We're back from Bohemia

Whew!  What an incredible trip.  My sister and I just got home from a trip to Europe (Rome, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany).  We visited Heinz and Melitta Binder in Heidenreichstein, Austria, and they took us on a whirlwind tour of the villages our Heschs came from 145 years ago.  Heinz is a dedicated family history buff and Melitta is tolerant.  We had a delightful time!

I expect you'd like to see some pics?

Schamers or Cimer.  It was the central market town
where our ancestors would have traded for things they couldn't make.

Marion and Heinz outside a Binder house on  Schamers' north side.
Check a following post about this...

The house was a farm house with a gate from the front leading into a
courtyard/protected enclosure formed by the barn & walls and the neighbors' barn & walls.
There was a gate in back as well, leading to the fields.
BTW, the pretty bunches of corn cobs are probably chicken feed.  In America, we used corn cribs, but here,
hanging is more efficient since the crop is smaller and there are fewer animals to feed.  I wondered
cuz its already February--practically spring--and the rafters looked full yet.  But maybe they purchase chicks
in April, then they have a nice supply of food all ready when they are.
(Thanks to Su for making sense of it ☺)

I was delighted to go into the courtyard of a couple of the houses there.
You could easily see how the space was used back then.

I'm pretty sure this was outside behind the second gate
of the farm house below.

Heinz standing in the narrow courtyard between houses.  That's the front gate beyond him.
See the green house, and warm-colored building behind
 him?--they're the Binder houses.

Below, the same house in two different photos: evidently, the house to the left was replaced by the larger fancy roof building that's there now.  (Su wrote and explained that the middle house, below, was removed and the two story building was built by three Binder sibs as a place they could retire.  It was finished in 1896). The B&W photos were found in Josef Binders' book on Schamers (published in 1908, in Prague).

Above is the  alte (old) house #42 and below right is the fancy new haus.  I believe the green house with the St Joseph statue is #40 (which only makes a diff to us when we're checking the church books).

The Binder house, #42, with a statue of St Joseph
still embedded in the wall., as it was
 around 1900, above.

The cool connection here has to do with a Wanek relative--when we got to Neuhaus (Jindrichuv Hradec), Heinz and Melitta took us to a restaurant (above) right across from the entrance to the castle, in Dobrovskeho Square.  The restaurant owners are Libor Rostik and his wife Iva Rostikova...who are also the restorers of the building

we're standing in front of, above  left. 

 A lovely couple, the food was savory and delicious at the restaurant,and the house in Schamers is lovely...check it out!

Here's the farmhouse at Schamers #40 if you can't translate that page ☺.  Here's a photo of the inside; it has vaulted ceilings, tile floors and a sweet outdoor area that would have been the farmyard once.  It's beautiful.