Ypres - Ieper

[DenArnold]

As I had some time to spare before heading towards my students of a motorcycle riding course, I decided to take my FZ1 out on a short trip way and back to Ieper.
This year it is the 100th anniversary (a sad one though) of the start of the first Great War, which caused millions to die in the bloody trenches and battlefields in the Belgian Westhoek.

Some impressions
A memorial/cemetery of the 5th Australian Division.
At the Ieper Menen gate (where every night the last post is played in honour of the fallen ones)
At the Ieperhallen Grand Market

 

[banzai]

There used to be two medieval lion statues outside the Menin Gate. The statues were recovered after the gate was destroyed. In 1936 the mayor of Ypres gave the lions to the Australian government in commemoration of the Australians who were killed defending the town in 1917. Today the lions are at the entrance of the Australian War Memorial.

Ypres gets a lot of Australian visitors. From memory, more Australians died there than at any other WW1 battlefield.

 

[DenArnold]

The Battle of Polygon Wood