Messe

 A mostly quiet day today. The weather has been drizzly and overcast since yesterday evening. Today is the main reason we came to Europe again, a special mass was held for Christine in St Peters Parish church (Pfarrkirche Sankt Peter). After mass, Uschi caught up with a number of people and remained talking to Karin G till there was no one left in the church at all!

Later we went for a drive in the valley, looking for possible walks for when the weather improved. A good afternoon walk is the St James pilgrimage trail (Jakobusrundweg)at Turnau.

A view from the pension, the sun setting and the clouds clearing after a damp day.

New Years Day

We got up and went across to the church of Aflenz.
This was Uschi's baptismal church. We spent nearly one and a half hours there, including a sneaky climb up the bell tower.

Then we went back to the Hotel for a snooze. Due to a lack of sleep the previous evening we actually slept more than 2 hours and the afternoon light was nearly gone.

Uschi and I then went to the ruin on the hill. It is now locked up and people can't enter it like Uschi did in years gone by.

A mild disappointment.

Sylvester in Aflenz.

The band is wearing the blue socks indicating an historic attachment to Erzherzog Johann



The fireworks and explosions started early in the dark evening. I went outside at about 21:00 and could hear explosive volleys all down the valley. By midnight when we fired off our rockets, there was a crescendo of activity so that I could photograph the effects without knowing who was firing them off. On the way home the road was littered with spent rocket sticks. In the daylight I found 6 sticks in Mitzi's backyard. I don't think any of these were ours. Where ours went, I have no idea