The drive
from Hinterglemm was about 3 hours in total, mainly on the motorway after the 1st
hour – today was about the destinations and not the journey.
Arriving
into Linz, we parked the car and set off to find food. We ended up going Italian at an German chain we have been to before, Vapiano. Lots
of other people were wearing disposable bibs – so we thought; eat like a local!
Linz was a
surprisingly appealing smaller Austrian city.
It has had an intense industrial history, and plenty of big factories were still visible
on the city outskirts. But it has also
been a European city of culture and is working on that aspect with a modern art
gallery and art installations. The old part of the city has the lovely churches and buildings.
We enjoyed the Mariendom, an exceedingly
large edifice. Here, there were many areas of stained
glass that had been destroyed in WWII and some replaced with modern stained glass
rather than straight replicas
One thing
Linz is famous for is Linzer torte. I
had read in the guidebook, plenty of bakeries selling this local icon, and had
expected it to be easy to find. The only one we saw was a dried up version in a
cafĂ© which I scorned because ‘we were going to see them in every 2nd
store. Nope, not one. I did have a Linzer biscuit the next day in
Czechia, but it wasn’t quite the same.
Then it was
back on the motorway and into Czech Republic for an overnight in Cesky
Krumlov. We spent the last couple of
hours of daylight checking out the castle and old town of this heavily
touristed small town. The castle built
on the on the rock promontory above the town river is undoubtedly
impressive in position, views and buildings.
A walk through the small streets, an average meal (probably the most
expensive meal in our entire Czech Trip) and we declared Cesky Krumlov
visited.