Going Nomad |
Just after Christmas, I went to Europe with a friend. She sent me a text while I was at the grocery store, saying "would you like to go to Czech Republic around Christmas to watch the Canadians play [ice] hockey in the world championships?" I replied "sure." And so we did. One of my favourite baristas at my local coffee shop asked for a few stones from my trip. I collected five, and here are their stories. The first pebble comes from the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. Most people buried here were Canadians (2339 Canadian graves), and in the entrance to the cemetery is a memorial wall that commemorates the names of 1047 missing men, 942 British, 102 Canadians, two South Africans, and one British airman. In front of the graves stands the 'Stone of Remembrance' with the text: 'Their Name Liveth For Evermore'.. The second pebble is from Prague, Czech Republic, where I met St. John of Nepomuk. The story goes that he was thrown into the river Vltava after refusing to speak during an interrogation that was ordered by King Wenceslas IV, perhaps because the king was curious about the confessional secrets of the King’s wife Sophie (which she had shared with John of Nepomuk). After he refused to speak, he was tossed over the bridge and plunged to his death (although it was later revealed that he had been hit on the head before being tossed over), and his statue is located where he was thrown into the river. It is said that when his body surfaced, five starts appeared around his face, and this is how his statue is portrayed on the Charles River. St. John of Nepomuk is now the patron saint of all things water and as such, I touched the base of the statue for good luck as I prepare to swim Skaha lake in British Columbia, the largest lake in the Netherlands, called Ijsselmeer, and from Alcatraz to San Fran. The third is from the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic. This picture shows one of 27 crosses that are incorporated in the pavement to commemorate 27 lords and citizens who had been part of the Czech uprising (1618-1620) against the then ruling Habsburg dynasty. The nonconformists were defeated and 27 anti-Habsburg leaders were publicly executed. Pebble #4 comes from Ostrava, where we went to cheer on the Canadians in the 2020 Junior World Hockey Tournament. The atmosphere was incredible ($2 pints helped) and there appeared to be more Canadians in the arena than opposing team fans. The fifth and final one is from a terrain that holds two dolmens, or hunnebedden. These prehistoric graves (5000+ years old), built by peasant tribes, are found only in the northern province of Drenthe. The graves are made with enormously large stones (up to 40 tons each) that were brought here in the ice age. Fifty-four of these graves still exist.
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