Linz - an afternoon walk

After a morning nap and lunch we decided to walk down to the Danube River and back. By the way, if you want to read about Linz, here is a link. Many famous people were born or lived here. One of the less distinguished was Adolph Hitler who grew up here. He had to do it somewhere.

Offsetting Hitler were the mathematician Kepler and the composer Bruckner.

I enjoy taking photos of old buildings, particularly if they have interesting colours. Since Linz has a very good public transport system, there are tram and trolley wires everywhere. 

Interesting blue.

We returned to the busy shopping street we had walked down the previous night and these girls on unicycles passed us.

The Ursulinenkirche. If you can read German, then here is a description.

There was some sort of festival with numerous street actors performing all along the street.

A square close to the river.

Eventually we reached the Danube.

The Danube is Europe's second longest river. In Germany and Austria it is known as the Donau. On this particular day, it was not looking particularly blue.

The local town hall. No doubt it won all sorts of architectural awards but I am not too enthused.

In front of the Rathaus was a stage where anyone could get up and perform. The audience was minuscule.

A museum in a former castle that I suspect we will visit.

We might do the boat ride while we are here. Stay tuned.

It's not that easy to find out what happened to Linz in WWII or the following years. The notorious concentration camp Mathausen was built a few miles down stream. After the war, Austria was partitioned into four parts, with most of Linz in the American zone and the part on the north side of the Danube in the Russian zone. From what I can make out,  initially the crossing point was not in Linz but near Mathausen at the Enns bridge. However a crossing point was established here.

Flowers at one end of the bridge.

A small tram. The other trams are much longer and run every few minutes through the city.

There are quite a few arcades leading off the main drag. 

Traditional Austrian dress.

It was getting very warm when the sun came out so we rested in a cool courtyard for a while.

People up in the church tower.

The Anton Music Theater. Although it is named after Anton Bruckner, it seems to be more of an opera hall than a concert hall. Bruckner is famous for his symphonies and some motets and there is a concert hall by the river with his name.

It was quite hot and humid by the end of our walk so it was good to get back to the apartment and drink a glass of cold beer (0.49 euros for a 0.5 liter can).

The only thing that kept poor Marianne going was the idea of a delicious dessert after dinner. We went into a spiffy cake shop and came out with the following.

I was amazed at how much better she looked when she walked out of the shop with these two pieces of cake, each about 3 euros. We just tasted the right hand piece and it was delicious.