One day in Belgium: Flanders, Ypres, and Menin Gate

Belgium was beautiful. After an early breakfast at Ferme, and a goodbye pat to the house dog, Cerise, we loaded our gear onto the bus and spent a sunny morning driving through the fields of northern France. We arrived in Belgium late morning, and picked up a guide who spent the next 6 or so hours with us, taking us through the John McCrae site at Flanders, the Flanders cemetery, into the Ypres memorials and cemeteries, the Canadian monument of the ‘Brooding Soldier’, and to the great craters left by the mines packed with explosives that forever changed the landscape of the area. A few of us had connections to Ypres, and we spent a few minutes tracking down the sites where a class members great-grandfather had been. 

We were much later than anticipated to the Flanders museum in the square, so we had to rush to make the last entrance before 5:00pm. We had a good walk around the museum, which was housed in a huge old cathedral in the town square. It was beautiful, and had a fantastic array of exhibits and interactive interpretation that was unique and moving. A temporary exhibit housed in the museum was all about medicine and mental health care during the war, and it was incredible. It was depressing to hear about some of the experiences war nurses and war doctors saw through their patients, but it gave a unique view of war and of soldiers that was deeply moving.

Medical Exhibit at Flanders Museum

After the Flanders museum, we only had an hour to eat before we had to go early to the Menin Gate Last Post ceremony to get seats. It fills up early, and quickly, so we split into groups, had supper in various places from waffle bars to hamburger chains in the square, and met down the road from the great arch that is the Menin Gate, picked up a large wreath that was labelled with “We Remember. -Lakehead University” and found spots along the dividing chain to watch while Sam and Matt went with the flowers to the presentation line.After an hour of standing pressed shoulder to shoulder, and closely guarding the second wreath we had to pick up due to our early departure for Holland the next morning, the Ceremony began with the mournful horn of the Last Post, and the six representatives of the various military bodies lowered their flags only a few metres from us. A cadet troupe of pipes and drums played next, and a choir sang ‘O Danny Boy’. During the next round of piping and singing, the presentations began. Starting with the mayor, in small groups of twos and threes and fours, the line of those who had brought wreaths and bouquets made their way past the lined up regiments to leave their offerings at the monument. We watched Matt and Sam walk across with our tribute, and it was an unbelievable moment. 

Menin Gate Last Post- Ypres/Ieper

Shortly after laying the flowers, the ceremony ended with the horns again, and then the cadet pipe band piped out the marching regiments behind their representative carrying the flags now proud and high. It was a wonderful, moving hour, and after a long and tiring day and a long and tiring wait, we were all giddy with having seen it and been a part of it. We only had the one day in Belgium, and it was a wonderful and meaningful way to end it. 

The Menin Gate last post is a ceremony of respect and remembrance that takes place every evening at 7:30pm. Every day hundreds to thousands of people, many local, crowd into the square and under the arches to stand and hear the last post and the songs and bring flowers to honour those who who live through and die in war. It was beautiful.