After a long drive from London (including a ferry crossing from Dover to Calais), we arrived in Messines in West Flanders late afternoon.

We were accommodated at the Peace Village, a hostel that specialises in youth groups (nb. the area also offers a range of 3 and 4* hotels for groups who prefer staying in a hotel). The Peace Village offers basic but comfortable accommodation in 40 dorms (2, 4 or 6-bed) split over 4 blocks. Reception, a canteen and a bar can be found in the main building, as well as a meeting room where the educational staff of the hostel can run private workshops for their guests on request. Workshops are a good opportunity for the students to be introduced to the events that took place in the area as well as have a closer look at the hostel's collection of WWI artefacts including uniforms, medical equipment and a stretcher, weapons and munitions and objects used by the soldiers in their daily life.

On our first morning, our guide took us to some of the sites on the Messines Ridge.

For most of the war, the Messines Ridge was occupied by German troops. The Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917) was fought against the Germans by the British Army (including Irish, British and ANZAC (Australia & New Zealand Army Corps) soldiers) on the Western Front near the village of Messines. The objective was to gain control of higher land to the southeast of Ypres in preparation for the 3^rd Battle of Ypres (or Battle of Passchendaele). Thanks to careful planning and the successful co-ordination of various parts of the Army (artillery, infantry and engineering tactics), the capture of Messines Ridge was the most successful local operation of the war on the Western Front.

Our first stop was at the Bayernwald where we had a look at (and walked into) a restored section of German trenches.

Our coach then took us through narrow countryside roads to the Pool of Peace. Also known as the “Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater” or “Lone Tree Crater”, this water-filled crater is the result of one of the 19 mine explosions marking the start of the battle of Messines. It was the largest man-made explosion at the time.

Our next stop was the Messines Ridge Cemetery.

Created after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields around Messines and from smaller burial grounds in the area, this cemetery also contains the NZ Memorial Park which commemorates over 800 soldiers from New Zealand who died in or near Messines in 1917 and 1918 and who have no known grave.

Our last visit before lunch was at the Island of Ireland Peace Park. Despite the conflict following the Easter Rising at home, soldiers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland fought side by side during the Battle of Messines. This site commemorates those who died, were injured or went missing during World War I. As we toured the sites, our tour guide brought them to life, pointing out the forces' positions on the landscape, showing us pictures or videos of various ceremonies or commemorations or telling us personal anecdotes.

Our afternoon tour included visits to several Commonwealth cemeteries, each marking a stop on the medical evacuation chain. Soldiers who did not survive their injuries were indeed buried close to where they had been treated. We started with the Ration Farm Military Cemetery, located just behind the front line near a Regimental Aid Post where casualties would receive initial medical attention. From there, they would be sent to the advanced dressing station which used to be located near Kandahar Cemetery. The next stage, Lijssenthoek Field Hospital, was the biggest evacuation hospital in the Ypres Salient. The 11,000 casualties who didn't survive the treatment (3% of the total casualties who were treated there), representing 30 nationalities, are now buried at the Lijssenthoek Cemetery.

Our tour also included some insights on life behind the front line. We stopped at the Chinese Memorial Busseboom, which commemorates the Chinese labourers who came to the Western Front in 1916 to help behind the front by loading trains, building roads and cleaning the battlefields. We also had an enjoyable stop (with a cup of tea) at Talbot House, an Every Man's Club where soldiers could meet and relax regardless of rank. We had a look at the small chapel on the last floor of the house, it is still in use today for private services or informal choir recitals.

After dinner, we attended the Last Post at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.

Designed by Sir Richard Blomfield and unveiled on 24 July 1927, this colossal structure contains over 54,000 names of Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Great War but have no known grave. The site was chosen as it marks the starting point of one of the roads which would have led marching soldiers to the front lines. As a symbol of the citizens of Ypres' gratitude to those who gave their lives for the freedom of Belgium, every evening at 20:00 since 2 July 1928, buglers from the local fire service have closed the road passing through the site and sounded the Last Post.

The ceremony comprises a call to attention by the buglers of the Last Post Association followed by the sounding of the “Last Post” bugle call, an exhortation (from ‘For the Fallen' by L. Binyon) and a minute of silence. This is followed by a lament (if a piper is present) and the laying of wreaths. The ceremony ends with the sounding of the “Réveille” bugle call. Visitors are welcome to lay a wreath but will need to submit an application in advance. Our guide had arranged this on behalf of our group and a few fam trip participants who had relatives whose names were on the Menin Gate took part in the ceremony. Bands and choirs may also perform one or two pieces during the laying of the wreaths; again this must be requested in advance.

The following morning started with a visit to Hooge Crater Museum. This small private museum located between Ypres and Passendale has extensive collections including First World War uniforms, equipment, weaponry, photographs and other items.

They also have an original WWI ambulance and a life-size reproduction of the Red Baron's triplane. There are life-size dioramas depicting trenches, dugouts and other battlefield scenes. The most interesting part is located at the back of the museum. Hooge was on the front line from 1915-17 and the owners have created a private area with recreated trenches (showing both German and British trenches). As the museum is located on top of a hill with a great panorama of the area, guides can easily point out the positions of the various forces in the area around Hooge and make it easy to understand why the British army was fighting to gain control of the higher grounds.

We then had a quick tour of the huge Memorial Museum Passendale 1917.

In 1917, during the the Battle of Passchendaele, half a million casualties fell for only eight kms gain of ground in one hundred days. There are four different sections in the museum dedicated to uniforms, battlefield archaeology and artillery. The museum also includes a recreated dug out (underground bunker) and an outdoors area with trenches. Their education department also organises the “Platoon Experience”, a full day immersion project where students are impersonating Australian soldiers from a platoon that fought in the Passchendaele battle and the “Archive programme” where students, helped by a researcher, reconstruct the file of a soldier fallen during the battle.

Our last stop was at Tyne Cot Cemetery. This Commonwealth War Cemetery, the largest in the world, hosts more than 11,900 graves as well as a memorial with the names of around 35,000 missing soldiers. This memorial was created at Tyne Cot due to lack of space for all the names on the Menin Gate.

After lunch and a quick tour of Bellewaerde, the oldest operating theme park in Belgium, we drove back to London.

Although I had a basic knowledge of the events of World War I, visiting the sites where History happened was a real eye-opener. At the end of the trip, I had gained a better understanding of the military tactics in place during the battles as well as the extent of the human losses and the long-lasting impact of the war on the area. The armistice was signed 100 years ago but people in Flanders still live with the memory of the Great War every day. Craters and old bunkers shape the landscape, local farmers regularly stumble upon shells, grenades, as well as every day items belonging to WW1 soldiers when working in their fields and new construction projects are regularly halted to let archaeologists retrieve the remains of one of the more than 100,000 soldiers who was still missing in action until then.

As most of the other tour operators on this fam trip worked with British schools, we learnt a lot about medical treatment on the battlefield and the medical evacuation chain during World War I - a major focus of the revised British curriculum – during the afternoon visits. However, tours can be customized to focus on any other theme the group wishes to explore.

It is also worth checking in advance whether passengers or schools have any personal connections with soldiers who fought in the area. During the trip, some of the participants enquired about relatives who had passed away during the war and the guide helped them find their grave or name on the memorial. He advised that with advanced notice, he would be able to prepare a guided tour based on a particular soldier's experience as a way to tell the bigger story.

Images copyright Caroline Grellier (excluding the first and final images)