Ieper Warnings Or Dangers

Phone cards required if you might be using a public telephone in Ieper..although honestly I don't know how large an issue this is because I didn't notice any other public phones while walking about Ieper.I found out within 15 minutes of my arrival....on Easter Sunday evening...when I arrived via the train and I found out I needed to call a taxi for myself....I thought MAYBE there might be one or two even waiting around for a fare.....my hotel was about four kilometers outside of town....

I went to use the payphone outside of the station and there is NO payment option for coins ...only phone cards...so...FYI...I suppose its not as much of a big deal if you might be European and have your cell phone or handy with you...BUT....just in case... : O ]

Andre drove us to a place along a road where there was a pile of unexploded ordinance...artillery shells mostly...just recently left there by a farmer likely plowing for the Spring planting season...

Every month there are still plowed up from the fields unexploded and rusted shells used by both sides during the War....as well as the remains of soldiers...

Its probably a good idea to not pick them up if you happen to see a pile of these things.... even though they've been placed there by the farmer that plowed them up...

I was told that the Belgian army would come by and pick them up and destroy them...

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Beware of the Ypres wildlife . . .

No, No, this is not a joke . . .

Especially when you are walking around the Ramparts.

At certain places there are Gooses. And if you come too close they might attack.

When their neck comes upright and they start kind of blowing with open snout, that is the sign to step back.

They might be pretty aggressive especially in the period that they have little ones (what is very natural of course.

Not that it is that dangerous for an adult, but little children might be frightened.

Too many people visit the battlefields with a one-sided view of the horror and sacrifice. Poor Tommy! Lions led by Donkeys! Needless slaughter! The best of British! The Lost Generation! The reality must be different. No-one could have stood the current view of the horror of the war. Tommy swore, Tommy f****d, Tommy drank, Tommy ran away, Tommy murdered his opponent in cold blood and there were surely as many sinners than saints. If you read enough the horror of a bombardment or attack is matched by the marvel of survival and a sublime joy of a simple pleasure if they were alive. Don't just think of them as cannon fodder but try to understand that for all the awfulness there was a comradeship and a level of enjoyment (if that is the right word) that we fail to comprehend nearly 100 years later. Try to picture the Army in a different perspective to the current philosophy of everyone getting killed and remember that in the words of Dickens it wasn't only the worst of times but it was also strangely the best of times. Hard to believe but if not they would have surely all packed it in by 1915. The Great War is a complex story and there is a danger we see it from the wrong viewpoint.