Ypres (Ieper)

Starting late in the day and not having great maps we took the direct route to Ypres which was hassle free but for the most part quite unremarkable. We knew almost nothing about our destination city except for the vague location of the campsite. As we got closer I noticed the high number of cemeteries, all with a distinctly military look about them. Soon after, I saw signs in English which provided extra clues and I remembered reading something about the Somme battlefields and realised we were in World War territory as we passed a Canadian memorial.

As we reached Ypres we stopped at a pub to ask directions and the friendly barman drew us a map which featured something called a Menin gate. He tried to explain what it was but it seemed difficult to translate.

As we passed this enormous Menin gate I saw what looked like a streetfair and thought 'What luck! We're here in time for a festival'. Once we'd found our campsite, pitched our tent and freshened up we returned to the festival to find a sombre memorial service in process. It was blocking our path to the festivities I imagined behind the crowd so I asked someone English-looking what was going on. He was in fact Irish, a tourist who'd also stumbled in by accident to this memorial service. He explained that is was for all the soldiers who'd died in 'the Great War'. Much to my shame I have very little knowledge of modern history, a situation I hope to rectify, but I guessed he was referring to World War I. I asked him how often this service was held, wondering if our timing had been lucky but he said it happened every night. I found that hard to believe so put it down to him being Irish or something and let it pass.

"Where are you from?" he asked.
"Australia."
"Oh well then you must have something similar?"
"Yeah but not every night," I said with a shade of scepticism I hoped he missed. "Just the one day of the year". I remembered a play we studied at school by the same name but none of the details came to me. The Irishman and I shared our (mock) amazement at the frequency of the service. As it was, he was quite correct. P2 and I consulted the pocket wikipedia over dinner and the service has been held here every single night since the end of WWI except for when the Nazis had occupied the area during WWII. That's some serious dedication and as a history buff friend described to me later, it was a pretty horrific event in history. I guess it's time I stretched myself beyond Black Adder and Asterix & Obelix.