A Rainy Weekend in Linz

And now for some place a bit closer to home...without actually being in Vienna.  I feel like I need to take more trips to see things in Austria while I'm here, and not just other major cities around Europe (as lovely as those are).  Austria is such an insanely gorgeous country, with so many neat cities and towns and mountains and old monasteries etc. that aren't very far away.  I really do need to make a better effort to get out to more of them.  After my family left last week, I had a weekend trip planned with my friend Philipp to go visit his hometown of Linz and get the insider tour...the weather was rainy and drizzly all weekend, but we still managed to see so much and do all sorts of fun things!

After a lovely rainy day lunch, we headed over to the Voestalpine steel plant to visit their museum/visitors center and learn all we could about steel and how it is processed and used.

The inside of the museum...you basically wind up stairs and cross back and forth through these bubbles which have all sorts of interactive exhibits inside.

Trying our hand at making correct decisions about the mix of raw material inputs to get a desired output...not exactly great at this one...

After the steel plant we headed back into the main part of town to walk around a bit since it wasn't currently raining...just a light mist...

We walked up to the castle where there is this bronze replica of Linz around 1800 so you could see where all the buildings were.

Looking out from the terrace of the palace over the city

And looking down over the other side of the palace at the Danube.

A giant nativity scene hand-carved by local children.  Very cool.

Beautiful main square.  So many neat architectural fronts to all the buildings surrounding it.

The Cathedral which is actually the largest (although not the highest) cathedral in Austria.  It was originally planned to be taller than St. Stephens in Vienna, but that idea got quickly squashed by some of the higher ups in Vienna at the time.  They lowered the spire by 2 meters...but then increased the height of the cross on top, so that it is now equal to the height of Stephansdom. (don't be too confused...the picture of the outside was on a totally different day than the pictures on the inside...the light shining through the stained glass is real)

So many beautiful stained glass windows and stone carvings inside

It was pretty dark inside the church when we came in...very few lights on...which made the giant space look especially beautiful, although then they were setting up for a service so the lights slowly started being turned on, which was also nice to see.

Back in the main square and ready for the little tourist train! It is most definitely the off season...we were the only people on there...

One part of the weekend I was especially excited about was my first Austrian Ice Hockey game!  After Philipp was able to go to a Yankees game with me over the summer, he thought it only fair that I get to see a professional hockey game in Linz...so off we went! 

 It was easily one of the most exciting hockey games I've ever been to...Linz was down 0-2 going into the third period...but then managed to score 4 goals...including 2 in the final minute!  Everyone was going nuts which definitely added to the whole experience.  We were sitting right in front of the sort of main fan club area...and they were drumming and cheering insanely loud through the entire game...including several all-stadium chants that seem oddly complicated but everyone knows them...so so fun.

The art museum all glowing at night

 Monday morning we headed up on the train to Pöstlingberg which gives you a great view over the city and the surrounding area.

The train begins in the main square and ends up here on the mountain and is one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world (as opposed to a cog railway or something else with teeth on the track)

At the top there is a circular trail that goes around the entire top so you are able to see out in all directions.  Down in this almost moat type area there are also deer! I'm not sure I've ever seen deer looking so relaxed this close before.

The view out over Linz

And towards the mountains...I'm definitely looking forward to going back up here sometime on a clearer day and getting to see out even farther

More of a closeup of the city...you can see the castle and the cathedral and the steel plant pretty easily.

The church at the top of Pöstlingberg

more ornate and baroque inside

neat statues on top of the organ

When we got back down on the train the giant Christmas tree was being chopped up...I guess the season really is officially over.

One last stop to get proper Linzer Torte from the original location...so delicious.

At some point along our drive back to Vienna all that drizzle and rain turned to snow making for a very picturesque drive back.

It was such a fun weekend and I'm so glad to have friends who can give me these local tours of the places they grew up and know so much about.  It is always way more enjoyable than just reading about places or trusting wherever the tour guides tell you to go.  I'm looking forward to another (hopefully sunnier) trip to Linz in the future!