Weekend in Linz

Grüßchen!


This past Saturday, I went to the city of Linz to meet some friends also teaching English there. It was also an opportunity just to simply hang out with other Americans and Brits (yeah, it was that time in the traveling abroad experience). The evening went so well that I ended up spending the night and touring the city all day Sunday, loving every minute!

Linz is both the largest city and capital of Upper Austria, and it serves as a major transport hub along the Danube river. The city is very modern and houses several museums, such as the new Lentos and Schloss museums. As it lies directly on the Danube, many visitors take river boat rides from the old city to other nearby hubs, like Vienna and Budapest.

Getting to Linz from Rohrbach was easy for me, since a train stop is only 15 minutes from my apartment. One advantage of taking the train is the very idylic and romantic scenery it offers. The train traveled through the southern tip of the Bohemian Forest and along small farms and rolling pastures; so for those of you that read the Polar Express as a youngster, it was as if you were traveling on a small train right alongside a hiking trail in a deep forest, and headed for a destination in the far North. Here is a link to the route I took.

I´m excited to see what it´ll be like this winter!

Linz shines brilliantly at night, and the most illuminous landmarks are the Nibelungen Bridge, Electronica Center (which changes colors in random patterns), and the Lentos Museum. Most of the city is well-lit and it wasn´t difficult for our group to get around. Check out this picture of the banks of the Danube at night.

The next morning, I had hoped to leave early for Rohrbach to return for an organ recital at the town´s main church. Little did I know that my return train would be leaving NOT from the central train station, but rather from an alternative station on the other side of the Danube. So, I missed the train and along with that my chance to hear an organist play Mendellssohn. However, I now had the whole day to spend in Linz!

With my full day ahead of me, I visited a tourist booth and picked up some flyers to see what was happening in the city on a Sunday. The Lentos Museum, with its exhibition on sight/sound, immediately caught my eye, but I had two hours to until it would open. Considering that, I thought it best to visit a church for mass. Leaving the train station, I found a bus stop and hopped on the No. 45 to the Neuer Dom / Marienkirche (the New Cathedral / St. Mary´s Church). FYI, the Neuer Dom is the largest church in Austria and was built in the 19th Century with a Neo-Classical design. Although the church was not as stunning as the Dom in Graz, it was still very well maintained.

Following mass, I decided to treat myself to some after-church breakfast (Brown family-style). Walking south from the church on Herrenstraße, I came across a quaint pastry shop called Wrann Konditorei (http://www.wrann.konditorei.cc/). The inside was small, but the store owners make a great use of the little space they have. I ordered an Apfelstrudel mit verlängerter Kaffee (apple strudel with coffee and milk) and I savored it just as if my Grandmother had made it...yummm lecker! And when I returned to Rohrbach later that day, my landlady even told me that the shop was indeed known for just that!

With my freshly caffeinated self, I continued to the Lentos Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentos_Art_Museum), which was a 10min walk away along the Danube. The museum is very modern, and at night it lights up in bright red, pink, and maroon pulsating colors. The two exhibitions currently open offer very different works to a visitor: the first highlighted the city of Linz with cityscapes painted throughout history and portraits of famous citizens; and the second presented modern, and alternative uses of sound in the art industry. More influential, the second exhibit featured hundreds of works dedicated to the art of sound. While some pieces showed how sound can be manipulated and used to accompany certain colors or images, other pieces allowed the observer to interact with certain sounds, such as in changing pitch, or moving small pieces of magnetic strips with booming, electromagnetic pulses - I know, hard to visualize.

As I left the museum and walked east along the Danube, I came across the Bruckner Haus (a center for performing arts in Linz: http://www.brucknerhaus.at/). I looked along the glass wall that separated the lobby from the exterior and noticed a poster of Franz Welser-Möst, Director of the Cleveland Orchestra. As a total surprise to me, I discovered the Cleveland Orchestra is set to perform in Linz on November 3rd this year!!!
Talk about home away from home! It would be great to visit Linz for the concert as a field trip with my students and show them a piece of my culture from back home ; )

After walking around a bit more that afternoon, I then headed back to the train station - the correct one this time - and returned to Rohrbach. The scenery was just as stunning on the way back as it was arriving the day before. And the 1 1/4 hour train ride gave me enough time to read the city magazines I had picked up and to rest a little.

Aside from the sights and landmarks, a few things stuck out to me. For one thing, I am now deeply thankful to live in a nice apartment, and with an accommodating family! My friends that chose to live in Linz and commute do have the advantages of urban living, such as meeting many new people with often liberal viewpoints, enjoying different foods, and getting to places via public transit. However, they are also cramped in small apartments with fewer cooking options, smelly hallways, and at times questionable flat mates. On top of that, I personally value close relationships with neighbors and families more highly than the excitements of city life. Sure, I enjoyed seeing Linz and living it up in the Großstadt for a night, but I´m happy living in Rohrbach. I´ll take the fresh air and hospitable people in the country any day.

Enjoying Rohrbach,

-Stephen