For the NMBS the most sacred time will always be the 11th hour or the 11th day of the 11th month.  And on this day the NMBS were in a place where remembrance could be given justice.  At that hour we were in the "Hooge Crater CWGC" site, just over the road from the museum.  At 11am, we found the grave of an unknown solider and placed one of the NMBS memorial crosses against his grave and stood for the two minutes silence. 

For the five of us, all friends this time at 11am was akin to the "pals" or "band of brothers" and I am sure the moment was as moving for all of us.  Although we never had to face the horror the fallen that we remember faced.

On this page are some tickets of museums that we visited.  The Ramparts museum is basic, but still worth a visit.  The museum is set at the side of a pub (the pub own it) and the pub does a "Poppy ale" - although to be honest most of the NMBS did not think the ale was upto much.  The "In Flanders field" museum is very good - even though when we visited it was still being done up. 

Hill 62 museum is brilliant and bad.  Brilliant amount of pictures, objects and it has in the grounds real and original trench system.  Bad that the owner with his hawk-eyes thinks every tourist is ripping him off.  The guy who owns it made a 13 year old pay adult admission because she could not prove her age.  So he made extra Euros out of her - my advice would be to spend it on some Lynx or Right Guard for himself.  The Hooge Crater museum is also very good as is the Passchendale museum.

Other plusses on this trip was the Irish Peace Memorial and just a few yards down the road we found a underground trench system that had been only dug up that week.  The great and friendly pub called "The Tower" in Mesen informed us of this find and the place is well worth a stop, for good food and great beer.  The owner is very informed and friendly and the barmaid smiles for fun!

To me Ypres is three main things.  The Last post at the Menin Gate, The CWGC site at Tyne Cot and the German Cemetery at Langemark.  Langemark was made famous or infamous when Adolf Hitler visited it during the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries.  Indeed Hitler fought for Germany during WWI in the Ypres area and we visited the trenches where he was and the bunker where he may have stayed.  Ironic that it was another bunker he was famous for!  These trenches are at Bayernwald - an area the allies called Croonaert Wood.

Tyne Cot and the near by Passchendaele will for ever more be the last resting places of many allied men.  On the day that we visited the two we got a small glimpse of what conditions were like. 

Although Stuart performed a feat of brave action when in the soaking rain he performed a death slide down a kiddies slide on a park we were psssing by.  Boy did that cheer us up.

The rain just belted it down and we were all soaked to the skin.  Here we were moaning about a bit of rain and men fought for years in similar conditions - as soon as this point was remembered the rain suddenly seemed no so bad.  Passchendaele was as bloody as The Somme or Verdun.  Between July and August 1917 300,000 British and commonwealth men were lost in the fighting.