There And Back Again

After a recent wonderful holiday in Upper Austria, I thought I'd share some images and thoughts that might be of interest to us as wargamers. 

Vyssi Brod Monastery

This monastery is located just across the Czech border, right on the banks of the Moldau. A bit more info can be found about it here. What struck me was that the Cistercian monasterys are enclosed be very thick walls, making them very strong defensive positions. Secondly was the exterior painted decoration, something that we came to see an awful lot of on our trips out and about.

All the buildings are in the process of restoration, which is taking time as this is still a fully functioning monastery. Post WWII neglect has taken its toll on the buildings as can be seen here.

The restored decoration on the inside of the main entrance, which feel like passing through as castle gateway.

Painted decoration around windows and indeed 'fake' ones are quite common.

Freistadt

A delightful old town that we'd visited before, but one that is remarkable well preserved and, once again, more details can be found here. So many old buildings to enjoy, as well as much of the original defensive walls, towers etc.

The entrance to the Schloss.

A very tall tower that is really hard to get in one shot!

The inner courtyard of the Schloss.

The hauptplatz and the town church. Many of the churches we saw had very decorative tops to them, as in this one.

Painted decoration once again.

Almost every other building had a niche containing and image of Christ or some other Saint, the Virgin Mary etc.

The WWI War Memorial at the church. The plaques top left and right contain the names of the fallen as well, which is quite sobering when you see so many names in one place.

Floral decorations are a constant, with more painted decoration on view.

The old blacksmith's shop on the right, leading to a defensive tower.

Said tower and the small walkway over the dry moat.

A view of the moat, which I think may have been a dry one, as there is only a small stream running nearby the walls.

The inside view of the Bohemian Gate, one of the two main entrances to the town.

The outside view of the Bohemian Gate.

The inside view leading to the Linz Gate.

The outside view of the Linz Gate. Quite a difference in the style and structure of the two gates.

Some of the original walls and the semi-circular tower on the left is for the City Militia, that have a rather cool uniform.

A view of the bridge into the town.

Kefermarkt

We visited so many churches whilst out and about, with all of them having fabulous interiors and, compared to Britain, all being open! This is just one that I was amazed by as, given part of my career involved working with wood, I just stoof in awe of the craftsmenship on display in this altarpiece.

All the main figures are life sized and made by one unknown local craftsman.

Linz

A rarely visited city in Austria, but one that we love as it's so un-touristy, but full of lovely architecture, cafe's, restaurants etc and a great base to explore.

A large model of Linz c.1800, with the Schloss bottom right and the Danube bottom left.

The small bridge leading to the Hauptplatz.

Nice to see how the City's defences were still in existense then and how they were laid out. 

A model of the Pferdebahn, which was a horse drawn railway which ran from Budwies in the Czech Republic, through Freistadt, Linz and ending up in Gmunden.

Loads including beer, salt and people. Part of this ran very close to where we stayed with friends and much of it is still walkable.

A nice display of how a rifle was made.

From memory this was from c. 1895.

A photo of the substantial farm buildings you see everywhere you go. Made from brick or stone and then plastered, if they had the money. One wing was for the family, the other three for animals, hay or whatever wine or juice they were making, depedent upon which area they were located in.

The very wide variety of the traditional costumes right across Austria.

The War Memorial in Linz. Interesting to note it includes action from the SYW, Napoleonic Wars and others.

Another memorial on the City Church, listing those lost in 1848 & 1849.

1859, 1864, 1866 & 1882.

So that's it. A small selection as frankly most of the time I was just enjoying being out and about in beautiful countryside, towns and villages. The trouble was I kept thinking that this terrain is simply impassable or not suitable for military operations, even for Grenzers, or this has good space and room to manouevre etc! You can begin to appreciate this especially as you move into Bohemia or South of the Danube, where to former is more tricky to move in, the latter much, much easier.

What Next?

Still getting back into the swing of things here and with the schools back next week, things should start to pick up on the gaming front. But some rough thoughts as follows:

• Colours wargames show is in the diary.
• Finish off the last action of my Greco-Italian 1940 mini-campaign.
• Make an enclosed farmhouse inspired by the one show above, as it would make a very tough defensive position to game over. I fancy a monastery too, for similar reasons
• To make an Italian hill town, something that I've been wanting to do for years. 
• Maybe to make a small corner piece with defensive walls, representing a larger area of a town, purely for visual effect.

I thinks that's it for now and maybe some of the above might have been of interest to you. As always thanks for reading and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.