Pleasant and as fascinating as the castle itself, the intact Old Town of Burghausen.
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Innsbruck Graz
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INNVIERTEL
„ eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh: mir san de schenan Zwee- eh, eh, eh, eh, eh eh- mia zwa san schee!“ These two lines, more shouted than sung from the bottom of one’ s lungs, are for me the epitome of the zest for life you encounter in the Innviertel. Somehow it sounds archaic and abounding with joy. I’ m inclined to compare this Innviertel refrain with yodeling in the mountains, but in the Innviertel, life doesn’ t play out in a harsh mountain world, but rather in the broad fields of flat, fertile countryside, through which glides the now tamed River Inn.
With its six courtyards, Burghausen’ s castle was Europe’ s strongest fortification in the Middle Ages.
“ The Inn begins at Maloja pass, 66 glacial streams feed into it”- I learned many years ago in our local history class at Schärding elementary school. How wide- and yet how small the world of my childhood was back then! The Inn forms the border with Bavaria. What that meant in those days was apparent from the border gate at the Inn bridge, though we had always maintained a friendly relationship with our German neighbors: between“ drent und herent”, in other words: between“ this side and that side” of the Inn.
The liquid nutrition of this area is beer. Countless breweries produced this“ care dimming” beverage. Who knows how many cozy inns and pubs can be found in those colorful towns on the banks of the Inn! I have often asked myself, whether a landscape as fruitful as this also shapes the spirit of the people who live here? My answer is that, despite political turmoil( the Innviertel only became a part of Austria in 1776), the prosperity of the people was always somewhat assured, and they always had an appreciation for the harmony of life in a community of wealthy small towns and self-confident villages!
Born an Innviertel native, I have kept this convivial joie de vivre, even though life has since led me elsewhere …
Mag. Irene Schweiger was a middle-school teacher and she now lives in Grossgmain.
Healing waters bubble up from the ground in Bad Füssing.