[24] Life in Linz

Steeples in Linz
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Linz, Austria. That’s where we escaped to when we left Prague. We just couldn’t take the crowds any longer. It was impossible to move in that city without forcing your way through roving bands of tourists following someone with an umbrella or stick with a ribbon on it. The guides would hold these aloft like battle banners and the glaze-eyed throng would follow like ducks crossing the road. They neither saw nor cared what they mowed down as they moved along. It makes REB angry when people will part for him but plow into me as if I were invisible. And it isn’t just my size, either. I get run over by just as many Japanese tourists as Germans or Americans. I’m an equal opportunity entity. REB got more and more irritated. "Don’t they see you?" he said. "No," I told him, "they never have."

Main square, Linz.
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So we left Prague and the Czech Republic behind and came to Austria to see the mountains. We craved a slower pace and cleaner streets. That is one thing about Prague, it is a very dirty place. We had to spend several hours in the main train station for our train to Linz and if we’ve been in a dirtier place, neither of us remembers it.

When he took the phone and dangling cord down to the desk,

But Austria is clean, the train station, the streets, the public toilets. It’s about 1200' above sea level and REB is having no noticeable problems with his breathing. Today we climbed the hill to the Schloss (local castle) and we were both winded but he had no ill effects. Linz is on the Danube River, a beautiful wide body of water that flows through these green-meadowed hills with the grace of the Mississippi.

Linz, Austria on the Danube
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Our hotel is about a block from the main street in town and another half block to the main "platz." We’re very close to restaurants and shops, so all in convenient. Except that the phone in our room doesn’t work and I can’t use the internet that was promised. Fortunately, we can easily hop a tram to the train station which has a beautiful internet café where we can use our own laptop. As for the phone, Ralph is next door in Room 207 calling someone right now. He tries to call one of the kids every week or so.

Narrow, steep streets
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The phone in our room is a mini-saga. We checked it the first day and when it didn’t work we told the desk - they said they’d fix it. The next day it still didn’t work so we repeated the exercise: talk to the desk clerk, receive promises. Later the second day, REB discovered that the problem with the phone was that the line had been cut at the wall.

When he took the phone and dangling cord down to the desk, they gave him the key to 207 and promised to fix the phone. We’re checking out tomorrow and he’s talked to the kids, so we really don’t care anymore. But we just didn’t want you to think that our life was always smooth sailing.

Chess in the park.
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More later, our love to all,

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