Barry & Nellie Wiggs 2018 Crete
Hi Everyone,
Greetings from sunny Crete, this is the rest part of our holiday, thank you Rus, it is stunningly beautiful, and we do need a rest. It is giving us much needed time to recharge the batteries and for me to rid myself of the dreaded luggie that I picked up via Barry and the bus of Expact.
Ypres (Leper/Wipers) was a very interesting couple of days. The tour guide from Leger was a war historian called Paul Reed, and did he know his stuff about these battlefields, if I could retain a tenth of what he told us, I would be very pleased with myself. Unfortunately the emphasis was on the English as we were in a bus of about 30 brits, but Paul did modify his narrative to include the 2 lone Aussies on the tour including information about the First Pioneers, which we were particularly interested in.
The bus also included a group of Welshmen, who had done the trip before, they were the old guard who attended the official ceremony of the opening of the Welsh memorial 2 years ago by Prince Charles, of which they were very proud of.
The Battlefields are getting ready for the 100th anniversary of the ceasefire on November 11th, over the last four years, Paul said there had been a renewed interest, and memorials such as the Welsh one, had been constructed over the last couple of years. The Australian ones that we visited had been there since the 1920’s so didn’t have the new look.
Every couple of kms there was another commonwealth war grave cemetery; it was quite depressing to see all those graves, and to think of the back stories that went with the graves. We also visited one of two German Cemeteries. The Germans amalgamated their cemeteries, they have one mass grave, with numerous memorial tablets, with very small writing, with name after name, and around that mass grave are other smaller graves with 8-10 names per headstone, planted throughout the cemetery are Oak trees so the whole area is very dark.
Hill 60 was interesting, considering Aussie tunneling company, completed the job and blew the hill up, apparently it was the biggest explosion in the world before the atom bomb. It was a series of explosions and the craters they left are still around; they have become mini lakes with depths of 30 feet to 90 feet.
Passchendaele Museum was also very informative, and we also visited re-constructed trenches of both sides. But it all looked a bit to clean and orderly.
The landscape around Ypres has recovered remarkably well, lots of farming, according to Paul still WW 1 and 2 ordnance’s are uncovered, and a farm is sitting on 56,000 tons of unexplored ordinance from a tunneling expedition that was discovered by the Germans before it could be blown....wonder how the farmer got insurance??
Overall my impression from the visit is one of sadness, so many families affected, and it only set up the seeds for another conflict 20 years later.
Now on to happy topics, Chania is lovely, lots of lovely food to eat, we aren’t being too adventurous on this leg, although the history permeates the area; Ottomans, Venetians, and Romans have definitely left their mark. We have only booked one day trip and that is to visit Knossos and the archeological park at Heraklion. That was an all dayer, we did think about Samaria Gorge, but looks too much like hard work, hiking for 4-5 hours when I could be sitting by the pool (spa) and enjoying the sunshine. Baz enjoys the lift in this place (ex-British Consul House) as it plays music when you enter and stops when you reach your floor (about 10 seconds worth), so the game is to name that tune....simple things amuse our simple minds.
Take care of yourselves
Luv. Nel