We took advantage of the Linz weekend package offered by the Linz tourism board, and so we were able to nab the neat Hotel Landgraf, with a convenient tram stop right out front. The first night, we were hungry, and low on cash, so we headed down to the river and strolled along until we came upon a boat serving up Italian food. Sadly, they didn't take credit cards, and there was only 20 EUR cash between us, so we each got a burger and drank tap water. We had enough left over to split some excellent Tiramisu. Jim had been craving Tiramisu ever since the last time he had it at Carraba's.
The next day, we had a full plate. We started off with a trip to the Ars Electronica center, which is basically the Linz COSI.
I really enjoyed the eye tracking demonstration, I was controlling a computer just by looking at what I want to. We also got to have pictures of our retinas taken. Jim's is below because I can't seem to locate mine.
Then we went to the Lentos Art museum, which had a creepy installation, Desire of Codes, by a Japanese artist consisting of night vision cameras that would follow you, and project the image onto the floor below it. There was also a wall of led's mounted on the ends of pointers, and they would all move to point at you like sunflowers to the sun. It would also take some of the images it had recorded throughout the day and project them onto wall behind you in a weird housefly's-eye looking pattern.
The other installation was a retrospective of the Irish artist Sean Scully. Perhaps I didn't spend enough time to appreciate the nuances of each piece, but I got the impression that this guy really knows how to do variations on a theme. They were all rectangular patterns, and really only the colors differed between each one.
Something that was pretty neat, however, was the gallery on the top floor housing the Sean Scully installation. The roof was translucent, so all the pieces were being lit with natural sunlight. It was pretty sunny when we were there, and at 1:30 the sun was almost directly above, so there was excellent lighting on everything.
Then we took the Poestlingberg Tram up to the mountain above the city. We stopped up at the Grottenbahn: a miniature railway flanked by gnomes. Beneath the circular railway, there were several depictions of fairytales by the brothers Grimm. And on the way out, we got to see some spotted fawns. Until a snotty little brat scared them off, of course.
Once we took the tram back down the mountain, we took the Linz City express around town. It was a car, mocked up like a train engine and pulling three wagons, that gave us a tour of the city.
Afterwards, we consulted the the TI regarding a place to dine. They recommended the Josef. We went there, and I found out that Wiener schnitzel is indeed not a wurst. I ended up trading Jim for his schweinsmedallions (Pork medallions) and ravioli.For the price, I don't think that we would eat there again. Fortunately, our Linz card came with a 10 EUR "gastronomy voucher"
Embarrassingly, Jim tried to leave a tip on my credit card when the bill came. Turns out, they don't "do" tips here. So Jim had 3.50 written on a random line in the middle of the receipt, thoroughly confusing our German speaking hostess.
Our less than stellar experience with the Josef was rectified by a trip to a cafe at the Hauptplatz (main square), where we ducked inside a small cafe. JIm had a cappuccino and I had a hot chocolate, and we each got a slice of Linzer Torte, the cake with the oldest recipe in the world (ca 1653).
Sunday, we tried to go out to the steel working museum, only to end up in the industrial section of town, and about a mile and a half from where we wanted to be. We decided we had chosen the wrong tram stop, and turned tail and headed back to the main square. Turned out to be a good idea; the voestAlpine Stahlwelt (steelworld) was closed on Sunday. Instead, we changed our plans and headed up to the Linz Castle and the Schlossmuseum. All kinds of different exhibits, ranging from Musical instruments to traditional clothing to the wildlife of the Danube. The place was massive. On one occasion, we even had to ask for help to get from one exhibit to the next.
After descending down from the castle, we grabbed some delicious pizza (Jim's a sucker for garlic on anything - Langos, Pizza, Soup), and afterwards, ice cream.
After coming up fruitless at the bookstore in the train station (all but one of the photography magazines were in German), Jim and I parted ways.
