Next
morning DH collected me and drove me home, with my head whirling
with a kaleidoscope of impressions, my camera laden with almost 450 images, my
suitcase full of laundry and my poor lungs feeling very sorry for themselves,
thanks to a nasty chest infection which ambushed me and several other members of
our party partway through the trip.
It’s
taking me a while to recover, but I’ve finally dealt with the laundry,
downloaded the photos and am just about thinking clearly enough to start to
organise all my impressions and memories. Though it feels like I have enough
material for a book rather than a few blog posts, at this stage I’m not even
going to use words. In their place is a selection of images, which hopefully
capture something of the essence of our trip - of cemeteries and memorials, of landscapes and the remnants of war that still scar them. The words will come later, when I
can find the ones I need.
So pleased the trip lived up to your expectations though sorry you succumbed to a chest infection. Your photos are stunning, no doubt helped by the sunshine & blue skies. I look forward to further posts once you're back to being 100% and have been able to digest all your experiences.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ricky. The glorious weather on the first two days was a huge bonus and the trip more than lived up to expectations in every way, being wonderfully well-organised and with an extremely knowledgeable and helpful guide. The chest infection was the only negative and even that is gradually improving. More posts will definitely follow.
DeleteWhat a wonderful experience. The pictures say more than you could put into words.
ReplyDeleteIt was unforgettable, Molly. I do hope to put some of it into words eventually, but images always speak more clearly.
DeleteI've been so out of blogworld recently that I didn't know this was the destination of your trip. So sorry you came back unwell but it sounds as though you're over the worst and on the mend. A very moving and emotional visit - as I said, my sister went a year or so ago and came back very thoughtful. My great-grandfather died at Passchendale.
ReplyDeleteI've always found the First World War very, very evocative - in part, the result of reading Wilfred Owen as a teenager - but also because of the sadness and sense of loss that my great-grandmother and my granny carried with them. They didn't talk about it much, but it was still there and I remember being conscious of it even when I was a little girl. Looking forward to more.
Axxx
Given what had been going on in your life recently, I'm not surprised you haven't had time to keep up with things. Yes, this was a trip my sister suggested way back when I first wrote my post about my great-uncle's death and it finally happened. She and I have also come home very thoughtful and deeply moved by the experience, particularly when we got as close as we could to where young Walter died.
DeleteI'm another who has always felt a sense of connection to the First World War, partly because of Wilfred Owen, whose poetry I discovered and devoured at university, and partly because my grandfather never forgot the young brother he had lost.
What a trip - the photos do away with any need for words, so you can give your poor self a rest - so sorry that you were ill.
ReplyDeleteI think I spied a Newfoundland marker - those poor boys from a rock on the edge of our country...no glory in their deaths, they were treated as expendable by the 'brass'. No glory at all in war, but I am so glad that places like these allied cemeteries exist. They have a huge impact on the young, in a way that no TV show could ever have.
What a trip, indeed, even if I did come home with an unwelcome souvenir. I'm glad the photos speak to you without need of words. I will find some later, but not just yet.
DeleteI saw lots of Canadian gravestones, but don't remember seeing any Newfoundland ones. The one you thought you spotted is in fact a New Zealand one, with the national fern symbol. We were meant to visit Newfoundland Park on the Somme, but the weather was so bad that day that the guide decided against it, particularly as we had spent a long time the day before at the other Canadian national memorial at Vimy Ridge near Arras. My bottom photo shows Mother Canada mourning her lost sons.
Hari OM
ReplyDelete...oh my.... awaiting your words with patience - and anticipation. Be well-weller-wellest soonest! YAM xx
Thanks, Yam. I'm on the mend, but it's taking time, because of my lifelong asthma. Hey-ho... The words are already stirring at the back of my mind and I'm making notes. :)
DeleteWhat heart-meltingly beautiful photos, Perpetua, and so evocative too. So sorry that you became ill while there, but you have clearly found the experience quite wonderful. Looking forward to more word descriptions, when you are feeling well once more.
ReplyDeletePS Quite a thrill to see some of your pics almost identical to some of mine - I love that we have stood in the same places :)
I love that too, Patricia, though you had to travel so much further to do so. I thought of you and Mr C's great-uncles during our visit to the Menin Gate, which I found almost unbearably moving. The whole experience was unforgettable and I will definitely be thinking it through and trying to capture it in words as well as images as soon as this dratted bug leaves me.
DeleteThe long shadows, the meloncholy mists, your serene photos, all conjure up the poignancy of a place filled with the sadness of young lives lost.
ReplyDeleteEverytime I travel these days I seem to pick up a bug, hope that you are soon back on the road to recovery.
Oh, so many lives and some of them so terribly young, Rosemary. Even though all these areas are now thriving modern places, the horror of the enormous losses still lingers and one can never be completely unaware of it with so many cemeteries and memorials dotting the landscape.
DeleteI find air travel the worst for catching things, but this one has not been a pleasant acquisition. Still, I'm on the mend now, thanks.
Hope that you are feeling better soon - wonderful, poignant photos.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling a lot better than I as, thanks, Susan. I'm glad you liked the photos. I so wanted to capture what I was seeing.
DeleteYour photos are beautiful! I'm so glad you got to spend time w/ your sister honoring your uncle. Hope you get well soon. Ellen in Oregon, USA
ReplyDeleteHoe nice to hear from you, Ellen. I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. There will be more to follow once I'm rid of this bug. Yes it was lovely to make this trip with my sister and we were very moved as we paid tribute to our great-uncle.
