Ypres, WWI

My maternal grandfather was there when he was a young man. He left the place in a bit of a mess.

I believe he lost a pocket watch, could you keep an eye out for it?
 
While you're there you can also visit a very well preserved open air museum of the AtlantikWall, about 45m drive north of Ypres.
 
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bluesjnr said:
My maternal grandfather was there when he was a young man. He left the place in a bit of a mess.

I believe he lost a pocket watch, could you keep an eye out for it?
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Are you sure it is still there? I mean, when your grandfather lost it, was it still running?
 
I know the area very well. We used to go every year to the Dranouter festival and we always took the opportunity to visit the various war memorials. My grandfather and his two brothers survived the Somme.
 
erwinl said:
Both musea have some interesting and sometimes really NFSW collections of stereoscopic photographs.
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Fun NSFW or horrifying NSFW? Because stereoscopic views of the trenches taken from observation balloons or aircraft (did they even do that in WWI?) would not be NSFW. Except at my work, we cannot go online at all for security reasons.
dafydd said:
Ieper. They speak Flemish there,
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Wipers, in English. ;)
 
dropzone said:
Fun NSFW or horrifying NSFW?
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Horrifying NSFW. Some pictures of soldiers with half their faces missing. In some cases when the wounds were still open.

One picture that really made an impression upon me was that of a soldier who had no face left at all. The brainpan (is that the right word?) was intact, but below that and all the way back to his ears (including), there was... nothing.
No eyes, no nose, no mouth, no ears. Nothing.

The wounds themselves were pretty good healed, so he certainly survived for a long time after his wound. What would it have been for him? Totally locked up in his own mind. who knows what horrors would recide in there, with no means of communicating them?
 
erwinl said:
One picture that really made an impression upon me was that of a soldier who had no face left at all. The brainpan (is that the right word?) was intact, but below that and all the way back to his ears (including), there was... nothing.
No eyes, no nose, no mouth, no ears. Nothing.
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I remember seeing a rather unpleasant photo series like that. I would not want to see stereoscopic ones.
 
I went to the WW1 Museum in KC, MO last week. Very interesting.

They had some stereoscopic pics on display, but only one you could look through with a viewer. Tried to look at someone of them without; made my eyes hurt.

They had an actual R35 tank there, shot by germans in battle. Nifty.
 
Tyne Cot At Night, from the Passchendaele Suite by Coope, Boyes And Simpson. This always brings a tear to my eye.

 
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dudalb said:
Planning a visit to Belgium next year.The Ardennes 1944 battle sites are the main destination, but also planning on taking in Waterloo and some of the WW1 sites.
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A good place to eat is Le Mont Rigi http://www.mont-rigi.be - not far from Malmedy, and near the highest point in Belgium - a nose bleed inducing 694 metres.

Try the wild boar stew in fruit of the forest sauce - "Le Civet de Marcassin, Garniture Forestière" - delicious
 
Bell said:
I want to visit the Menin Gate and the In Flanders Fields Museum this summer. For me, it's about a 4 hour drive. I plan on driving there on a Saturday, visit the Menin Gate, stay overnight, and visit the museum on Sunday, before heading back home again.

Any forumites interested to visit there with me? I have no date set, so anything is possible.
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I could maybe hit it in late summer, late July or August. I'm traveling for work until early July.
 
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