Day 11 Monique and Jordan

Day 11

Monique and Jordan 

Today we traveled in the bus from destination to destination and everyone was making the most of the commentary provided by the expertise of our tour guide, Mr Colin Gillard. Our first stop was at Lijssotheok Cemetery to pay our respects to two Collie men, then Menin Road South Cemetery for another Collie man. After this, we were off to a Canadian memorial which is commonly called "The Brooding Soldier". This is the site of the first ever gas attack. We went to Hill 60 and the Caterpillar Crater, Polygon Wood (though the road was blocked so we will try again tomorrow), Paschendale and we had lunch at the Hooge Crater Museum. Brianna read her poem at the grave site of a Collie soldier, and we visited as many graves of Collie service men as possible. At Tyne Cot we visited the memorial of one of John's relatives and James played the bugle for the service. We conducted many services throughout the day with James playing his bugle 3 times. At Tyne Cot we were complemented by another tour guide on the atmosphere created by the bugle playing. 

Upon arriving back to Ypres we met up with Belgium students and teachers from the Atheneum Pottelberg school as part of the Commonwealth Schools Link Program. The four students showed some of us around the town and took us to chocolate shops, where we indulged!!

During the day all the teachers and students were kept up to date with the Western Australian football derby.  Mr Dent was checking the score regularly. We all made sure that Kelsey and all other keen Eagles supporters knew the score especially as Dockers were triumphant on the day.  

At one point on the bus Jarrod, Mason and Jordan decided to untie, remove and hide James Moulden's shoe while he was asleep. 

Today was a special occasion for Monique and Alyssia as they celebrated their sixteenth birthday!!! We had two amazing cakes in the cafe at the front of the hotel and we all sang Happy Birthday.(even the Belgian students and staff)

After the birthday cake, we were off in our formal uniforms to the Menin Gate Ceremony, where Jarrod recited the ode and, together with the Belgian students, Alyssia, Monique, Olivia and James Abbott laid two wreaths. This was a very moving service for all of us.

Following his afternoon nap, Mr Heptinstall impressed the students with his impeccable manners when discussing the tour with the Belgian teachers.  He was certainly very committed to his ambassadorial duties!

Tonight Macca was in charge of picking a restaurant and it was very nice and much warmer but the total score has not been finalised so we will put it in the blog tomorrow.