still colonial

[ewein2412]

Perth is celebrating its 800th birthday this year. Uh huh. I live in a city that has had a royal charter for 800 years--as a Yank this pretty well boggles my brain. For Perth's birthday party there is going to be a big parade and both my kids are marching in it--one as a Girl Guide and one as a Cub Scout. I've known this for a while, but what I hadn't taken on board was that the parade is in honor of the Queen's visit.

My kids are going to be in uniform, parading for the Queen!

How did I get here?

Comments

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hear ya. It just never stops being surreal, does it!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Wow...that's pretty amazing. The city I live is is just over 100...

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

That is so surreal. Your kids are going to be parading for the Queen! You might see the Queen! And your city is four times older than the US!

[(Anonymous)]

Leipzig is almost 200 years older! You are right to point out how weird this all is. I just take for granted that the Leipzig trade fair is old, but first established in 1165?! The university had its 600th anniversary last year. The mind boggles.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Heh ^^.

The little market town my parents still live in turned 800 about 20 years ago, but because that's not such an unusual age over here - and because we don't have a queen - the celebrations where at local level.

So you've picked a good place to experience historical age.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Well I did live near the Limes Romanicus, so that's an advantage, surrounded by loads of old villages, towns and cities.
Limes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limes)

[ewein2412]

thanks for that cool link--we are actually at the eastern end of that northern british line! There is even a Roman fort here in Perth. I had no idea that the Romans had been this far north until we moved here.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I grew up with all of this, so it was never very noteworthy until my physics teacher discovered an as yet unmatched set of temple decorations and statues hidden in the earth when the Germans overran the Limes. Our history teacher who was also the city archiver negotiated with the Bavarian state that WUG would get the statues back into its own museum, if the physics teacher sold the treasure to the state (since he allegedly hadn't dug for it, but wanted to make a new asparagus field on land that he owned near the Roman baths, it was his scot-free).

So that was amazing and has brought lots of tourists to Weißenburg since
Römer und Limes - Weißenburg (http://www.weissenburg.info/roemer/)
If you click on the statue picture you get a bigger version of one of the many statues discovered and can see what an amazing quality workmanship they are.

[ewein2412]

I should correct myself--there *was* a fort in perth. there aren't any visible remains.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the fort can't be seen anymore and that's why I didn't see it when I was there. I have never seen Greek or Roman ruins, which is a continual dissapointment to me. (Although, not going to Troy was a conscious choice on my part.)

[ewein2412]

where I *really* should have sent you was Hadrian's Wall. If you come here again I will take you there.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

It appears to have eaten my comment. I already had Hadrian's wall on my list of things I missed and will do next time (also on the list are Stratford and Cambridge). And you did send me to Mull, I had been very determined on islands.