Old Graveyards | Historians | A quite "normal" Autumn Day
Beautiful day...
This is about yesterday. I had intended to blog already then, but since I had to get up early, I didn't make it with al the pictures and so on. So here I go instead. ^ ^
After having gotten my Yen to pay the Heresy fee for next year [hey... already one year member kehe... I should celebrate xD~], I was on my way to one super market that has the best muesli and a couple of other things I like eating but can't get anywhere else that's close to me. So after a year without lidl, I finally went on their homepage to check where the next store was... half a world tour but... I would find it in the end. Had to deliver the keys to the branch I'd been working the previous day as well.
With that in mind, at about 2.30pm, I was walking, and walking... sunshine, mild autumn weather. It was a long long road... One I've only ever walked once before. And at one point, that wall... magically drew me in. It was a high stonewall covered totally in red 'wine'. It was so beautiful... I had to take a picture of it. It was such a beautiful, intense colour. On its opposite side there was a church I tried to take a picture of as well, unfortunately the sun was right above it so that the stone building turned out to be quite black on the picture in the end
Anyway, only when I reached a gate in the wall I realized that...
... this was the wall of a huge graveyard. The southern one. And bless, I've never been on a graveyard ever since I moved to Munich. I used to walk through one on the way home from the train station in the town I lived before I moved to Munich. I've always loved graveyards - apart from the time that someone you know/are close to/etc are being laid down
. Still, they do hold a certain kind of fascination even then.
And this graveyard... ever since I put my feet over threshold, I seemed to be in a different world.
I stood there and gaped before I made my feet walk on.
It was... stunning, to say the least.
Green, everything green, despite it being late in autumn, everything so damn green... apart from the leaves on the path - those were dried, brown autumn leaves. And the trees were so huge...
Many of the engravings and writings seemed as if they had been washed away by time long long ago...
On the gravestones, everything overgrown, savaged. Some monuments were even totally overgrown, like the one in the wall here.
At one point I just stood and gaped, the wind rustled through the crowns of the trees and made them shed bright yellow leaves. If I could just have captured one of those moments...
I took closer looks at the dates, when it was possible to read them at all. Most of the oldest gravestones in that area seemed to be dated about 1920... I had actually pulled out my dictaphone to record that amazing find, and just as I said that most of the graves there seemed to be around that date, I found one that was dated back to the 1860ies. I was... flabbergasted. That whole graveyard seemed to be such a perfect scene right from a vampire movie I tell you... and everything so quit... still... and so huge, that the sounds either were swallowed by the thick leafage of the trees, or vanished in the amplitude.
Some graves were damaged, some destroyed. By age, or by war... who knew. I took a right turn... passed a huge stone well... looking out over the scene, the overgrown graves, the leaves rustling down, I suddenly got goose bumps. Yeah, I loved it that much... It was just... wow.
I liked this monument here... A, I only took pictures of gravestones and monuments at the beginning of my 'journey'. As to why, further down.
I don't know exactly why I find them that attractive, though I'm pretty sure once I started, I might be able to write an essay... a long one.
It seems that this one is dated back to 1876 ... yet, you can still read most parts of it. There were some that were totally illegible. Some 'stones' even had changed over time... seemingly made out of concrete. There were one or two.
I reached this here... o lo. Color amidst all the green and wild. Most of the graves are untended to an extend I'm sure that there hasn't been anyone there to look after it for, well, at least a century.
This was the last picture I took of the graveyard, though there were a lot of other fascinating images. I'd love to go back soon, when the weather is as fine as it was that day.
The thing is, I wasn't all alone... there was a man, I'd say in his 50ies, with long, silver hair and a huge beard, who'd been stepping from grave to grave, taking pictures of some with a huge camera. I wondered whether he was a professional photographer, or a scientist of some kind. He looked it.
At one point, he was in front of me, walking towards and past me, and as is me, I smiled at him. He smiled back - a very amiable, warm smile - and I knew it would happen before it happened... I wanted it to happen anyway. After a couple of steps, I heard him turn around, and walk back to me. I grinned.
"Are you interested in graveyards because them being graveyards, or from a historical point of view, or...?" And there we started talking. ... We, or rather ~he~ spent about an hour walking through the graveyard, talking. He's a historian... his area of expertise being Munich's history... he knew so much about which is who's grave and where exactly said person has their street in Munich *laughs* I just made conversational noises most of the time, or nodded or shook my head when he asked me whether I knew who this or that person was, or if I've heard the name before, or the street... There were a lot of situations in which he told me things like "x's street is leading right from the street 1 that goes between street 2 and 3, with that large white building on the right side, that is shaped like this and that..." Unfortunately, I only know some parts of Munich 'well' and ... most not at all so hahaha xD~ Oh but it was very interesting.
He told me some stories... and I told him of my studies... and of VK *laughs out loud* The most fun is, I was just talking about it... or well, I had been, then he started telling me things again, and just then we passed a bench, on which a guy and a girl sat... I grinned at her and chuckled. They were looking at some pictures on a cam, and she smiled back. A couple of steps later, he asked me how he should interpret my grinning and chuckling right then. I laughed and told him that that girl in fact is "one of those that like the same kind of music as I do" hahaha... and that I'd seen her on concerts a couple of times ago xDDD
Isn't it terrible.. there you think you're all alone... more or less... on a graveyard, and WHAT do you encounter? A visu. AHAHAHAHA... *laughs* Aaaanywa~y...
Next to showing me graves of some of the late kings' men, he told me how a factory exploded by accident some time ago... I don't remember whether it was in the 1800s... I think so. A whole family had died in the flames, so he showed me the grave - there's no writing to be seen anymore, nothing. But well... once you know, you know. You just have to know. ^ ^"
It was close to that grave where a huge tree had sort of 'split' two graves... I would have loved to take a picture of it, but didn't when I was with Michael. Because... as I was lucky... I had been inconspicuously recording myself before he started talking to me... and just let it run while he showed me around... so I have about 40 minutes of his lecture on my dictaphone *laughs* It's great... so great *laughs* Well, in case I go back and happen to pass that area, I would take a picture of it. The tree had grown right out from between them, and the graves were both leaning to the sides... great.
And one time we passed a grave... with a huge huge tree (I think it was an ash tree, but I'm not sure right now) growing right out of the grave. He laughed and told me of one of Valentin's anecdotes... (He's a known German comedian before my time. There's the Karl Valentin museum in Munich... I've been to it when I was a child, and loved it. I laughed it, too xD) ... in combination with "Hmm, have no idea, that tree hadn't been there yesterday" haha... Well, he made me look at the tree and guess how long the grave had been there... a long long time, I dare say.
He showed me a gravestone 'they' are quite proud of - it was from the time of the French Revolution... and is dated back to ... well, he said "Ah well, I'm sure your French isn't that bad, so I'll let you translate it yourself... and you tell me whether you notice something" Oh lol, my French xDDD... Well, but it's enough for a gravestone lol. And it said down there, that the General had been laid down in the grave ... the 23. November... of Year 9...
Holy sheesh. Yeah... there aren't that many tombs around here, or Germany... well... at least not HERE in Germany, that are dated in that way ne O_O So yeah... from the point of view of a historian, a great thing, and totally to be proud of. *nods*
He told me lots of Munich's history in connection with the graves... or well, the history of the people. I don't remember any details though. I'm more the visual and haptic learner anyway it seems *laughs* yes I must touch Jrockers to learn about their music ahahaha...*cough* No but seriously ... *thinks* I have to touch someone to know more about them.... .... ... *smirk*
I remember that he asked me whether I'd recognize something about one monument... there was a huge angel in the middle of it, and to the sides two busts - a male, and a female one. The face of the dead woman... was the face of the angel. She was sitting model for her own gravestone-angel. ... Or lying model....
Anyway, we spent about an hour walking through the graveyard. I would have spent more time there with him, if it hadn't been for my job... I really had to deliver the keys =__=' And my boss had already messaged me twice. Not about the keys, about today... where I would have to work today, ne. And then, there was a message by Ruks as well just a bit before I was about to leave... he laughed "oh well, are you some Miss VIP..." ... "LOL nooouu... I usually don't get that many messages haha..." XD~
Well so I said good bye... I got his number, just in case I'd want to meet up (at the graveyard whoooohoo) some other time, or to listen to Munich's history... and so on, ne. I went to Lidl then... it took me a bit more than 20 minutes to get there I think... and then as I walked back, I passed this playground.
Look at that little girl in pink...
I love this second picture, taken just a couple of seconds after the first one ... I just put the other first to have you follow her gaze. I love it when kids play... like that.. in autumn. Reminds me of myself. I always loved autumn. Running around between the leaves, playing with them...
I walked on then, and took a picture of an old man walking his dog...
And trees...
I took a couple more pictures, am just posting these. ^---^
Ahhh I love meeting people just like that... especially elder people. Getting to know a different life, from a different time... life-stories are stories I always find interesting.
Oh yes ... I asked him when the graveyard had been build - there hadn't been anyone put to rest there ever since 1944, I know as much. And it had been built/started in 1743. ... originally it had been set up to host the dead ones from the Black Death. O-O"
1543...
Amazing... o----O
This is about yesterday. I had intended to blog already then, but since I had to get up early, I didn't make it with al the pictures and so on. So here I go instead. ^ ^
After having gotten my Yen to pay the Heresy fee for next year [hey... already one year member kehe... I should celebrate xD~], I was on my way to one super market that has the best muesli and a couple of other things I like eating but can't get anywhere else that's close to me. So after a year without lidl, I finally went on their homepage to check where the next store was... half a world tour but... I would find it in the end. Had to deliver the keys to the branch I'd been working the previous day as well.
With that in mind, at about 2.30pm, I was walking, and walking... sunshine, mild autumn weather. It was a long long road... One I've only ever walked once before. And at one point, that wall... magically drew me in. It was a high stonewall covered totally in red 'wine'. It was so beautiful... I had to take a picture of it. It was such a beautiful, intense colour. On its opposite side there was a church I tried to take a picture of as well, unfortunately the sun was right above it so that the stone building turned out to be quite black on the picture in the end
Anyway, only when I reached a gate in the wall I realized that...
... this was the wall of a huge graveyard. The southern one. And bless, I've never been on a graveyard ever since I moved to Munich. I used to walk through one on the way home from the train station in the town I lived before I moved to Munich. I've always loved graveyards - apart from the time that someone you know/are close to/etc are being laid down
. Still, they do hold a certain kind of fascination even then.
And this graveyard... ever since I put my feet over threshold, I seemed to be in a different world.
I stood there and gaped before I made my feet walk on.
It was... stunning, to say the least.
Green, everything green, despite it being late in autumn, everything so damn green... apart from the leaves on the path - those were dried, brown autumn leaves. And the trees were so huge...
Many of the engravings and writings seemed as if they had been washed away by time long long ago...
On the gravestones, everything overgrown, savaged. Some monuments were even totally overgrown, like the one in the wall here.
At one point I just stood and gaped, the wind rustled through the crowns of the trees and made them shed bright yellow leaves. If I could just have captured one of those moments...
I took closer looks at the dates, when it was possible to read them at all. Most of the oldest gravestones in that area seemed to be dated about 1920... I had actually pulled out my dictaphone to record that amazing find, and just as I said that most of the graves there seemed to be around that date, I found one that was dated back to the 1860ies. I was... flabbergasted. That whole graveyard seemed to be such a perfect scene right from a vampire movie I tell you... and everything so quit... still... and so huge, that the sounds either were swallowed by the thick leafage of the trees, or vanished in the amplitude.
Some graves were damaged, some destroyed. By age, or by war... who knew. I took a right turn... passed a huge stone well... looking out over the scene, the overgrown graves, the leaves rustling down, I suddenly got goose bumps. Yeah, I loved it that much... It was just... wow.
I liked this monument here... A, I only took pictures of gravestones and monuments at the beginning of my 'journey'. As to why, further down.
I don't know exactly why I find them that attractive, though I'm pretty sure once I started, I might be able to write an essay... a long one.
It seems that this one is dated back to 1876 ... yet, you can still read most parts of it. There were some that were totally illegible. Some 'stones' even had changed over time... seemingly made out of concrete. There were one or two.
I reached this here... o lo. Color amidst all the green and wild. Most of the graves are untended to an extend I'm sure that there hasn't been anyone there to look after it for, well, at least a century.
This was the last picture I took of the graveyard, though there were a lot of other fascinating images. I'd love to go back soon, when the weather is as fine as it was that day.
The thing is, I wasn't all alone... there was a man, I'd say in his 50ies, with long, silver hair and a huge beard, who'd been stepping from grave to grave, taking pictures of some with a huge camera. I wondered whether he was a professional photographer, or a scientist of some kind. He looked it.
At one point, he was in front of me, walking towards and past me, and as is me, I smiled at him. He smiled back - a very amiable, warm smile - and I knew it would happen before it happened... I wanted it to happen anyway. After a couple of steps, I heard him turn around, and walk back to me. I grinned.
"Are you interested in graveyards because them being graveyards, or from a historical point of view, or...?" And there we started talking. ... We, or rather ~he~ spent about an hour walking through the graveyard, talking. He's a historian... his area of expertise being Munich's history... he knew so much about which is who's grave and where exactly said person has their street in Munich *laughs* I just made conversational noises most of the time, or nodded or shook my head when he asked me whether I knew who this or that person was, or if I've heard the name before, or the street... There were a lot of situations in which he told me things like "x's street is leading right from the street 1 that goes between street 2 and 3, with that large white building on the right side, that is shaped like this and that..." Unfortunately, I only know some parts of Munich 'well' and ... most not at all so hahaha xD~ Oh but it was very interesting.
