Keeping up with history is brutal and you never have a world-wide pandemic on your list when planning your tours.
It was 2019 in our summer holidays in Belgium where I made the first two parts of my „In Flanders Fields“-voyages. 2020, struck by COVID-19, interrupted the whole world while we had the chance to return to Belgium in July, shortly before everything broke down again - but with no spare time left (family life first!) to visit the gravesites and memorials.
July 2021 now offered seven days in Belgium again and while the pandemic seems to have been battled (or is taking its break), family was still first but this time, I had the chance to return to the memorials that are so present in this beloved country that you can’t really grasp it once you weren’t there.
For me, I drew a lot of recreation, sadness, reverence, thoughts and energy of the sites I visited and while the „Pool of Peace“ (or „Lone Tree Crater“) closed my circle longing back to 2019, I made it to some other sites as well, finishing this round with finally visiting the centre of Ieper (Ypres) just five minutes before the „In Flanders Fields“-museum closed its doors at 6 pm.
Better luck next time, but a stimulation to catch up my thoughts and impression of the last two years and „the war to end all wars“ - be my guest in my thoughts and once you think you want to contribute anything to this publication, feel free to contact me!
Awed,
Oliver
