Day 5

We woke at the dock in the city of Linz, Austria. The choices today were a full day trip to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic or a morning walking tour of Linz followed by free time in the afternoon. I chose the Linz day since I had spent 2 days in Cesky Krumlov a few years ago.

Michele, Joannie and Nicki spent the day in Cesky Krumlov, an incredibly well preserved medieval town near the German and Austrian borders in the Czech Republic.

It’s on the Vlatava River and has a large castle at the top of the hill town. The previous moat of the castle has provided a home for bears since the early 1700’s.

Look closely......those are BEARS!

The day of the visit happened to be some sort of yearly festival day where all the students of the region gather in the streets and parade in costumes.

The California “girls” enjoyed the festivities and a visit to the Gothic church of St. Vitas and a walk through the monastery grounds.

I had a great walking tour through the town of Linz, a large, vibrant city. The main cathedral of the city is called the “new cathedral” and was designed in the mid 19^th century. The stained glass windows are spectacular. Some are very traditional stained glass with scenes from the bible and others are very modern abstract art.

 The tower of the cathedral offers a “hermit experience.” For a price, one can spend one week in a room in the tower as a hermit in order to meditate. Meals are left once a day and the “hermit” comes down the stairs to collect the food and take it back to his small cell at the top of the tower. Apparently, this is NOT an unpopular experience!

After lunch on the ship, I took a narrow gauge tram to the top of a hill where there is an abbey and a spectacular vista.

The abbey

The route is one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world. It’s about a 30 minute ride through some of the beautiful neighborhoods of Linz.