Linz

A short bulletin today as we are off to the station very soon: Linz > Frankfurt > Brussels.  It seems the weather in Brussels is the same as in Faversham - cold, dark, wet and windy, while here we have had warm and sunny days.

The privatised trains in Austria offer what is to me an astonishing deal - tickets substantially cheaper than the nationalised service (though with some restrictions on service, ie before or after rush hours).  We were promised this in the UK but it never happened because each region or line is still a monopoly so we pay high prices knowing we are basically shovelling our cash towards a bunch of shareholders.

Our trip into Linz yesterday for sightseeing was swift, clean attractively designed and managed.

    

Linz is much more a workaday town than Salzburg, we enjoyed our walk through the park with its pro-gay benches, brilliant flowerbeds, courtyard coffee shops, and trams.   We whizzed over the Danube up to Postlingberg on Europe's steepest adhesion tram.... through the university of Bruckner, the district where doctors live, and up to the top. The church is very large.  We strolled around in the brilliant sun, had lunch on the terrace..... I was attracted by a little road curving up the hill.

Down again we went, visited the parish church where Bruckner was the organist. Eventually we reached Lentos, the stunning mirrored art gallery by the river, built like a huge bridge along the embankment and with a fine collection of 19th-21st century work. Most of the artists I have never heard of (apart from the obligatory Schiele and Klimpt).  The building is lovely and practical, the works uplifting - and it was free entry for old people on a Tuesday, so that was a bonus.  We sat in the sun and looked at the river where the colossal cruise boats were moored up, and we could see Postlingberg on the horizon where we had just been, the twin spires of the church twinkling in the light.

In incidentally, the name Lentos is said to be another of those Celtic words meaning ‘curve’, describing the river. And it’s thought to be the origin of the name Linz itself.

With an hour or so to spare before we met up with Edith, we went to the so-called New Cathedral (1886?-1924) which is pure gothic and looks medieval. It is truly vast. The transepts are bigger than Faversham Parish Church which is rated to be cathedral size in some books. The interior is dark, the whole thing rather weird.... how the Victorians were caught in the grip of medievalism.  People come to see the windows but after the art gallery the glass had little power for me. But there is a lot of it.   

The Old Cathedral had shut (earlier than advertised) so we could not see it, and instead we found a lovely quiet terrace at Cafe Traxlmayr, had water and wine, and waited for Edith.  The sunlight filtered through the trees. A sparrow chirped around our feet. It was warm, calm. I  was making yet another study of chairs in a cafe, which I never intended to be a theme of my art work but is becoming a trade mark. The cafe age. 

  

This was our last evening in Austria....  Home on the privatised Westbahn train, a light supper, and bed.  Off north today.