Day 1: Flight, Paris, Ypres & Menin Gate

Well, we are safe and sound in Ypres! The trip began early on May 5th when the majority of the group met at YVR for a day of travel. After a 4 hour flight, we made it to Toronto. Dinner was purchased and then we boarded the plane for Paris! The flight was rather long, but we were served dinner & had individual TVs to choose a show or movie. We arrived in Paris at 9:30am (their time) and as we were making our descent, the people sitting on the right hand side of the plane were lucky enough to see the Eiffel Tower. Upon arrival, we got our luggage (luckily it all arrived!), met Julien our bus driver, and the rest of our group. After getting lost in the airport and taking the elevator to the the wrong floor, we found our bus and all climbed aboard.

Our bus is quite interesting--the first 5 or so rows are like a typical coach bus. Then, there are a group of 4 seats that face each other and have a table in the middle. The back of the bus looks like a boardroom--there is a circle of seats & a large table. Quite different than at home!

We drove for 2 hours from Paris to a truck-stop type of restaurant. We had lunch and then continued on. After another hour and a half, we arrived at the Bedford House Cemetery. Upon first glance, the cemetery looked rather small. However, when you walked further into the grounds, the size of the cemetery was shocking. There were rows and rows of headstones. The majority of the headstones I saw were for men who were around my age, which was upsetting. The oldest age I saw was 42, which is far too young to have had the outcome that they did.

We traveled another 10 minutes to our hotel which is directly across the street from the Menin Gate memorial. The memorial is outstanding. The size is very powerful and the rows and rows of names is upsetting & moving all at the same time.

--Lisa Hutchcroft