I have already praised Penteli mountain which overlooks Athens from the North East side so I won't repeat myself this time, if you follow my posts you know what I am talking about. Still, this green carpet over those slopes is stunning even for a non first timer native like me:
I wish there'll be a day when we can embed Gmaps here but till you can click here for the location or (of course) the related pinmaple link in the comments.
After the title's and map's spoiler you probably already know that I am in front of the entrance to the local German military cemetery hence the following cypress tree:
The sign reads the obvious, a rare case of a Greek-German one though:
Same as these ones inside:
As I step in I am instantly impressed: there's no one in here here including the spacious room of the entrance. However, the place is pristinely clean and tidy as it gets. Seriously, it feels like there's a bunch of guys looking after it 24/7 yet no one's around. Weird. I make my way in:
The place looks like it's been gardened carefully on a daily basis:
My walk is stopped by this sign:
I don't know the motivation behind this but to me it's a great visual underlining the tragedy of WWII during which all these historic capitals of Europe paid their massive toll.
The more I walk into the cemetery the more its condition impresses me - so beautiful and tragic at the same time:
As I see this bare tree, almost dry dead, I wonder if it was an intentional choice to fit the sadness:
9.973 German soldiers who died around Greece from 1939 to 1945 are buried here:
The cemetery was founded in September of 1975 but this is probably a later addition:
I find this stone under those names - since it's a stone from the sea or a river probably a relative or friend brought it here:
The site is taken care off by these guys: https://www.volksbund.de/ . I must admit they couldn't have done a better job, definitely a much better one than the guy who initiated the WWII madness:
The gate of the cemetery really matches the whole thing. Massive, black and steel. Even the handle makes a sound like a sad bell toll (check video later):
Last shots as I leave it all behind in peace (not that I disturbed the latter anyway):
For anyone with more than a couple of brain cells alive places like this trigger a lot of thoughts questioning mankind. I'm not gonna leave any "make love not war" thing here as people don't change that much hence they'll keep doing both, maybe only at different doses from time to time. As Thucydides said during the 5th B.C., the same things will keep happening over and over again as long as the nature of people doesn't change. On the contrary, our technological evolution keeps skyrocketing. Funny how stupid and smart we can be at the same time. Not wise though.
Here's a video of clips I shot at the site:
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Thank you @ackhoo and all @qurator s, I surely will.
Most welcome!
It's a beautiful place. Very apt and deserving as a final resting place... Am glad you included the video, it gives a better sense of the mood and calm there. And I heard the 'sad bell toll', strong and solid - I like it.
It's so motivating when I know that people who read me pay attention to such details. Cheers.
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1403.
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Thanks a lot!
Great topic to post on; sad, but interesting history... I had not considered a graveyard like this before, but it makes total sense. And impeccably maintained!
Thanks for this thoughtful share.
Cheers!
Happy to see you here - cheers.
Very serene.
Is it that you were avoiding people or is empty
Totally empty. Not a single soul around there during my visit.