Flanders Battlefield Tour
 

I would not recommend that British fellow who gave us a tour, who was a bigot.

We stayed at http://www.hotelkasteelhofthooghe.be/Engels/Ehome.htm

It was quirky and out of town, but the grounds had WWI craters, trenches, and bunker on the grounds.

18 month ago we took a tour with Patrick of https://www.2xplore.be/

It was my wife and 2 daughters, 20 & 25. He brought the battles and operations alive through pictures and his story telling. To see the landscape today, and then he would flash a picture of the same place in mud and misery. We started in front of the WW1 museum in Ypres, although he can customize to your needs.

He is a former Belgium paratrooper; you can tell he has done many briefings and is well spoken. Highly recommend. My daughters say it was one of the best days of our trip to Belgium, and we had some pretty good ones!

We also stayed 2 nights in Talbot House, if you can swing that it is highly recommended. I apologize for not remembering the house cats name who is a star, watching him climb a fire escape ladder was something. The docent staying was an author of several WW1 books and was super nice and helpful. Pulled up my Great grandads Canadian Army records in a minute...very interesting. His body was never recovered, just like many others.

I have always just been through the area with a rental car, but I can offer a photo report about Ypres.

Ypres with the blood wiped away | Any Port in a Storm

And I have also been though many battlefields and cemeteries of northern France.

http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com/thread/7297/world-war-cemeteries-pas-calais

I have even been to the Chinese cemetery, which is very tricky to find.

The Chinese cemetery of Nolette and a bit of Le Crotoy | Any Port in a Storm

Understood, hope he responds, very impressed with his tour.

Check out the German cemetery if you get a chance. A very different design and feel than the Allied ones. Seeing the pictures of Hitler visiting, and that he is standing exactly where you are at that moment, very striking image.

All of the German military cemeteries in France are totally different from the Allied ones, almost distressingly so. Completely somber and dark.

Yes, you can do a lot of it on your own. The afternoon before our tour day, we visited a few various cemeteries, and bomb craters from the big mine explosion. Their are also a lot of museums that can be visited solo.

A good guide ties it all together. My 2 daughters would not have been so interested without Patrick's great narration. My wife and I are both prior military, and really appreciated how he laid out various tactics and overall strategy.

Usually we skip guides and go our own way. To be driven around in this case was well worth it.

Sugarmaple- last thought, I noticed a facebook link on the website, maybe you could reach out that way?

We did Patrick's tour and my husband thinks he might have gone active duty once again. We didn't have a car and he was a wealth of info. Do see the Brooding Soldier, St Julien. It is surrounded by pine trees sent from Canada. That was the first place that the Canadians were gassed. The inventor was Fritz Haber, a Jewish scientist. Ypres is beautiful. So glad you are staying there. The museum had a nice cafe and gift shop. I bought so many poppies. I went to the church on a Sunday and they were singing I will follow him like in Sister Act.

Ypres has the In Flanders Fields museum which is a good place to start. Within a hour's driving radius you can find restored trenches, shell craters, and lots of cemeteries and memorials. I'd ask at the museum for a little help if you are concerned. We got by without a guide quite well. Enjoy your trip

Macross, are you thing of Saint George's church in Ypres? We were very lucky, it was night and 2 weeks past 11 November, and the church exterior was still draped in a wreath of poppies extending from the roof to the ground alongside the entrance. Many hand embroidered seat cushions dedicated to various units.

A very fitting end to our touring day.

The brooding soldier is definitely worth seeking out.

Patrick definitely looked cut and as if he could roll back to active duty no problem, whereas my wife and I can roll to the bakery/beer garden no problem. And have done so many times with great success!

SM- Enjoy your trip. 'Beneath Hill 60', is a movie about the big mines that were blown up under the German trenches, in an effort to start a Allied breakout and end the war. Very good depiction of the trenches and the craziness of the mining project; it's an Australian production, and their mining industry provided the film makers with a lot of support. We enjoyed it.

Just another visual aid: Vimy Ridge memorial | Any Port in a Storm

Kerouac- Thanks for posting that link, I have that site bookmarked and have learned tons from your's and other's posts over the years. An interesting life and travels you've had.

Another movie to look for is Peter Jackson's recent documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old." I wish I had seen it before we toured the WWI sites in northern France. It's remarkable.

The second link leads to one of the best threads ever on Fodor's. The poster, AnselmAdorne, with this thread and a few others evokes the reality of this type of horrible warfare.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Shall_Not_Grow_Old

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...icardy-759505/

Yes, the Peter Jackson documentary played in French cinemas last month even though it was made for the small screen. It is remarkable.

Since Kerouac took his evocative photos of Vimy, a visitors' centre has opened to provide a fair amount of information to place the battles there in context, particularly for Canadians who have come to see Vimy as significant in the country's growth.
At some hours of the day it is possible to tour the tunnels with a guide (who will be a Canadian university student). Both sides used tunnels for surprise attacks. Their opening hours seem to be more restricted than for the memorial itself but well worth planning for.

I agree that everybody says that the tunnel tours are excellent, but I have not been tempted. After doing Viet Cong tunnels in Vietnam and French trenches near Verdun, I think I have fully absorbed the experience. But anybody who has never experienced this sort of thing will immediately understand the horror of war by seeing the conditions where soldiers had to hole up for month after month.

(Anybody who gets a chance to do so should also visit the forts of Douaumont and/or Vaux near Verdun, and you will never want to declare war on anybody.)