Visiting First World War Sites in Flanders, Belgium

Langemark German Cemetery

Tyne Cot Cemetery

Passchendaele 1917 Museum

Black Watch Memorial

Christmas Truce Memorial

In October 2017 along with Alessio and my father we spent a week in Belgium. One of the trips we did was a tour of First World War battlefields. We got picked up from our hotel in Bruges and along with 6 or 7 more people we started our tour.

I can`t remember all the sites we visited but the main ones I do! There were many highlights but seeing Tyne Cot was one of them. Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. It was a very moving experience walking around and looking at the gravestones and reading the names of the men and seeing their ages too. It is quite astounding to think there are just under 12,000 men buried here. The memorial has the names of nearly 34,000 men missing with no known burial. This is the largest Commonwealth forces cemetery for any war!

We also visited Langemark German Military Cemetery, it is one of only four First World War cemeteries in the Flanders region and it has over 44,000 men buried.

We also went to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, this was very informative and extremely interesting. You find out about the five battles of Ypres, including the battle of Passchendaele, all of them quite horrific! At the end there is reconstruction of the dugouts and trenches which Alessio found quite interesing!

We visited numerous other memorial sites such the Black Watch Memorial, for Americans soliders, memorial for the Christmas Truce football match, Spranbroekmolen Mine Crater, known as the Pool of Peace.

Also we visited the town of Ypres, there we visited the In Flanders Field museum and the Menin Gate. I already did a post about these places a good while ago.

I would definitely suggest doing a tour to see these places, now that it has passed the 100 year mark it is important to remember what happened and that the younger generation continues does not forget!

Happy weekend folks!

Animals, New Zealand

Sealion

Yellow eyed penguins

Seals

Many seals

huskies

Valais sheep

Pukeko

Our trip to New Zealand in July and August last year was amazing in everyway,  but we were extremely lucky to see some wildlife too.

We went on two wildlife trips, the first was on the Otago Peninsula. We saw Yellow Eyed penguins, we got there to see them coming out of the sea and they climbing up a cliff back to their burrows/homes. Then some decided to go back to the sea for a short while.  We also saw sealions, there were 3 of them on the beach having a good old play fight. But there were many more hidden in the dunes.  It was quite an amazing experience.

The second trip was to Akaroa, where we went on a boat trip and saw many, many Hector`s dolphins. These are the smallest in the world and they were just so keen to swim in front of the boat. We were so lucky.

We also went to see Blue penguins which are the smallest in world. We were in Oamaru and they offer the chance to see the little penguins returning to their burrow. They start returning around 6pm and it is then dark and they just waddle their way on the beach and up to the grassy area. It was not allowed to take photos, but it was really amazing to see.

Alessio was very happy to see huskies at the International Antarctic Centre and then on our last day we went to Willowbank Animal Reserve. There Alessio got to feed some lemurs, they sat on his shoulders and he was so calm feeding them. We also saw some pukeko, native bird to NZ and finally we saw a kiwi too. It was in the night area, there should have been 5 but I guess they were hiding.

I guess the only disappointment was that we did not see any whales, while we were in Auckland we did a boat trip. The day before there had been blue whales in the area and had been spotted by the boat. That would have been so amazing.

December Reading List

The last month of 2018 I managed to read 8 books, I am not going to write them all down as you can see them from the photos. The Elena Ferrante book is the second in the My Brilliant Friends and that was my favourite of all the books. I also really liked Lethal white the fourth book by Robert Galbraith.

I have no plans for the weekend yet but sure something will come up, maybe a movie with Alessio and try to finish some more books.

Happy Thursday

Ubud Market, Bali

In Ubud, we visited the market and as you can see from the photos there was many different things to buy. Here you can bargain with the sellers which is not my strong point, the stuff is already dead cheap and you get little more of the price. I did not buy anything for me but for a friend, which I still have to give to her. It was a busy place and full of mostly tourists and were many. many stalls to look at and in the end it was more or less the same stuff being sold.

This weekend has passed again quickly, I had a very quick trip to Konstanz with a friend and bought some things. Alessio was playing in two indoor football tournaments, so that kept him busy.

Wishing you all a good week ahead