We stumble across our first war cemetery

Tweet

By 9 July, we were in north-east France heading into Germany. By late afternoon we had reached Freiburg where we were to meet up with a friend Vince had made during his stay in Nepal. We travelled through mountainous country that day and stopped several times to take photos of the breath-taking views. Can you see the village nestled in the valley of the second photo in the slideshow? While still in France, we stopped at a ski resort which stood at 1250 metres. The roads had a lot of switchbacks to them but our motor-home kept chugging on. Some of the houses were very ornate with colourful walls, gardens and window-boxes full of bright flowers. If you look hard you might see the bee just coming in to land on the foxglove. We also saw our first war cemetery which held the remains of Rumanian soldiers. Although all the crosses had plaques, not all had names. Some had names, identity number and date of death. Others had plaques which read: Here rests an unknown Rumanian prisoner who had been buried at Koetzingen. The main plaque under the cross was written in French and, I think, Rumanian, and I've translated it to the best of my ability. It read: To the memory of 2344 Rumanian prisoners of war who died in German internment camps in Alsace and Lorraine in 1917 and 1918; to the memory of the people of Alsace and Lorraine who helped them survive. The plaque below the statue says, in various languages: Queen Maria from Roumania 1914 – 1927 We were to see a lot more war cemeteries but coming on this one unexpectedly was very sobering. It is one thing to see pictures of the graveyards with their rows of white crosses but another to walk among them and read the names and ages -or to note the lack of names on so many.