A Day in Ypres

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 with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-- Lt. Col. John McCrae (1872-1918)

I went to Ypres on Saturday. The town, about 2 hours northeast of Brussels, had to be completely rebuilt after World War I because it served as a frontline post for the British and was leveled by German artillery. By rebuilt, I don’t mean that some buildings had to be repaired, I mean the town was flattened and the inhabitants decided to rebuild their guildhalls and church and homes the way they were before August 1914. The Cloth Hall, the main building on the town square, was only finally finished din 1968. Pictures and scale models at the In Flanders Field museum show the devastation that came to this old cloth-trading center.

Today the town is an interesting mix affluent and vibrant city – based on the massive tourism for the war sites – and the hallowed nature of its history as the site of intense fighting during World War I.

For example, when I first arrived I made my way to Menin Gate. Menin Gate is a memorial to over 50,000 British subjects who died during the war, but have no known grave. It’s huge, but not big enough to actually hold ALL the names, so another 30,000 or so are on another memorial. The gate is an entryway to the city and cars, bikers, and pedestrians all walk through it to get into the old town and out to the suburban area. Walking into Menin Gate for the first time, though, is humbling. Through that spot (and many others that led out through the old city wall that is still standing around about half Ypres) thousands of young men from around the world marched to certain death on the front line. Over that spot artillery shells flew into Ypres and leveled the town. It’s like walking into a tomb of sorts. You are surrounded by names etched into white panels. If remains are found – and it’s happened over the years – they are identified and given a proper burial. Then the name is taken off Menin Gate.

I returned to Menin Gate later in the day for Last Post. More on that in a bit.

Unlike Brussels where the old city walls no longer exist, part of the ancient wall of Ypres still stands. Ypres was an important cloth town and had to be defended from rivals. A moat sits right in front of the walls. It makes for a peaceful walk that takes you – on the southwest side at least – to a small cemetery, the Ramparts Cemetery, where a number of British and Canadian soldiers are buried. Many more cemeteries dot the surrounding countryside, but that’s for another day. Now it was back into town to see what a rebuilt Gothic town looks and feels like.

Guidebook in hand, I made my way to a small restaurant in the shadow of the Stadhuis (town hall) and had some steak frites and a local brew: Ypras. Excellent food, value, and atmosphere. Of course, since I’m in Flanders, French is not the language of choice, so I had to navigate the Dutch menu, but managed okay. Again, most people speak English, but I’m trying to make an effort. The waitress was patient.

Then it was off to the In Flanders Field Museum at the Cloth Hall. Opened in 1998 this museum is excellent – if a little confusing the follow. It has wonderful artifacts and is interactive with kiosks telling you history, short films outlining aspects of the war, and an card that you carry that tells you if you go to war or not; if you live or die. You take a ticket with a barcode and place it in three different kiosks. I was a young Belgian man who was conscripted, fought briefly, and participated in post-war activities in Germany. I was happy to have lived. It’s a museum to be seen, not described….so come visit me and we’ll go.

Since it was such a beautiful day – I’m waiting for it to turn any day now – that I decided to wander the city. I tried to find this specific beer hall, but no luck. So, I returned to Grote Markt and found a table and had a few beers – a Palm, very tasty, and a Kapittall Bruin (an abbey beer) that had an odd aftertaste – and a waffle while I took in the sights of the main square. Now, one of the sights included an old WWII era Jeep (I think it was a British version of the Jeep, so I’m not sure what that would be called). It wasn’t odd until I saw who was driving the thing. It was a man wearing the following: round sunglasses (ok), soul patch (ok), combat books (fine), black socks (ok, good), short army style shorts (odd, but okay), and…a green mesh shirt….yup, you could see ‘em, plain as day. Thank god it wasn’t too cold out!

My belly full of booze and sugar and my eyes burning from male-mesh-fashion, I decided to head back to Menin Gate for Last Post.

Last Post has been performed at Menin Gate every day at 8pm since 1928 except for that other German occupation….and even then the day the city was liberated, even though there was still fighting going on in other parts around Ypres, they began the ceremony again. It consists of local buglers playing their bugles, a color guard, and people chosen to lay a wreath of poppies on the steps of one of the doors of the memorial. Traffic is stopped and soldiers, at least when I was there, march out to stand guard at the two main entrances to the gate.

It’s powerful and somber and the dedication to doing it every day is remarkable. A big crowd showed up, too. It must be mobbed on 11 November.

It was great to get out of Brussels for the day. Two hours there and two hours back with the iPod in was easy enough. Ypres is a city to go back to and it certainly leaves an impression, only some of which are here.

Of course, while this carnage was taking place in Ypres, hundreds of towns behind the German lines were experience kindness and given in the form of international humanitarian relief, but while at Ypres it was hard to think of anything else but the toll the war took on a whole generation of men and women (at the front and back home). Ypres is also a testament to the power to rebuild, move forward, but to also remember. Menin Gate is such a simple and powerful monument to those who died that it puts in perspective the fights many have been having over the proper memorial to 9/11 in New York. Menin Gate is a memorial to 54,896 dead.

Yes, there were debates over what should be done (some wanted to turn the whole town into a memorial or take the Cloth Hall) but the result was functional and static. Cars still pass through it on the way into town where people go about their daily lives in 2009 like any other gate into Ypres or any other town in Belgium or the world, but on the walls are etched a staid reminder of the tragic history of the town and, because it was the First World War and includes name for the far reaches of the British Empire, the tragic history of the world itself.

[I don't have the best internet connection, so uploading pictures isn't always easy. When I can, I'll post some pictures in this post or a subsequent post....sorry for the lack of visuals. -- Tom]