of chemical (mustard gas) warfare by Germany. Gas masks were late in arriving and the best soldiers could do was urinate in a piece of cloth and put it over their eyes. Their lungs, however, were unprotected and they died. It's hard to recall that these were boys who fought but the poignant story of the Christmas Truce say a lot. On Dec. 25 both sides put down arms & played a game of soccer. Dec. 26 fighting began again.

Belgians slowed down the invasion by opening their floodgates and turning the canals and surrounding land into swamps. Huge balloons were used for reconnaissance and trenches were home to thousands of scared & sick young fighters & rats. Those coming from Australia, Punjabi troops from India, & other tropical British strongholds didn't have to wait for a bullet to kill them or mud to drown in. They died from the cold. Hospitals featuring large red crosses were established near rail yards and ammo supplies endangering even the survivors. Human shields are nothing new.

Small cemeteries are scattered over the countryside. They're not as enormous as in Normandy but tiny reminders of how far and wide battles raged. We visited the American Memorial and one of our number, a Viet Nam vet, laid roses on the marker.

We followed a road built over the railroad tracks used to take boys to the front & proceeded to the British cemetery that is actually legally now ceded to Britain and officially British soil. A bit ago some youngsters vandalized headstones there and it was almost an international incident. A wise judge sentenced them to two years labor in maintaining the cemetery.

There are 12,000 graves (including three German soldiers found in the area) and additionally 35,000 names of the missing engraved on the walls. The area was made to resemble an English garden and roses abound. It was surprising to see them instead of poppies, but the poppies are wild and grow in the open fields in late summer. It was windy, blustery, & cold so Jacques did his best to move us along. He became melodramatic and disappointed me when I asked a question about the crosses on the gravestones. I wondered if all were presumed to be Christian and he pointed to a crossless stone and said they were left blank if the religion was unknown. Dewi later told me there was a separate cemetery for Jews. Somehow the masses of crosses in Normandy was more dramatic than the rounded headstones here, or I don't relate to WWI, or seeing the crosses interspersed with Stars of David at Normandy touched me more, or the cold drove me back to the bus, or I didn't like Jacque's high drama, but I didn't feel the pain....until he read the following.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

McCrae died shortly after writing the poem at age forty-one after having been gassed.

We needed a break badly and dinner provided one. We dined on roast chicken, green soup made of some local grasslike veggie, wine, & ice-cream at Pacific Eiland then headed back to Ypres to the Menen Gate. Every night at 8 PM since 1928 (but not 1940-45) a group of volunteers organize a brief ceremony to commemorate the 54,000 missing in their battles in WWI. Trumpets are sounded, wreaths are placed, tonight a Brit recited a poem & an Anglican choir from England sang.

I napped on our return trip to Bruges so have the stamina to write this. I woke up long enough to get the name of a French movie about WWI "Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles."  In English it's “A Very Long Engagement.” Some of you may have seen it. Tomorrow we're not setting an alarm but hope to take a train in to Brussels. We'll see.

Toby