One aspect of the trip that I am also still struggling to fully comprehend is the long lasting impacts of war on our precious planet. I saw this years ago working with forestry faculty in the late 90s at Hue University in Central Vietnam and their efforts to restore the land and mountain forests (and health in the communities) from impacts of Agent Orange spraying by the US in the Vietnam war. It is painstaking work and requires smart people, research, exhaustive work on the ground, and time.
In the case of the 1914-1918 conflict the unearthing of unexploded ordinance or cordoning off of areas of risk to agriculture or habitation, while becoming less and less is still very much “a thing”. In the battle at Verdun for example in the first 10 hours, 2 million (that’s a 2 and six zeros) rounds of artillery were fired. And over the course of Verdun, nine entire towns were destroyed. A hundred and four years later those rounds are still being dug up. I rode past one at the edge of a farmers field in France, and took a picture of one set on a stump near a forest cemetery….
…heartbreaking and outrageous to think that since 1918 up to the present day somewhere in the world this has happened and is happening to people in their communities…
Walking in Europe 
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