Trip Day 13 - Linz

Today was a gray and drizzly day. But only weather-wise. 

We thought it was a good day.

On November 26, 1975 Mr & Mrs Burr tied the knot at City Hall Manhattan. It was the day before Thanksgiving that year. 

Yes, we are married for 49 years and what wonderful years they were. Needless to say we felt very happy all day to think back about all our adventures. 

The best to think of … our two wonderful daughters and their 4 awesome sons. How blessed are we!

So, a little drizzle is not a big deal.

At 9 am the local guide was there to give us a walking tour of Linz. 

Almost the first thing she showed us was the floor in an official building. It was a large map of the city over the whole floor. I thought that was very cool.

This angel seems to be an official one because exactly this shape is showing up everywhere.

The guide is very good and interesting. Many streets are quite narrow. Linz is not layed out like a checker board either. Streets are crisscrossing in all directions.

She even talked about firewalls and taxes.

What I found interesting most was what she told us about Austria's roll in the WWII. Hitler actually was born hier and when he marched into Austria and declared the annex to the 3rd Reich so many people welcomed it with open arms. Because of that this country was under the Controlle of the 4 allied countries for 10 years after the war ended. She showed us her father's papers of that time. One needed them to travel around.

In this house Mozart spent a few days with his wife travelled from Salzburg back to Vienna. He had been invited by a friend who wished for a Symphonie which Mozart quickly composed and created the "Linzer Simphony" in time. You can press a button here to listen to it and our guide holds the mike to it for us.

After a while we are all free to investigate the city by ourselves. James and I are walking towards the Dom. 

One really can't describe the churches in Europe. They are all awesome. 

It is not "have seen one, have seen them all"! They are all special. This one has some obviously new stained glass windows. The photo is not very good. The colors were intense and they were looking "pixelated" like those little pictures we saw in the streets of France.

There were at least 6 or 8 of these "Wish trees". Anybody could write a "wish of the heart" on one of the cards and hang them up.

The first one I looked at I could have cried. The wish of this person: That the foreigners finally again disappear! So sad. I am sure the person did not mean the tourists!

We looked at some more of the stalls outside but were not really in the mood.

On the way to the ship we came across a maroni stand = roasted chestnuts. We bought a bag of them and enjoyed them. The bag was special. Somehow part of it was turned up from the bottom so you could use it for the shells. 

From the bridge we took a photo of our ship. It looks huge this way.

It was lunch time. We were not really hungry but there is always soup and in this cold weather that is very welcomed. Our daughter Helen would love this. It was Flädlesuppe. They called it something else in English of course but it was very much like I make it. You could see (and taste) the carrots, leeks and root-celery. 

After lunch we decided to venture out again. Frankly, we did need more steps too. With a guide we toddle along slowly. A brisk walk sometimes feels so good.

Entertainment after dinner was truly special. A group of local people came on board which call themselves "Linzer Perchten". There is always the Bishop looking person (Nikolaus), there are Krampus and Perchten (some have 1 pair of hornes and some 2 pairs, some have a red tongue sticking out) and Witches. Krampus and Perchten have horsetail switches to beat the bad away and the witches have brooms to clean the bad away. But they all look scary for the children. And they are incredible noisy. Inside the ship we had to cover up our ears or they would hurt.

I have not grown up with these traditions and figures. I know St. Nicolas though but he comes in the night from December 5 to 6.

Tonight it was called "Hollywood Dinner". They really try to make it special every day. 

I had "Toni Curtis' Favorite Fish" .

At 8:45 pm we had a local group called "Chorus Vocals" come onto the ship to sing for us. That was very nice too.

When we were about to go to bed we met these two ladies who actually told us that they had been looking for us because they wanted to talk. And that is what we did and had fun.

Another nice day ended. We fell very tired into our beds. Night night.