Tunnels at Ypres

[Dikke Bertha]

Hello

I have just spent the day at the Yser Tower in Dixmuide where they have a fantastic reconstruction of the tunnels in the museum.

I then went to the new Passchendaele 1917 museum in Zonnebeke and I was very impressed. They too have a reconstructed tunnels system which is truly fantastic. Indeed I was very impressed by this museum which is well worth the visit.

Regards

[Mark Hone]

The Passchendaele Museum is fantastic, I agree. The only suggestion I would make is that they control the number of groups going round at any one time. When I went with my school party of 60 in October I deliberately split them up into two groups of 30 (in fact I had originally planned to have three groups of 20 but we were under a lot of time pressure) and put the groups in 45 minutes apart. as I had previously agreed with the museum. Unfortunately some other school groups arrived while we were there and the place became far too crowded. I'm afraid to say that one group were extremely unpleasant and barged their way through, causing considerable distress to one of my colleagues. I'm not blaming the kids-they were told to do this by their teachers!

[Dikke Bertha]

Hello

I agree that it is a cramped venue for school groups. There was a large group of UK kids when we were there but I have to say they were very mannerly and tried to be quiet even when their teachers were not about.

I do feel very sory for them as most were not interested.

Regards

[Mark Hone]

I have the advantage of taking mostly very interested students-the trip is entirely voluntary, they come in their own half-term holiday and there's no lure of Eurodisney etc after the 'boring' battlefields bit. I'm always disappointed to hear of uninterested groups roaming aimlessly around places like the Passchendaele Museum. Where were the teachers, or the guide for that matter?