A Visit to Ypres Expecting a Sleepy Little Place-Big Surprise!

One Sunday Greg was itching to go see a battlefield, only Kelly wanted to come so we headed out and left the other two home for a movie marathon.  Our destination was the city of Ypres to see the In Flanders Field WWI Museum.  I have been teaching middle school history a few days a week and was happy for the refresher just as we were starting our WWI study.

Waterloo sits in an empty field so I was expecting to drive through fields and come to a dusty museum... instead, we drove into a built up, super cool, old walled city.  We parked in the middle of a massive town square and headed for the In Flanders Field Museum.  The museum is in the old cloth hall which was destroyed during the war, we saw pictures inside as to how it looked before they rebuilt it.

 There is a gorgeous bell tower, you take a break from the museum, climb the stairs and have the most incredible view of the city and the entire area.

The museum was very well done, so much to see and they even had these holographic type soldiers that would tell their story in French, English and German, very helpful!  Kelly and I did a speed trip because we were excited to head out into the little shops all around the outside of the museum.  Greg took his time..perhaps the history teacher should have been a little more thorough...as I have a test paper to share with you at the end...

The city was beautiful by day, but as the sun set and the street lights turned on, it was breathtaking.  These were all captured by Kelly.

The Menin Gate is the entrance to the city and every night they do a ceremony there to remember the fallen soldiers.  We did not get a chance to see it this trip but we plan to go back.

My class just took their WWI test...here is the best answer regarding the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the war...#18.. guess I have some re-teaching to do?

We look forward to a return visit to such a beautiful old city!  I also plan on a future trip to see Versailles and I'll be sure to post some photos so all of you can be sure it wasn't destroyed!