A Day in Belgium



On 1st of May I went to Belgium with my half of my year group, well the one's that study History for Gcse. We left London onto the coach at 4:30 in the morning, so basically we got no sleep since everyone was excited for the trip! We took a stop at the service station and I'm pretty sure everyone does this before they leave... go and try all those high end makeup products and spray lots of perfume, because that's certainly what we did to time pass and of course take lots of pictures!

The coach then got onto the Eurostar train and we finally arrived at Belgium and 10 in the morning. The coach journey was really tiring since we were sat for hours but I caught a lovely picture of the sunrise!!!
 

Yes, this was taken in the coach!

The first place we visited in Belgium was the Battlefields. Over there we saw lots of graves of different people from all over the world. There was also a huge wall engraved with soldier’s names which means their bodies could not be found! There are about 11,500 graves.

 

 

At 12:30 we ate our lunch and headed for the Passchendaele Memorial Museum. Inside we saw different types of guns that were used, how the beds were like for the soldiers to sleep on, trenches and lots more. At 3:00 we arrived to Sanctuary Wood Trench and Bayernwald Trench. We got to walk in the trenches with our groups and have a little tour. It was really enjoyable because it felt like a maze game and we actually got to feel how it was like in past during the war.

 

Walking around in the Trenches!

After visiting the Trenches we had an hour to go around and do some shopping in town. I visited lots of chocolate shops since Belgium are famous for their lovely chocolates. I bought Macaroons, white and chocolate milk Belgian chocolates, truffles and many more!

 

 



For Dinner we went to a stunning restaurant in town square. The inside looked very grand but unfortunately they didn't serve that great food we were hoping for. We had chips with Vegetable fillet and lemonade.

Doesn't look very fancy and famishing, But oh Well!

After dinner we had a fantastic opportunity to go and see the Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate. It was a privilege to be there and see some of the older soldiers with tons of badges. Two girls from our school got chosen to put a poppy wreath at the ceremony as a sign of remembrance. The Menin gate bears the name of 54,869 British and Commonwealth soldiers lost between 1914 August to 1917 with no grave.

Finally after the ceremony we got back onto the coach and left for London. The journey back home wasn’t great either. I honestly hate riding on coaches; it makes me feel sick and makes my skin very dehydrated and humid. But overall it was a great experience and two of my best friends came along and we have great memories to look back at which we love doing!

 

 

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Hope you enjoyed reading my experience and I'll see you on my next post!