Ypres – An Exploration of the First World War
If ever there were a corner of a foreign field that was forever England, it would surely be Ypres. This 4 day tour will take in the major sites of the Ypres battlefields and give us chance to explore the history of the First World War from recruitment to remembrance.
Day 1: Pick up from a convenient location for you, we make our way to Ypres. We check into the Albion, a lovely family run hotel and spend the afternoon getting to know this lovely town on a walking tour.
Day 2: After a good breakfast we make our way to Hooge and hear about where the war was nearly lost in 1914. We take in the Canadian Memorial at Vancouver Corner and discuss the use of gas in the First World War. We visit Essex Farm Dressing Station and cemetery, close to where ‘In Flanders Fields’ was written and see the grave of Valentine Strudwick, just 15 years old when he was killed. Walk through original trenches at Hill 62 and finish our fascinating day by attending the moving Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate.
Day 3: Today we start by visiting the German cemetery at Langemark and see the difference in styles of remembrance. See the Pool of Peace, a huge mine crater that was part of the explosions for the Battle of Messines Head and then head to Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth War Graves site in the world
Day 4: We discuss the 1914 Christmas Truce and the much debated ‘football match’ We make our way back towards home, but before we leave the region, we visit the town of Poperinge, visiting Talbot House and understanding what life ‘at rest’ would have been like. We finish by visiting the site of executions, men who were ‘Shot at Dawn’. After which we will drop you off at a convenient location for yourselves.
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