Distance: 1.5 miles
This morning I paid a visit to an old friend. His name is Ludwig… Ludwig van
Beethoven. I met him on a stroll
through Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery). I was pleased to see that he was accompanied by his friends
Franz Shubert, Joseph Strauss I, Johannes Brahms, among others. I had taken the U3 out to its last stop
and jogged the rest of the way out to the cemetery, which lies on the outskirts
of the city and is absolutely massive.
It’s nearly a square mile (2.4 square kilometers) and more people are
buried here than any other cemetery in Europe. It even has its own bus line! The central “avenue” of the
cemetery is lined with the “Ehrengräber,” or honorary graves – graves of famous
composers, poets, authors, political figures, and generally anyone the city
deemed important. I came to see
the composers and the old Jewish section of the cemetery, which has an eerie
sort of beauty to it.
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| Beethoven's grave |
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| Memorial to Mozart - he's buried at nearby St. Marx cemetery |
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| Brahms |
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| Johann Strauss II's grave |
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| Church in the middle of the cemetery |
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| Jewish Cemetery |
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| Jewish Cemetery |
After a couple hours exploring the cemetery, I went back to
the hostel to meet up with Curtis (he had gone to the Schönbrunn Palace Gardens
while I went to the cemetery) before leaving to catch our Student Agency bus to
Prague. We pulled into Prague around 10:30pm and simply took the metro
to our hostel, which happened to be at the end of Wenceslas Square. We’ll be here for a couple nights
before my parents and sister fly in on the 26th.
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