History its All Over

Now of course I do not consider myself an expert in travel and certainly not in European travel either so if anyone has comments, suggestions or would even like to make a guest post just let me know. I studied abroad and traveled to many places but never can one man be called a guru on even his own country. People devote their whole lives to knowing only a fraction of what the world is, was and will be. Hence why I mention my second topic as to why people choose to travel to Europe.

2. History - Every country has a story to tell. Even in the Americas where history and time only run back a few hundred years, still there are many things to learn and see. The same goes for Europe with it's rich and supple variety of peoples, wars, cities, religions and politics. A man can spend years upon years just gazing and studying the roman ruins of a single village so how can anyone hope to see all that Europe has to offer in just a few weeks or even months? Now obviously most people do not travel Europe hoping to capture the entirety of history; although some go expecting it with great disappointment. From the fallen pillars of the Acropolis to the (un)buried city of Pompeii, Europe has many historical landmarks from all era's of mankind. Much of Europe was under the rule of Rome one time or another and therefore Roman ruins can be explored in many places. The level of interaction with the ruins varies from the Forum in Rome that is blocked off for only the eyes to see; but on the other hand Pompeii, previously covered due to a volcanic eruption is so well preserved that in order to see any of it you must walk upon the old Roman streets to look upon the houses, temples, forums and bathhouses so common to ancient Roman life. Later in the ages there were Catholic churches and Cathedrals built to withstand the ages; many castles and monasteries in a wide range of European architecture reflecting the very principles of society and morality. The grand palaces and monuments built by victorious emperors. Even the very resting place of great kings and paupers alike. Where else can you enter an old pagan temple built over 2000 years ago and converted into a church many years later? Where else can you experience the history of some of the bloodiest wars ever fought by man? This is certainly a noble reason to visit Europe. You can only learn so much from books and then experience has to take over and teach us the rest.

The history of Europe suprised me very often when I was there. I lived and studied in an old Carthusian monastary with it's chapel dedicated in 1342. Visions of America and the land of the free weren't existent at that time, the place I stayed was truely from the past. The house I grew up in was maybe 120 or 130 years old, that is a big deal here in the US. I always thought about how outdated my old house was, not having central air and still using innefficient heating. Now I knew what an old house truely meant, the Kartause didn't come with central air in the 1300's, it didn't have cable or satelite, it didn't even have a TV when it was built. There were a few cleverly designed "fireplaces" around the building to keep the monks from freezing to death in the winter and that was it. Now my old house in Philadelphia where I grew up, we redid the roof because it was leaking. When I first arrived at the Kartause, we were given a tour above the church. They redid their cealing as well, several times because of heating concerns. We actually climbed above the current cealing and seeing the original higher cealing. Apparently they found that it was too difficult to heat such a lofty room and therefore built the additional cealing below the original. We were even given the chance to peer into the unrenovated portion of the Kartause which was falling apart to a degree that here in America we would just condemn the building and be done with it. There were other changes and things described to us on our tour about the very history and life of the Kartause however there are too many to name and this post is getting very long. I will leave you with a few pictures below to give you an idea of what I described in this post.

Here is the Kartause chapel restored. Picture from Wiki

Here is the second floor in disrepair that we saw coming down from the chapel ceiling