He told me some stories... and I told him of my studies... and of VK *laughs out loud* The most fun is, I was just talking about it... or well, I had been, then he started telling me things again, and just then we passed a bench, on which a guy and a girl sat... I grinned at her and chuckled. They were looking at some pictures on a cam, and she smiled back. A couple of steps later, he asked me how he should interpret my grinning and chuckling right then. I laughed and told him that that girl in fact is "one of those that like the same kind of music as I do" hahaha... and that I'd seen her on concerts a couple of times ago xDDD
Isn't it terrible.. there you think you're all alone... more or less... on a graveyard, and WHAT do you encounter? A visu. AHAHAHAHA... *laughs* Aaaanywa~y...
Next to showing me graves of some of the late kings' men, he told me how a factory exploded by accident some time ago... I don't remember whether it was in the 1800s... I think so. A whole family had died in the flames, so he showed me the grave - there's no writing to be seen anymore, nothing. But well... once you know, you know. You just have to know. ^ ^"
It was close to that grave where a huge tree had sort of 'split' two graves... I would have loved to take a picture of it, but didn't when I was with Michael. Because... as I was lucky... I had been inconspicuously recording myself before he started talking to me... and just let it run while he showed me around... so I have about 40 minutes of his lecture on my dictaphone *laughs* It's great... so great *laughs* Well, in case I go back and happen to pass that area, I would take a picture of it. The tree had grown right out from between them, and the graves were both leaning to the sides... great.
And one time we passed a grave... with a huge huge tree (I think it was an ash tree, but I'm not sure right now) growing right out of the grave. He laughed and told me of one of Valentin's anecdotes... (He's a known German comedian before my time. There's the Karl Valentin museum in Munich... I've been to it when I was a child, and loved it. I laughed it, too xD) ... in combination with "Hmm, have no idea, that tree hadn't been there yesterday" haha... Well, he made me look at the tree and guess how long the grave had been there... a long long time, I dare say.
He showed me a gravestone 'they' are quite proud of - it was from the time of the French Revolution... and is dated back to ... well, he said "Ah well, I'm sure your French isn't that bad, so I'll let you translate it yourself... and you tell me whether you notice something" Oh lol, my French xDDD... Well, but it's enough for a gravestone lol. And it said down there, that the General had been laid down in the grave ... the 23. November... of Year 9...
Holy sheesh. Yeah... there aren't that many tombs around here, or Germany... well... at least not HERE in Germany, that are dated in that way ne O_O So yeah... from the point of view of a historian, a great thing, and totally to be proud of. *nods*
He told me lots of Munich's history in connection with the graves... or well, the history of the people. I don't remember any details though. I'm more the visual and haptic learner anyway it seems *laughs* yes I must touch Jrockers to learn about their music ahahaha...*cough* No but seriously ... *thinks* I have to touch someone to know more about them.... .... ... *smirk*
I remember that he asked me whether I'd recognize something about one monument... there was a huge angel in the middle of it, and to the sides two busts - a male, and a female one. The face of the dead woman... was the face of the angel. She was sitting model for her own gravestone-angel. ... Or lying model....
Anyway, we spent about an hour walking through the graveyard. I would have spent more time there with him, if it hadn't been for my job... I really had to deliver the keys =__=' And my boss had already messaged me twice. Not about the keys, about today... where I would have to work today, ne. And then, there was a message by Ruks as well just a bit before I was about to leave... he laughed "oh well, are you some Miss VIP..." ... "LOL nooouu... I usually don't get that many messages haha..." XD~
Well so I said good bye... I got his number, just in case I'd want to meet up (at the graveyard whoooohoo) some other time, or to listen to Munich's history... and so on, ne. I went to Lidl then... it took me a bit more than 20 minutes to get there I think... and then as I walked back, I passed this playground.
Look at that little girl in pink...
I love this second picture, taken just a couple of seconds after the first one ... I just put the other first to have you follow her gaze. I love it when kids play... like that.. in autumn. Reminds me of myself. I always loved autumn. Running around between the leaves, playing with them...
I walked on then, and took a picture of an old man walking his dog...
And trees...
I took a couple more pictures, am just posting these. ^---^
Ahhh I love meeting people just like that... especially elder people. Getting to know a different life, from a different time... life-stories are stories I always find interesting.
Oh yes ... I asked him when the graveyard had been build - there hadn't been anyone put to rest there ever since 1944, I know as much. And it had been built/started in 1743. ... originally it had been set up to host the dead ones from the Black Death. O-O"
1543...
Amazing... o----O