In which Sid and Doris go to Linz, Austria, by train so Sid can ride along the Danube.
Per ardua ad Austria. (If you don’t get Sid’s allusions please look them up.) We finally got to rather like Prague having found quieter places to eat and interesting architecture at so many corners. Even so we were born under a wandrin’ star and and it’s time for us to go … to the station (via a local Paul franchise for a picnic lunch).
When you think of Express 1543 leaving Prague Central Station what comes to mind? Is it four carriages of commuter stock? Well that’s what it was and by the time we had got the bikes aboard all the seats had been taken by local youth on their way to camping grounds. So we sat in First and offered to pay for an upgrade. Oh, and by the way the train does not go straight through but has a bus service to get around the construction work. Just as well we had not relied on the international dining car.
We did eventually persuade the conductor that our ticket should entitle us to a seat. He said only the bikes had reservations but Sid could not see hanging from a hook with the bikes for four hours was a good answer. The move from train to bus was well handled, they had a van for the bikes and some other big luggage. But you had to be strong and quick to make the swap. And the same when it came to move from bus to train, pushing these loaded bikes up the steps to platforms and then boosting them into the new train was a tri-event in itself. Doris was helped up the last steps by the conductor with whom we had had the earlier discussions. Nice man in the end. (See my post about cheerful travelling – D.)
Express 1543 made its way along a single track with passing places. Up on the border most of the traffic seems to be logging trains. In Germany, Czechia and Austria the station chief wears a red hat and proper uniform and we were pleased to get a picture. The border was even less ceremonial than the Netherlands to Germany but armed with careful scrutiny of the GPS we just about managed to get a picture. (Sorry about the blurred picture – the strange thing in the foreground is just a bit of the overhead wire machinery, it’s nothing exciting like a fortified watchtower – D.]
Could we tell any difference between Czech and Austrian countryside? Possibly – Austrians grow different crops side by side in large fields, like a modern version of the medieval strip system. And the platform signage gradually got more “westernised” as we got further from the border. Maybe we are over-examining things.
Getting out at Linz required the same frenzy to be off the train before they turned it around. A brief pause to decide not to get a #virtualsouvenir of an Austrian long pipe re-badged as a Tolkein-derivative special, and on we go.
Our hotel Am Domplatz is an “adults-only” establishment right by the Dom Platz and the New Cathedral. We were a little bit wary about this, but it turns out that the only real adults-only feature is that the bedroom window opens fully, without a restraining strap on it to stop small children climbing out.
The New Cathedral is a monster piece of Gothic Revival, only slightly lower than St Stephen’s in Vienna because the empire allowed no building to be taller. Linz carefully ducked it by two metres. It was built from 1862 at the height of Austro Hungarian Empire and finished in 1924 by which time Austria was a small European country.
The cathedral is huge. Most fun for us was the stained glass. In one panel the Hapsburg royal family is shown as very pally with God who clearly approves of the way society is shaping up. Instead of a little parable of Jesus fishing with the disciples there is a representation of the steam driven, twin side-paddle royal yacht Franz Joseph.
Sid considers this may be an early form of prosperity gospelling. Pray hard and you too will have a hunting lodge, a lake steamer and the royal train that we saw in the Prague Technical Museum.
What makes these windows stand out is that they depict people in the hair and clothes of the time. They started building the cathedral about the time that Darwin published the Origin of Species and finished it when the Bauhaus was already at work. It is a fabulous anachronism, just great. One of the biggest challenges to our determination to collect only a #virtualsouvenir was the book explaining all the windows, fortunately it was in German otherwise we definitely would have cracked.
We have been thinking how to continue in epic style. Boats cruise the Danube. It is a very big river and some of the boats are like liners. So tomorrow Doris will take to the water, which is moving very fast just now. Just last year barges could not get up the river. Now it is in spate, and going about 9 kilometres per hour. Sid is planning to cycle to Melk where Doris can leave the boat. Given the speed of the water and power of the boat Doris will likely get in first.
We have enjoyed walking around the town sorting out the access for the boat and the Danau Weg. Sid has a new cycle helmet as the old blue one was cracked and leaking bits of aged black foam. They have a special shop for Doris, The Bandagist.
The bandage has been off and recharged with the allegedly medicinal goop but normal service is not yet resumed. So most likely Sid will cycle into Vienna. Once we’ve had a couple of days in Vienna we can see if cycling is possible again.
Every day epic, it its own way.