Menin Gate video

Friday 8 August 2008 at Menin Gate, Belgium
During the Last Post ceremony I thought I would try running video mode on the Panasonic digital camera and was happily trying to hold things steady when I got this flashing warning in the screen that I only had 30 seconds left of battery time. I got this countdown and was hoping that the buglers would finish before my camera stopped.
You can see the result in the video.
Sue has since told us that her and Frank, "scored a really good last post last time...... complete with a brass band from UK and a bag piper...... was very moving and lasted 20 odd mins!

What a challenge it was to get the video uploaded. Left the computer on overnight, with the message 'still uploading'. I hope my data cap has not been exceeded for the month.

Menin Gate

Friday 8 August 2008 at Menin Gate in Belgium
After our visit to Bruges, Frank and Sue drove us to Tyne Cot Cemetry and then to Menin Gate to catch the 'Last Post' ceremony. Quite a moving event and something that Belgium has done every evening since 1929, except during the German occupation of the Second World War. I mentioned this to John Skelton when we met up with him and Deanna in England and he told of his visit with one of his boys to Menin Gate. John's story was from August the previous year (2007) when he was there together with Malcolm and his two sons and they were invited to participate in the daily Last Post memorial service. "There are no more first generation survivors, so it was very significant to have 2nd generation, 3rd generation, and 4th generation members from one family. It was an honour to participate.
Also I am guessing you know that Menin Gate has 5,4896 names, the Tyne Cot Cemetery has 34,984 names and nearly 90,000 have no known grave site."
John also mentioned later he and Deanna were going back to their favourite B & B in Belgium which is now a working farm, and the local history expert had told John that it is a few hundred yards away from the line where the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was during the battle for Passchendaele. John has walked the same area that his dad was in.

le petit Julien

7 August 2008 in Brussels, Belgium
On our way to this little sculpture I was wondering about all this focus on a little boy urinating in signs all over the place - including this shop, photographed over the top of Frank's head. The official website link from Wikipedia has an interesting introduction and there is another link giving a 360 degree scan of the site.

Mysterious little something with a big reputation

7 August 2008 in Brussels, Belgium
Whilst in Brussels that first day, after getting off the train from Amsterdam and meeting Frank and Sue Fesche, we were taken to a mystery location that had a big reputation. Well we were warned, you almost couldn't see it for all the visitors lining up to get their photographs taken in front of this little sculpture.

Grand-Place of Brussels

7 August 2008 in Brussels, Belgium
Across the square from the previous photograph, with the shadow of that building falling on this one.

Grand-Place of Brussels

7 August 2008 in Brussels, Belgium
With attention focused on the Grand-Place of Brussels with the photos sent of the Floral Carpet event of 2008, had me looking again at my photos of the square and the detail in the buildings. As Frank Fesche pointed out, even the high up stone carvings are intricately detailed, although it is unlikely that the person at the street level would be able to see those carvings. Each column has its own story and there are some quite macarbe scenes.

Grand-Place of Brussels

7 August 2008 in Brussels, Belgium
From that aerial view of the Grand-Place of Brussels, in the top right corner was where we were with Frank and Sue on Thursday 7 August, after we had traveled by train from Amsterdam. This was our chance to visit with Frank and Sue when they both had rostered time off. Could we organise ourselves to be there in 2010 to avoid comments from various people who commented along the lines, "wow that is pretty, a shame you guys missed it"
We were also impressed with the effort made to 'screen decoratively' the scaffolding for renovations - see top picture.

Brussels In Bloom

I was sent this email with various photos of Brussels in bloom with the comment, "Wish my garden was this colourful - with my green fingers the ones right in the middle would die before I finished the outside.!!
I IMAGINE THAT THEY WOULD BE PRAYING FOR NO WIND"
I realised we had been there with Frank and Sue Fesche, just the week before. I can vaguely recall Sue telling us about this great event. As Sue later said, "Frank and I missed 2000 and 2008 but have seen 2002, 2004, and 2006. Sue". Sue also pointed us to the relevant website
Sadly this link no longer works