Ypres

Fun laughter tears and a lot more

By RD 

  On the 14^th of November, Amesbury School set of too Ypres. We took a P&O Ferry from Dover to Calais. We then drove to Ypres.

When we got to Ypres we visited Talbot house. Talbot house is a very interesting place and an emotional place. I recommend going to the attic of the building. In the attic of the building is the chapel. The chapel was the last place the visited before going out to the front line. They would say there last prays and hope for good luck.

We stayed in Poppies Hotel. The Hotel has well a games room, computers and a good amount of rooms. The rooms are basic but it does have everything you need.

We went to a local restaurant that night. At the restaurant. It was good for all the children. I would recommend this restaurant because it was good for our age and it was good food.  

The next day we visited Croonaerts wood, Bayernwald.  Croonaerts wood has a small German trench system from World War 1. The trenches are well maintained so this means they are not too muddy. This is ideal for if you would like to see what a German trench was like but without the hassle of mud or water. It cost 1.50 euros per person. There is not really any good place to eat, so I would not recommend taking a picnic there.

 Also we visited some small cemeteries in the afternoon.  I would recommend going to a few small cemeteries as well as some bigger ones too because in the smaller cemeteries you can look more closely at each grave stone and you can study the entire cemetery.

That evening we went to a small Italian restaurant. It was a good overall meal but the only thing was that there was another school there so that was a bit annoying. I would also recommend going to this restaurant .    

On in the evening we went to the menin gate service which happens every night at 8:00pm. At the service they play the last post and have a two minute silence. This is then followed by the laying of wreaths. It was an emotional place to visit because all of the names on the side of the menin gate were only lost people not lost and dead.

On the final day of our trip we went to Sanctuary Wood Museum which was really fun because you got really muddy and there were lots of tunnels to crawl through. It also has a really cool museum that has lots of old guns and shell booms they had found in the trenches there.

  

Later on, on that day we visited Tyne cot crematory. Tyne cot crematory was the most emotional place in the whole trip. We where blown away by the amount of graves there where. This was the hardiest point in the trip to hold out the tears.

  

That evening we visited a good restaurant. It was a great meal. It was a good restaurant for teenagers because they made food for younger ages and it was good service as well.

We went home on P&O ferries.

The tip was very inspirational to my year. It made us closer as a year. I would recommend visiting Ypres. I think it is one of the best place in the world to visit. It is amazing to see where so many men of our country fell.