The One with Mattighofen, Austria

When my parents decided to come to Germany my dad did some research to see what he'd like to do while here. He's big into recreational vehicles (motorcycles, ATVs, seadoos, skidoos, etc) and he found where KTM motorcycles are manufactured in Austria and requested I set him and my mom up to go on a tour through the factory. Done and done!

Thursday morning we drove 3.5 hours to the quaint town of Mattighofen, Austria.

Mattighofen is a town in the district of Braunau am Inn, part of the Innviertel region, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Initially Mattighofen belonged to Bavaria that became a part of Francia. In 757 a Kaiserpfalz (palace) of the ruling Carolingian dynasty was documented here. On the Frankfurt synod of 1007 Emperor Henry II granted the Mattighofen estates to the newly created Bishopric of Bamberg. It was acquired by the House of Wittelsbach in the 16th century and affected by the War of the Bavarian Succession after which it passed to the Archduchy of Austria according to the 1779 Treaty of Teschen. Mattighofen received town privileges in 1986.

It was a cold and rainy day when we dropped my parents off at the KTM factory. Kids under 12 aren't allowed on the tour because they get up close and personal with the machinery and teeny tiny parts. Just not an age appropriate activity. What oh what were we to do in the freezing rain?

Well. We braved the rain. First we went into a bakery and got some pretzels. And an umbrella.

Then we found a toy store a couple stores down. Woohoo! That occupied Fox and Jane for a good 45 minutes. When we felt we'd outstayed our welcome we headed back out.

Old palace turned school.

Like most European towns we've been to, there's a church at the end of the road.

All around the church were graves. We like that life continued on with the plants and flowers growing on top.

Inside the church.

There's nothing about this town or church in our Rick Steves books and I can't find anything on quick google searches. But that doesn't make it any less pretty or spiritual!

Details of the ceilings inside the church.

Such an interesting sculpture.

Mattighofen. Colorful, quaint, cute.

The two hours were up before we knew it! While we waited for Malm and Dald to finish their tour, Chris unloaded and repacked the car and Fox and Jane ate apples in the back. Cutie patooties!

We hopped back in the car and made our way to Munich/München!

World's longest post coming up next documenting our trip to Munich!