Vimy and the Menin Gate

If there's any war memorial you should visit in your life, make it Vimy. I had no clue how incredibly massive the place is until I got into the park. All of the trenches have been preserved ( as in, the area has not been farmed and has just been left to grass over ) and it's acres and acres of this. You go winding around roads and then pop out where you can see the memorial and it just hits you in the pit of your stomach.
Two days prior was the official ceremony, but the guides working there decided to put on a small ceremony at 11:00. There must have been close to 300 people there, a great deal of them fellow Canucks. It's kind of strange - you have no idea who any of these people are, but just that common bond in nationality is enough to just go up to someone and start chatting with them like you've seen them before. There were even a few Canadian servicemen there - one of them from the airborn division in Vancouver.
The service was quite emotional. I think most people were fine up until they started the pipes and then a good number of people started wiping their eyes, including myself. What an experience!
The rest of the day there was spent going through the cemeteries, walking around the grounds, and touring the underground tunnels they used during WW1. Built by the British, they were used by the troops to move supplies and fresh men in, served as a momentarily safe passage for the runners, and were bunking quarters for a fortunate few. To think, the distance between the Germans and the Allies was less than 100m for a significant part of the stalemate at Vimy. A person doesn't realise how close that is until she's standing at the Allied lines, looking over the brow of the ridge to the Axis side. Incredible.

I figured I could still make it to Ipers that night for the Last Post at the Menin Gate. So, I booked it out of Vimy and made a detour in Kortijk where I thought I could easily find a hostel or tourist info. Ha! Easy doesn't exist on this trip. Under the impression that both French and Flemmish are spoken in Belgium, I thought I could make sense of things. Noooooo. Road signs are in Flemmish. Town names on signs are mostly just in Flemmish and the translations can be significantly different. I finally gave up and headed for Ipers - just in time too, 'cause the ceremony had already started and what I thought was just going to be the last post was a huge to-do!
Easily a thousand people, maybe 2 or 3 were packed in the streets and under the gate itself to see the pipers, marching bands, a choir, and buglers. I don't think a person could ask for a better Remembrance Day than this. To see the appreciation that the people here still have is very humbling.
Now to find a place to stay. Long story short - I got lost and ended up back in France about 50 km away in Lomme.