Claimed

As a child I must have heard and read the story of the sleeping beauty at least a hundred times. I remember being incredulous about a whole castle being covered with hedges and thorns while the royalties slept deeply. I did not have troubles imagining the whole lot sleeping for 100 years (and not growing old in the meantime!), it was the excessive growth of the vegetation that I just couldn't picture. Well, in Iceland the plants just don't grow that fast! Living in Italy has taught me how incredible the growthrate of the greenery can be. A good example is the greek city of Pestum, just south of Napoli, which was abandoned in the middle ages and completely overgrown by vegetation, temples included. It was only in the 18th century that it was rediscovered. Imagine that! Todays blip is just a small-scale overgrowth: the woods have claimed a bench on the path by the river!