Zurich : Althornbach

Yesterday, April 10th, Christine and I took a drive to Althornbach. I remember so little from the place. My older siblings remember so much more. I was wishing they were there with me so we could recall some of the fun things we did there together. I have only good memories from there, but the again, I was very young. (Well, except for the basement where the big spiders and the heating oil was. That's a different blog.)

Anyway, it took us longer than I'd expected to get there because we kept stopping and getting quasi-lost. Quasi-lost because I'll never admit to getting lost. :) I also forgot my passport and we had to turn around to get it and the camera. As it turned out, I didn't need the passport. They never stopped us either in France or Germany or when coming back through to Switzerland. Go figure...

Anyway, Zweibrucken is much bigger than I remember it. I only remember certain parts like the swimming pool and some of the buildings. We didn't explore Zweibrucken AB at all.

We went through Hornbach. Didn't recognize anything there. We were shocked that we could drive from France to Germany and not even realize it. There was zero passport control and before we knew it, we were in Hornbach. It's _right_ on the border between France and Germany. Anyway, as we were going into Althornbach, I saw a water control building that I recognized. It was basically a little castle looking thing. I remember thinking when I was a kid, why did they go to all that trouble to create such a tiny castle. Anyway, I wished we'd have taken a picture. Christine suggested it, but I was in too much of a hurry.

We got to Althornbach after taking some pictures.

This one is from right outside of Althornbach next to the road in.

I thought it looked a lot like the old Windows XP desktop background.

And here's another one that I liked.

This is the monument to the soldiers from Althornbach that died in world wars. It was different than I remembered it, in a different location and smaller. That's a recurring theme for this visit.

This is the church with the lovely Christine modeling the wall. Again, not what I remembered, but certainly the same one. The monument is to the right. There was also a stream or drainage that ran in a ditch in front of the wall under the road on the right. I didn't remember that either.

This is the farmhouse and barn that's across the street from the church. It's since been renovated quite intensively and has lost some of it's charm. There used to be a little coin operated vending machine in left front of the middle building where I would buy hard and sugar candy. To the right is a parking cover that used to house farming gear and I used to help the farmer there with his milk cows he kept in the barn there.

This is the farm where I spent most of my time. There was a farmer there when we first visited and I tried to talk to him a bit. He was very difficult to understand and had little interest in slowing down for me. I explained that when I was a young boy, I used to play there and drive the tractors. He didn't know anyone named Herbert or Herman, the young man I used to talk to. I wanted to visit his home, but didn't ask. Thought that might have taken it too far. They used to stuff me with all kinds of sausage, potatos and bread here.

Here's another picture from a different angle. That kid could have been me 36 years ago.

I believe this is the house we used to live in. There used to be a bush there that mom would tell me to get a switch from when I'd been misbehaving. I hated that bush! But, it was the only landmark I really remember vividly, so I wasn't absolutely sure this was the house. Again, the house seemed so much closer to the church than I remember.

This is another picture of the house from the back. I knocked on the door and told the people who lived there that I used to live there as a kid. The lady said, "I have no idea what it is you want!"

I said I just wanted to take some pictures of the house. She said OK with a smile and shaking her head like I was crazy.

One last picture of the backyard. It was much like I remember it in terms of size and slope. Of course, the stinging nettle is gone and the little walkway that I fell on and broke open my knee on is gone. They've done a lot of improvements to the property, but I could swear that those bushes on the right were there when we lived there.

Well, is this it? Is this the house you guys? I kept worrying that I wouldn't find it or even remember any of the places, but the old farm was exactly how I remembered it. The town was also.

It was interesting seeing it all with grown up eyes. We were the interest of the town for a few hours as I kept tracing memories through the town. The place I got hit by a car on Leah's bike. The farmhouses where I stuffed myself, helped and played. The old house and some of the roads brought back long lost memories. It was something I'd always wanted to do and in the end, I wasn't dissatisfied.