Day 14 - Relaxing in Linz

Hotel where my family stayed in 63.
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Aunt Heli had told me that today I was to sleep. Since, I am not one to argue with my elders (no comments from the peanut gallery!) I happily slept in until 9:30. After I woke up and ate some breakfast (did I mention that she makes her own jellies and jams??) and drank some wonderful coffee, I spent most of the day uploading pictures from my camera, so that I could post them to my blog for you. You'll want to look back at London Day 4 and then on. You'll need to click 'view more photo's' at the bottom of the last picture on the blog page, because each blog page only holds 3 or 4 photos.

More of the hotel - mostly posted to see if it jogged anyone's memory.
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Okay, you caught me, I napped a little as well.

No, that's not a typo - 799

In the afternoon, Aunt Heli took me around Linz. It's an industrial town and wasn't really much until Hitler (who grew up here) decided that he wanted to make Linz strong. He added salt factories and other facilities (there's a lot of salt in the Alps). Incidentally, Rene was born in 1933 and when he was a baby, his mother took him to the opening of the German Auto Bahn (Hitler's pet project). From Rene's stroller (he was just a small toddler) he saw Hitler. He doesn't remember it, of course, but it's something his mother always told him. Anyway, Hitler had planned to be buried in Linz and to have a large funeral procession. He also wanted to take a lot of the artifacts and art that he stole from the Jews and make a museum in his honor. Obviously, non of that happened, thankfully but it's a little known fact.

Linz, with the Danube in front
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A few years ago, Austria spent a lot of money to clean up it's factories and cut down on pollution. This really helped Linz due to it's industrial nature. Now the city and air quality in Linz is much better than before.

We walked up to the hotel that my family stayed in whilst visiting Heli in 1963ish. Now it's a union of some sort but she showed me where they used to have tables set out for people to eat and even what windows she thought had been connected to my family's hotel room. It was so surreal to walk around knowing that 45 years ago, my mom, Aunt Betty, Gram and Grampa had walked those same steps and marveled the city, just as I was doing.

799. Holy cow.
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Next, we stopped in the oldest part of town and walked past the oldest church in Austria. It was built in 799. No, that's not a typo - 799. It's been added to and changed, of course but wow - 799. Charlemagne died in early to mid 800's, if that helps. We followed the street to the castle walls (Oh, yeah, there's a castle (from the 1500's) that's now the Schloss Museum. I got to stroll along the castle wall and take a few photos but due to construction going on, the castle doesn't look like much.

One of the entrances to the castle.
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Tomorrow is going to be another relaxing day, I think. I was told I could sleep as long as I like! Aunt Heli asked me what was important for me to see while I was here and I answered her, very honestly, that I was just happy to be here. Whatever or where ever they wanted to do is fine by me because I'm enjoying my time with them and have no real expectations. Yay rest! Plus, after all the hiking yesterday, my ankle (the one I twisted early on) swelled quite a bit. I think it's telling me to chill the strenuous sport for a while, so I guess I'll listen. Don't want to hobble around Paris!