The Brooding Soldier

In Bruges you will enjoy the view of the peaceful Lake of Love and the picturesque Beguinage. Your guide will explain the stories and secrets behind the city’s history from the Viking period until the end of the Middle Ages. Catch many of the highlights of Bruges: the Basilica of the Holly blood of Jesus, the Belfry tower, our Lady’s Church, Saint John’s hospital and enjoy a pleasant boat trip along the narrow canals. After a short lunch break you willl leave for Flanders Fields. Your expert guide will lead you throughout the visit to help you understand the events that led to the first world war and how the catastrophe developed. Visit Passchendaele battlefield and the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world where British, Australian and Canadian soldiers were laid to rest. Close by is Polygone where every year Anzac Day is celebrated at dawn. Then visit the Monument of the ‘Brooding Soldier’, which commemorates the sacrifice of 2,000 Canadian soldiers during the first German gas attack. Next, your coach will take you to Essex Farm. This was the dressing station where Dr. John McCrae wrote the famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields.’ After a set lunch in the outskirts of Ypres, drive to France to visit the awesome Vimy Memorial, museum and trenches. If time allows, you will also visit close to Ypres Hill 60 where Australian diggers detonated great underground mines. At 8:00 PM, you attend the Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate, a daily tribute to all Commonwealth soldiers and officers that were missing after battle. The tour offers ample opportunity for reflection and to take pictures.

Discover Flanders, the inspiration for the poem, "In Flander's Feilds" and learn about the history of World War I and the soldiers that fought in it. Learn how the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and US soldiers sacrificed themselves, and witness the moving of the Last Post in Ypres. In Bruges, enjoy the view of the peaceful Lake of Love and the picturesque Beguinage. Your guide will explain the stories and secrets behind the city’s history from the Viking period until the end of the Middle Ages. Then, make a point to admire all the major highlights of the city, such as the Basilica of the Holy Blood of Jesus, the Belfry tower, our Lady’s Church, Saint John’s hospital, and many more. After lunch, arrive at the scene of the first gas attacks and learn the details of Passchendaele, considered one of the bloodiest battles in the entire first World War. Find yourself in Tynecot, the world’s largest Commonwealth cemetery, and visit the advanced dressing station where John McCrae wrote the poem “In Flanders’ Fields.” The focus of this visit is on the sacrifice of the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and US soldiers. The highlight of the day is the moving Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres.

Pay your respects to the 185,000 Commonwealth soldiers who sacrificed their lives at the Ypres Salient, one of World War I's hardest fought-over stretches of the Western Front. Through its memorials, cemeteries, and battlefield remnants, Ypres represents one of the most dramatic periods of 20th-century history, a terrain stained by devastating modern brutality. Discover the horrors of war, and its very real heroes and villains, through the area's humbling landmarks: John McCrae's Essex Farm site; Langemark, the German cemetery; Vancouver Corner, the Canadian memorial; Tyne Cot cemetery, Passchendaele; Polygon Wood, the Australian memorial; Saint George's Chapel; and the Menin Gate Memorial. Join a day of remembrance for the many who died at Ypres between 1914 and 1918, in what was once “the war to end all wars.”