DeleteIt is difficult to put into words the feeling that rush through the brain when visiting these sites. The loss and our indebtedness is almost tangible in the air.
ReplyDeleteYes, the feelings are hard to capture, but you've done it very well in your comment. 'The loss and our indebtedness' was the leit-motif of everywhere we visited and the passing of time doesn't seem to be diminishing it.
DeleteThanks for sharing these photos. I visited some of those same sites in 2014 and I think I'm still processing my impressions and feelings. Everyone should make that sort of trip I think.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed them, Nancy, and that they reminded you of your own visit. I can well imagine that processing the experience isn't going to happen quickly. I'm glad to say that our two eldest grandsons have both visited the area around Ypres on school trips - the youngest just last week - so the younger generations are being encouraged to keep the meories and traditions alive.
DeleteSuperb photographs....memorials to lives wasted and the lives of those that loved them ruined.
ReplyDeleteI was very pleased with the photos when I got back, Helen. I so wanted to capture what I was seeing. The sense of loss and waste and grief is almost tangible even after a century and the passing of all who lived through it. I thought of your father's lost brothers when the Scottish regiments were mentioned.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWere you on a coach? They are a good way to pick up infections, especially chest infections, all that coughing in a small space. I hope it didn't spoil the trip.
Got it in one, Jean. We went with Legers. Interestingly those all affected came down with the infection on the same day. It must have been quite a virulent one. Thankfully it didn't spoil the trip, though I confess to sitting out a few visits on the 3rd day when it was cold and snowing.
DeleteSorry to hear you were unwell Perpetua ... I hope the infection has cleared completely.
ReplyDeleteThe mist, the rows of crosses; there are no words to describe that scene ... only one word came to mind ... poignant.
Thanks for the sympathy, Shirley. It's not gone completely, but I'm feeling a lot better. Poignant is exactly the right word to describe so much of what we saw. A sense of sadness at the loss of so many (mainly young) lives must, I think, touch anyone who visits.
DeleteFunny how emotions wash over you at times. This is a bright sunny summer morning in Australia (if only it could remember to rain)and I am on occasional blog roam, starting in Scotland and ending up here. I visited Ypres in 2013 the first of my family to do so since my Uncle Ramsay was killed at Polygon Wood in 1917. I was devouring your photos until - Sutcliffe is my maiden name. The family came to Australia in 1850's from Yorkshire. I will spend the day thinking of those poor young men off on their 'great adventure' and the repercussions of those years. We should all pray for Syria today - when will we ever learn. Liz
ReplyDeleteHow nice to meet you here, Liz, and thank you for your thoughtful comment. I'm glad you too managed to visit Ypres and remember the death of your uncle so many miles from home. We saw so many Australian names and regiments on gravestones and memorials along with New Zealanders and Canadians and soldiers from other countries in what was then the Empire. As you say, many would have thought it a great adventure to travel to Europe and fight for the Old Country.
DeleteWhat a coincidence that your maiden name is Sutcliffe. My mother too was a Sutcliffe and it was her Yorkshire father's brother whose name appears above. Do you know which part of Yorkshire your family came from? As a keen family historian, I love the thought we may be distantly linked. :) There's a link to my email address on my profile if you would prefer to reply offline.
Yes, we must pray that the fragile ceasefire in Syria will hold, so that yet more young lives will not be lost.
Thank you for sharing the photos. They take me back to when I went with my mother. I remember her gazing over the countryside such as in your first photos when our coach party with guide stopped outside Ypres and I wondered what she was thinking. Never discussed, but it must have been thoughts of family losses in the trenches. That stays with me. Deeply sad and difficult to put into words. I hope you're recovering from your chest infection.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed them, Linda, and that they brought back memories of your trip with your mother. Looking over that peaceful landscape and trying to imagine what it was like a century ago was very moving for me. I can understand your mother's silence. I do hope to put some things into words once I'm finally over this rather stubborn infection.
DeleteYour images, and the purpose of your trip, move me very deeply, and in some ways I'm not entirely sure why. There are many world conflicts to choose from, and I don't have any personal loss connected to this war. I somehow just connect to this and I suppose I don't need to understand why. I am really looking forward to more posts as those words come to you. I understand completely why it sometimes takes a little while to synthesize all you've seen and experienced. I hope you'll feel confident to write several posts that capture the essence of what you've seen! xx
ReplyDeleteDebra, there is no accounting for what speaks to us and why this thing or event rather than that. I completely understand your sense of connection to the Great War as I've felt it for a very long time and not only because of my great-uncle. There is something about the sheer scale of the conflict and the way it was so very different from all wars that preceded it and also the huge changes in society which followed it. Now I'm starting to feel better I'm making notes and posts will definitely follow.
DeleteYour photos are hauntingly beautiful and speak volumes of the places where young men fought and fell. I too had a great uncle that fought on these fields of France. He was from the United State. He never returned home either. Thank you for connecting me to this place.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you begin to feel better soon.
I'm feeling a lot better, thanks, Sally, though my lungs are still not completely clear. I have to remember I'm almost 70!
DeleteI think that where the battlefields of Flanders and France are concerned pictures speak far more clearly and poignantly than words. So many lives lost or irreparably damaged that the effects still echo down the years. I'm sorry to hear that you too had a great-uncle who lost his life in this 'war to end wars'. If only that had been true.