Death sentence: 25 yrs. only

This week has been a little quieter and less filled with international travel. I got slightly sick which crippled my ability to get out, explore and cause chaos.

Due to my moping and feeling less than average, we decided to explore the city of Neustadt an der weinstrasse (current location of residence).

This fortnight there is a wine festival on that encompasses drinking new wine and 'old' wine (which is just wine), eating bratwurst and singing along to very germanic songs that all sound the same to me (but I'm told thats just because I don't know the words). After some much loved people watching and admiring the multiple German Mullets, the leopard print 80's suit and a lady who decided white snakeskin leggins were the best way to get attention, we turned our attention to going for a walk in the graveyard.

Now the graveyard has been something I've wanted to go to for a while. When you drive past a German cemetry, its the most colourful and structured garden you have ever seen. Germans take massive pride in looking after their deceased burial grounds and it astounded me on how fancy their tombstones could actually get. Flowers, statues (of either Jesus, Mary, Cupid and more), lit candles, stone carved momentos, multiple potted plants and sometimes even a miniature tree is planted on each persons lot in memory.

The photo doesn't do justice and although I didn't get the strongly religious ones in this picture, they were the most extravagant.

I wondered how they could all remain so well looked after, so shiny, for so long… It turns out, the graves only are on 'rented' property and you get kicked out of your hole once your family no longer pays the rent. I read this very interesting article below, and it seems they do things a little differently here - quoted "Contrary to many other countries, where final resting places are traditionally maintained in perpetuity, Germany recycles cemetery plots after a period of 15 to 25 years. Experience has shown that the earthly remains of the deceased rot away almost entirely in this amount of time, but only under favourable soil conditions." It goes on to tell you about the bodies in less than favourable soil…

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,527134,00.html

What I want to know, if you choose to be buried, do you care if your dead and exhumed? No one will come to see you or look after your plot once relatives & loved ones die out themselves anyway… Or would we like to keep our little piece of ground forever to leave some mark on earths ground that we were once here?