Strange Place #1
When I was seven years old, my family moved to Baden bei Wien (near Vienna), Austria for six months as part of a travel study program. My parents gave my older brother and me a pretty long leash. I remember walking into town with Mike to go to the Rosarium (a beautiful park with rose gardens and a lake), up into the mountains where two old castles were crumbling into ruins and all around the walking part of town.
But the strangest place I was drawn to in Baden was the old cemetery that was nestled at the foot of the mountains. I remember asking a man who was part of our group if he would go walk there with me one day. He kindly agreed, and I can now only imagine what surprise he must have felt at such an odd request.
The cemetery was unlike anything you’d find in my childhood town of Orem, Utah. The tombstones demanded respect at first glance. Their age and history humbled me and made me see my own life in a larger perspective. The names fascinated me the most, since they were so unlike what I was familiar with in the United States.
Postscript: I just found this website that really "took me back." Please go look at the gallery of pictures of this beautiful little corner of the world: http://www.baden-bei-wien.at/english.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment