In my father's hometown of Altheim

It was a packed day. We got an early start from Braunau - it was Sunday morning and nobody was about, except for bikers. There were actually lots of bikers. As a matter of fact, much of the tourism in this area seems to be set up for bikers, there's loads of trails and markers and restaurants with signs saying how bike friendly they are.

For the first time, we actually hit some rain while biking. The first time the rain came down we sheltered in some trees.

But later on, when the rain got pretty steady, we just biked through it. The things in our yellow dry bags should stay dry, and for everything in our daypacks, I put them in a garbage bag that I'd brought with for this purpose. Low tech, but it seemed to work okay.

We passed two old castles/palaces on the way to Altheim, Frauenstein and another one that I can't remember. Frauenstein is now some kind of wellness center. Here's a few picture from along the way.

A fancy treehouse 

The beginning of the Roemerradweg - Roman bike trail. It has all kinds of fancy benches and signs

This old tree is a "Naturschutzdenkmal" - or natural memorial

Arriving in Altheim

Later on we arrived at the Hotel Zillner, which was just a 100 ft or so away from where my aunt and uncle used to live. The lady at the hotel, whose name is also Sylvia, said she remembered me from when I was visiting my aunt and uncle, when I was growing up.

We had lunch at the Gasthaus Wurmhoeringer (they also own a beer company), where there was a large 90th birthday celebration, so service was a little slow. One relative delivered a long, very loudly delivered (the birthday boy was probably quite deaf) poem on the occasion, all about "how did you get so old, it can't be because you don't smoke and drink, because you do".

Later on we walked around town, past the site of my aunts house, which has been torn down. The  beer factory that was there has been extended onto the old home site. Kinda sad to see it all disappeared.

This is the site of my aunt and uncle's house, now an extension of the factory

I remember this old building from across the street

This building, now empty, was originally a tiny grocery, then a store that sold electrical supplies, then a social services office

Then we went to the Ochzethaus, which is a musuem of the Roman era, based on some excavations of old Roman country homes not too far away. There was nobody there, even though it was past 2, and was supposed to be opened then. Another lady that came with her family called the number given, and the guy who headed the organization that sponsored this museum came over and unlocked it, and led us through it. It turns out that he had been taught by my aunt, and also had gone to school with my cousin Erich.

There was a dress-up area in the museum, where kids could dress up in Roman costumes

Then we went to the St. Laurentz church and graveyard, and found my fathers grave, and my aunt and uncle, and my paternal grandparents. My father's name was Alois - it's amazing (based on looking at the gravestones) how many men born around that time were called Alois, and how many women were Aloisia.

Here's a few more pictures from around town.

The river Ache

The school where my aunt taught

One of the two beer breweries in this town

The little hut in the plot of land that my aunt and uncle owned

From the bridge, looking up to the town.

For dinner that night we went to the local Chinese restaurant. Many, many people came in to get take-out, it seemed really similar to in the US. I guess Austria is behind the US in terms of eating habits, but it's certainly catching up quickly.

Later on in the evening the hotel owner Sylvia called on the room phone, and asked if we have everything we needed, and when I said we were good, she invited me to chat over a glass of wine. I had a nice conversation with her, in my very rusty German, talking about all kinds of things.