A hot day in Carnuntum.

You didn't read that wrong.  I didn't mean to say something like,  "A hot conundrum".
No,  Carnuntum is a town just to the east of us here in Wienerland,  that was once a Roman settlement.
Since we absolutely did not want to sit here in the apartment all day,  even though it was nicely air conditioned,  we thought we'd head out and find Carnuntum.

Sort of sounds like some sort of quest.  "Well dear,  I'm off to find Carnuntum!"

Right.

Don't hurt yourself.


One thing that I do tend to appreciate about being in Europe (and yes,  I do appreciate living in Europe)  is the depth of history that one can discover.  I'm sure it's going to spoil me for the rest of my life,  since I'll be poo-pooing everything in North America that's anything less than 300 years old.

Maybe older.

Carnuntum was at its hayday in something like 300 A.D.   Um...that's more or less 1700 years ago.
So as much as I respect and appreciate a place like Louisbourg, it's really rather "new" in the european scheme of things.
Admittedly,  checking out some dinosaurs in Alberta might do it for me,  but somehow I'm not so sure I'll feel all that engaged.   The Roman empire seems to have had more of a lasting effect in so many more ways.

And yes I realise the diesel fuel I put in the car to get me around is thanks to the dinosaurs,  so fine, I guess they had some sort of "lasting effect",  but you know what I mean.


I still haven't been able to determine just exactly where the original idea came from to start digging where they did.   It seems as well that the more they dig,  the more they find,  even though they have a pretty good idea as to the scope of the settlement.  The process is ongoing.

Carnuntum comes up in the documentation from the time,  but if you saw the "map" they used,  I'm not sure how the heck you'd ever find it again.

 Apparently the archaeologists don't work on the weekends.

Much in a similar fashion to other historical sights most anywhere else in the world,  there's a scheme in place to try and recreate as much of the settlement as practical.

They've gone so far as to use replicas of original tools,  as well as firing the bricks in a kiln that would have been the same as in Roman times.

Sounds like a lot of work.


They even have guys standing around in original costume.  

Those are Roman sandals by the way.


Really.

I'm just going to let you read that bit above,  and you can figure out for yourself why I had to put it in here.  (you need to be the guy at the end with the nuts...)



Now,  since Carnuntum was not only a military encampment but also a civilian village,  it's kind of spread out.
Did I mention it was a hot day?

By the time we had seen the "Open Air Museum",  and read all the information plaques,  and been bitten by a couple mosquitoes,  there was no way in hell we were going to drive on down the road to see much else.

Thankfully,  the tickets that we bought are good for the entire summer.   You'll be seeing more pictures of Carnuntum.   Aren't you excited??


In other "news",  I decided that it was time for a "summer cut" when I went to the hair place on Friday morning.   I'd call it a barber shop,  but that's not true,  it's actually a salon of sorts,  but they do both men and women.  That usually means it's more expensive,  but she charges €14,50 for a haircut.

That's actually not bad for these parts.


Speaking of parts...


Since I don't have the skill level to do what this guy had accomplished (he was sitting in front of us in Church this morning)

....I figured I'd just go with the "Sommer kurz"  cut.

Thankfully for you I don't have a picture of my own ugly mug,  unless you look at the one taken of me at Carnuntum,  but suffice to say I've retired my comb for the summer.







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