June 15th –Travelling with George Jr  is always exciting. One never knows exactly how the day might go. After saying goodbye to the cousins we headed off to Dieppe, site of the failed allied attempt in August 1942. Certainly standing down at the shoreline one can see why, compared to Juno Beach, this was not a good place to attempt a landing. The commemoration site is quite small but recognizes nonetheless the sacrifice by so many.

Our next stop was a most interesting museum called La Coupole. This suggestion must have come directly from George’s “travel for nerds” website. One of many bunker complexes built by the Germans to serve as a launch complex for their V2 rockets, it was built into the side of a disused chalk quarry, the most prominent feature of which is an immense concrete dome. Because the British discovered these complexes and heavily bombed them, they were never put into service. The museum tells the story of the German occupation of France during WWII, the V-weapons and the history of space exploration.

Timing allowed us just enough time to have a quick dinner and get to Ypres in time for the Last Post ceremony.  Every evening since 1928, people have gathered under the Menin Gate for this ceremony which pays homage to the soldiers of the British Empire and its allies who died in the area during WWI. We were about 1000 people there last night, although there didn’t seem to be any problem with finding the site or parking once we got there. The ceremony itself includes the call to attention, the playing of the Last Post, the reading of a poem, the playing of a lament by a bagpiper, a moment of silence, the laying of wreaths by a number of individuals representing families or groups, and then the playing of Reveille. It was quite moving given that there was complete silence during the ceremony. We’ve seen it on TV when Peter Manbridge visited a number of WWI sites last year. Now we’ve experienced it for ourselves.

After all this we were still an hour or so away from Bruges, our destination for the night. Fortunately, because sunset is quite late, we arrived during daylight and sort of just fell into bed. We’re staying in a lovely old building…but more of that tomorrow.