How Many Graveyards Has Raph Visited?

[Leonardo]

Many of us know how much Raph loves to visit graveyards aka cemetaries. And collecting weird things like Living Dead Dolls and stuff.
Right now, Raph is planning on visiting 5 or more graveyards on just the upcoming London trip! So this lead those of us on #tmnt mIRC to wondering, how many has Raph deliberately sought out to visit, often on vacations.
And this lead me to deciding to set up a poll.
 

This poll does not count future visits, but how many Raph has visited as in past tense.
 

[Raphael]

Darn you, Leo...you forced me to sit down and actually count how many cemeteries I've visited over the years.  

And count I have....

Made a list, too.

Gotta love the NSMMD...very helpful memory jogger that one is.

[Aignatius]

Knowing Raph is a taphophile, I'd guess over 41.  

The graveyards in England are amazing places... not to mention some are downright creepy. Visited so many graveyards there one day, I couldn't sleep that night. Then there's the ancient burial mounds, and the barrows. Brrrr.  

[Raphael]

I'm having a hard time finding any old cemeteries, Aig!  Everything is from the 19th century - Victorian style.  I've found older cemeteries here and in New England.

I know that they must have old cemeteries in England...they're just not so obvious to locate.

[Aignatius]

Really? Oddly enough, there were a number in the more rural areas that dated back to the 1600s, but those are few and far between I guess, because back then the commoners were tossed into a big pit... you had to have some pull with the church or a lot of money to actually have a grave. There was a time we were visiting some abbey, and nearby was an archaelogical dig happening at the time, which was halted for a while because they were digging in the front of the church yard and came upon a huge mass of human bones. They were extracting the bones and stacking them on tarps... was creepy to watch. All those bones... there had been a priest that did a prayer over them, out of respect, since it was on abbey property.
Then there's the battlefields with mass graves nearby. They were often noticeable because it was in the form of a mound.
Then over in Spain a lot of the graveyards were leased and as long as the family and descendants could keep forking over the money to keep the family grave site, the bones stayed. But sometimes the family had no money and the bones were exhumed to make room for someone else, and put into a common plot. My step-bros said they would find the rags of sometimes really old fashioned clothing, and shoes all curled up from being buried for a long time, over at the landfill outside of the town... they were the clothing of the people that had been buried, that were tossed out when the bones were moved. Needless to say, that weirded them out.  Gah.

[Michaelangelo]

Heh the real question is how many is going to be added to Raphers already long list after this trip? *G*

[Leonardo]

Wonder if we should write a fan fic about this....and maybe combine it with something else?
Raph in the Graveyard with the Spiders of Doom
hm, sounds like a Clue game solution.

I am going to guess Raph visits at least 5 new graveyards on the London trip.
 

[Raphael]

Sadly, we were nowhere near 5 cemeteries at the end of the trip. We had more on the list, but a bit of an 'issue' with one of the first ones we were heading to kinda killled it for the rest.

However, I should revise my response in the Thread Killer discussion...just thought of something...

[Ninjara]

The wait for this story on the graveyards is going to kill me.  Figure of speech, dear.  You should be so lucky.

   Hurry up already, will ya, Raph?

    Were you able to at least do the month count and see if we're all croakin' within four months of our birthdays?

[Raphael]

Ok, the cemetery story...

First, for the count:
1) St Olave's, near the Tower of London. Not huge, maybe 6 stones?  We were more interested in the gates, which looked cool.  Dickens referred to it as "The Churchyard of the Ghastly Grim".
2) Churchyard of St James' Church, in Avebury - a Saxon church, we managed to find a stone dating back to the 1500s. Our tour guide informed us that there aren't a lot of older stones in England, there are more in Scotland.
3) Saw the churchyard of another Saxon church while on that tour, but didn't get out to check it out.
4) Highgate Cemetery, in London. This was the 1/2 cemetery. See, it's divided into two sections, the East & West. The East Cemetery is a tad more overrun, still in use in spots, and contains the grave of Karl Marx.  You can wander through it, upon paying a few pounds to get in and for a camera fee.

The West Cemetery is supposed to be quite cool, lots of amazing funerary art and architecture. They only allow people in for the guided tour - once a day on week days, hourly on weekends. We went on a Saturday. As we approached the gates, the woman (I shan't call her a lady) at the gate directed our attention to the sign with the list of 'rules'. The website says that people should be dressed 'appropriately'. Well, in this case, appropriately means 'no bare shoulders'. My friend had dressed for the weather, which was sunny and warm that day, and was wearing a tank top. Not with bra strap revealing straps, or spaghetti straps, but it was still too much revealed. We were refused admittance.

First time I've heard of a dress code for a graveyard.

It wasn't so much that we didn't get in that was annoying though, it was the person at the gate. The one who, after directing our attention to the sign, said "The East Cemetery is across the street. You can go there." in a haughty snooty voice. So, we did go across the street, met some nice people at the gate there, saw a number of others with bare shoulders, and took lots of pics.

I also took a pic of the entrance to the West Cemetery, in defiance of the crankypuss at the gate there.  

It was like Shredder was up to something in teh cemetery and posted a guard to keep people out...  Hee hee hee...

So, there you have it...the 1/2 cemetery story.

Ninjara, for the stones we did get to see, I didn't really notice much correlation between birth/death dates. A lot of them didn't have the full dates or, as was the case of St Olave's & St James', the stones were mostly unreadable.

[Leonardo]

Raph, Raph, Raph...why didn't you just wear your Nightwatcher armoUr there?
Sheesh. Really. Causing trouble with bare shoulders!!!
     

Yes, I read your story and know what really happened but this makes for funny comments.

I've heard of dress codes when visiting churches, but interesting they'd have one for a graveyard.
At least it sounds like your typical type of adventure!
 

[Raphael]

Heey! It wasn't my shoulders causing the issue!

And I suspect that the Nightwatcher armoUr (which would have been the proper spelling there) would have torqued off the Guardian of the Gates too. I think she wanted everyone dressing in Victorian clothes or something...

Yes, kicked out of a Beatles' store...refused admittance into a cemetery...typical.

At least they let us into Yorkminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey & Bath Abbey...

[Nightwatchersonlygirl]

Raphael when you come to London wear your Nightwatcher suit                

Just for me        

[Danceingfae]

On the subjects of graveyards Raph, would you count a catacomb as a graveyard or not?

Even if you don't there's one in Palermo, Sicily that I've been to. Our school took us on a field trip there it was a blast! I should find some pictures from then and put them up.

[Raphael]

Yep, usually catacombs are part of a graveyard, and contain bodies, so it'd qualify, Fae. At least, in my mind.

And, yes, you should find some pictures!!  I'd love to see 'em. Haven't been in a catacomb yet - one of the cemeteries we had planned to visit last year has a tour that goes into the catacombs (on specific days), but, after the debacle with the odious woman at Highgate, we ended up not going to Kensal Green.