Today we drive an hour and a half south to Ypres (French) or Ieper (Flemish) the site where 5 World War I battles were fought defending the advancement of the German armies on their drive to France and the goal of taking Paris. Combined Belgium and the French forces were successful in holding the Germans    after months of horrendous trench warfare involving the deaths of hundreds of thousands soldiers and civilians. For this trip, we hired another tour guide named Phillip from Flanders Field Tours.  He took us to nearby battlefields and 3 cemeteries describing the battles and numbers of dead Belgium and allied soldiers defending the country. The number of people who fought and died during WW 1 in this area is hard to comprehend.  For instance, the Germans combined several battlefield grave sites into a single site with around 54,000 German soldiers including a mass grave holding 25,000 men, some unidentified.  If you are interested history and the causes of these types of wars, visit the memorial sites of Belgium.

 

 

The rural country side is now beautiful and green compared with the images of muddy and desolate battle fields where unexploded bombs are still found by farmers of the area.  Now the countryside is scattered with lots of different kinds of low long green houses where much of the food is locally produced. Milk cows lounge around and sheep graze which gives a tranquil contrast to the time of WW I and WW II. There doesn’t seem to be rusty abandoned farm equipment laying around like in some rural areas in Nebraska. The countryside looked very healthy and prosperous.