Western Europe Trip 2 - Page 5 |
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 This
is like an upscale Belgian Mall. It is very beautiful architecture. |
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 I
went on a Quasimodo tour when in Belgium. The one I chose took you
to Flander's Fields and some of the battle sites and cemeteries from World
War I. Then to a chocolate factory and then a brewery.
The image to the right and below are from Flander's Fields. The guide was telling us about how when the war was raging, it was raining and the bombs would just mix the earth and water together and create huge mud bogs. And all manner of things sunk in the mud from tanks and bullets to people. To this day if it rains bullets sometimes wash out and only a few years before a farmer he knew had struck the top of a tank when plowing. I find something happening to me in a place like this. I'm so easily overwhelmed that I become numb. This particular cemetery we visited with its row on row of tombstones, with Crosses and Star of Davids, with its known and unknown soldiers contains 20,000 tombs. 20,000 in one cemetery and this is just a mere fraction |
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 of
the total number of people who died on these fields. You start to
feel like you have no right to stand there on such hallowed ground where
so many fought and died, when you have done very little. You are
embarrassed by the heroic deeds of our ancestors and the shallowness of
your own. That's how I felt anyway.
But I couldn't and didn't cry. I was overwhelmed. Such a terrible cost. |
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 The
picture to the right is of bunks that were placed in a sort of cave in the
ground. The soldiers would be up at the front with bombings crashing
all around them, day and night and they would get fatigued, stressed and
worn out. Their commanding officer would send them back a few miles
to these bunkers where they could sleep relatively free from noise.
But they had to feel a bit like catacombs. |
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