2017 River Cruise on the Danube

The third largest city in Austria came as a surprise as we awoke.  Not having done any research  on this port before the cruise, we were expecting another Austrian village.  Instead we are greeted with a large city, with a very modern art museum on one side of our ship, and another glass and steel contemporary building across the river, overlooked by a castle on a hill.  

Linz has one Guinness world record, the Postlinberg Tram; it is the steepest climb for a tram that is not the traditional funicular type; sort of like a modern SF streetcar.  At the top was a church and castle which held a surprise.  The Grottenbahn is a fairy tale amusement area that depicts all of the Grimm's fairy tales.  Disney adapted many of these for their animated stories; Rapunzel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and others.

This quirky little park in the belly of a castle had a train in which you would ride around in a circle looking at various scenes from the fairy tales.  Then you exited into a larger area with dioramas of all the Grimm's tales.  We were the only English speakers amongst a large crowd of visitors; definitely a local German/Austrian attraction. 

Linz also has a historic place in history; Adolf Hitler went to University here, before dropping out to join the military.  Linz was the city he returned to in order to announce his annexation of the country of Austria into the Nazi regime.  The picture above is the balcony of city hall where Hitler broke the news to the city.  Today it is still the city hall, and the local tourist bureau.

One other interesting story told by our guide was this.  Austria received its' independence in 1956 from the Allied powers that controlled Austria after WWII.  After the war, Europe was divided up between USA and Russia until all the German controlled areas could be sorted out.  Linz was divided by the Danube, with the western half controlled by USA and the eastern half by Russia. ( By the way, none of our guides had much to say about the Nazis and WWII, but they were unanimous in their hatred of the communist rule of their countries after WWII and during the Cold War.) back to the story; the bridge across the Danube held a checkpoint and people coming to the USA side from the Russian side had to have proper ID and had to be "de-loused" first.  It seems no one really wanted to cross over to the Russian side from the US side. She also said when Austria became independent and Russia departed, they basically stripped everything from their side of the city and took it with them.  The picture below is the city of Linz, with the aforementioned bridge on the left.

In the City Centre of Linz, a commemorative sculpture built to give thanks to God for saving the city from the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages.  We saw similar sculptures in Vienna, also.