Second Stop: Verdun

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The next day we started early again. We drove all the way to Verdun, to be more exact: To the battlefields of Verdun. We first visited the small museum, where we learned all about the war, well at least what we didn't know yet. After watching a small movie - which was very one-sided and not well made at all - in the museum cinema, we left the building and went to the real battlefield. We went underground to see a fort, where the soldiers stayed and where the longest and most devastating gas attack happened. The cold down there was very refreshing and you can get lost in the long and confusing alleys. It was a very wierd feeling to be down there, where there are only bats, and sometimes some visitors. After we came up again, we drove over to the Douaumont ossuary. Here most of the soldiers died during the Battle of Verdun (Feb 1916 - Dec 1916) and it was known as the "Hell of Verdun". We visited the inside of the building and the cemetery itself. The whole Verdun battlefield is kept clean and trimmed. All around us gardeners were mowing the lawn and planting new flowers. A place that moved all of us. In the early afternoon we moved ahead, because we had a full program in Reims.

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