[aclivity]

<font color='#810541'>My wife and I went on a short trip to northern France a couple of years ago, I'd been reading some WW1 novels and poetry (this is not like me, really, but I found the whole subject fascinating) and specifically wanted to see the Thiepval memorial.  

There were lots of occasions that made us both stop and think, something like Matt's strange feelings in Normandy, such as:

In the first cemetry we came to, hundreds of little white crosses bearing names and ages.  Virtual children sent from Australia and Canada to die in a foreign field.  One cross had some flowers and a note on it; the brother had come to visit a few days prior to our trip and had left a note to say he still thought about him.

At the Thiepval memorial, you are stunned by the sheer size of the thing.  It is huge.  Every inch of the marble is covered in names of soldiers who were never found.

The grounds around the memorial are pristine, perfectly manicured grass and trimmed hedges.  It was a sunny day, and there wasn't a sound in the air - truly spooky.  Suddenly the quiet was shattered as a couple of phantom fighter jets shot out of nowhere, past the memorial and out of sight before you knew it.  What an image that leaves with me.

The entrance to the Newfoundland memorial park, where the trenches have been kept as a reminder (so close together!) there is a plaque, that reads:
Tread softly here! Go reverently and slow!
Yea, let your soul go down upon its knees,
And with bowed head, and heart abased, strive hard
To grasp the future gain in this sore loss!
For not one foot of this dank wet sod but drank
Its surfeit of the blood of gallant men,
Who for their faith, their hope - for life and Liberty.
Here made the sacrifice - here gave their lives,
And gave right willingly - for you and me.


At all of the memorials there seems to be a calm feeling, maybe it was just me, maybe because these memorials and cemeteries are miles from towns and a bit off the beaten track.

Even just thinking of these things - specially the fighter planes over the memorial - bring a lump to my throat and a slight pricking to my eyes.  

Andy