Day 8—Linz!

Heading into a lock last night.

We arrived this morning in Linz, once called “Lentos” meaning “bend in the river” founded by the Celts some 3000 years ago.  A lot of people lived or did big things here!  Johannes Kepler, credited with recognizing our Solar System as going around the Sun, not the Earth.  Mozart lived here a short while, writing some music in his typical flurry.  Josef Ressel invented the propeller, but failed to patent it.  Christian Doppler recognized the “effect” of waves compressing and expanding as the source moves. 

Linz, Austria

We started our morning with a walking tour in the on/off rain, darting in and out of buildings for cover during the narration.  It culminated with a climb to the top of a hill to look at the castle.  The castle was partially destroyed in WWII, but rebuilt and repurposed as a museum.  The addition was not…pretty.  But it gave us some nice views of the city.  It ended with wet socks and shoes, and the tour guide chucking her bag to us to return to the ship for her.  (She didn’t even tip us!) ☹

Apartments were built by some Italians, who didn't seem
to understand snow.  So, they built these beautiful interior
courtyards that don't really work out of Italy.

They were pretty though!

 

A very picturesque bakery!

Lots of colors, textures, and styles.

And even more!

We like Aldi's.  So, seeing their logo with
another name...???

The New Cathedral in Linz.

The altar was beautiful...

Even on the back side!

The New Cathedral in Linz.

Cobblestones and water make for wet shoes.

Mozart stayed here for a while.  Right in that window there.

We started up to the castle.  Gee...so pretty!!!

So, I get that the top burned down, but really?
THIS is the best you could do?  :-/

Linz from the castle.

It's hard to imagine a city planner coming up with this today!

Scene from the drive...oohhh.  Industry!!!

After some dry socks and shoes, and lunch, Bill headed back out to visit Mauthausen, a Concentration Camp in the area.  (The next few paragraphs might not be “fun”.  You can pick back up with the text after the next batch of pictures, if you need to skip.)  This one was primarily intended for political dissidents, socially undesirable, and POW.  They intended the prisoners to produce value by working.  The location was selected for it’s location as a work camp to mine granite.  There were certainly places intended as “kill camps”, where they simply exterminated.  This was not intended as that.  But it doesn’t mean they did not have their share of horrors.  Mining is brutal in the best of cases, but if one is underfed, under rested, and generally abused, it is a deathly experience.  Add some cruelty, and it was slave labor until death. 

Our tour guide referred them not as prisoners, but as victims.  She did a very good job of presenting it as it was, unvarnished, and honest.  It was a dark time in their history.  While it is true that errant comments could land one in a camp themselves, it is (at least here) NOT the case that the townspeople did not know.  The SS played soccer with the local school teams on a field right next to the camp.  The train dropped off prisoners (victims) by town and they were marched up the hill to the camp.  The locals knew what was happening.  It called to mind for me, the things we see, and we know, but for our own well being choose not to speak out.  The risk is too great for a personal risk. 

When the prisoners arrived, there was a wall they were lined up at, and would be stripped of anything they had, including clothes.  After being shaved of all hair, they would be sent to the showers.  The guards would routinely set the water at scalding hot or icy cold.  It was intended to torment.  They assigned uniforms that did not fit to mock and dehumanize the men.  Some were stood out in the winter with no clothes, and water thrown on them over and over until they froze to death.  These were ugly events, but they happened.  And it started by a government that decided those who disagreed with them needed to be removed from society.  And once removed, they were no longer human.  Jews, they killed outright.  These were not simply antisemitic exterminations.  These were people the Nazis decided had no place in society.  This is the path when a government gets to decide who gets rights and who does not.

We toured the barracks.  We saw the incinerators where the bodies were cremated.  We saw the rooms in which they gassed people.  And we saw the steel beam from which they used to hang people.

Why do I go through all of this on a travel blog?  Well, a number of things struck me, but I will start with the words of several of our tour guides.  We need to KNOW our history in order to not repeat it.  We need to know how THEY got there, so make sure we are not on the same road.  We need to know the horrors humans CAN do to each other, so we don’t keep looking away as the same patterns emerge, leading to the same atrocities.  And we need to remember that Peace is NOT a normal or stable condition.  It is something that needs to be worked on every day, starting anew.  The first War of Crimea led to WWI.  WWI led to WWII.  The second War of Crimea already happened.  The War in Ukraine is in process.  Where are we headed?  These aren’t my warnings.  These are words and messages from the past week.  From a tour guide in Budapest or Vienna or Bratislava, or a “Princess” in Austria.

Back to the boat, we met up for tea.  Theresa did not go to the camp, as she had been to another one and chose not to go this time.  Theresa had done some work and some laundry (this is where you feel sorry for her 😊), and we took a little break.  Then got ready for the “fancy” dinner.  We had a fun dinner with Mike and MaryAnne and Paul and Peggy, talking about all kinds of things.  It was a fun time, despite… 

The seeming beauty of the scene belies the dark history of this place.

The "Fire Pond" in the foreground was used as a swimming pool by the SS.

From the camp looking out, you might think this was a pristine place.

Many of the 40 nations of the prisoners here set up
monuments.  This is the one from Israel.

Bulgaria (foreground) and Poland (background)

Remains of the quarry.  The stairs used by the prisoners 
is visible at the tree line.

A few houses remain.

The showers.

Inside one of the houses.  Of course, it was never this nice.

One of the incinerators.

The gas chamber...where many souls left this world.

The "autopsy" room, where gold teeth were removed...
and worse.

The US may not do everything right, 
but we did somegood work in WWII.

A perspective of infinity.

Moving on to something lighter...We have had remarkably bad service this whole trip.  I usually avoid the negative stuff, as who wants to read complaining?  You know those things that aren’t funny when they occur, but when you look back on them, you just laugh as how bad they were?  I believe we should start laughing about them now!!  The dinner that had wrong menu items served, flailing for water, and wondering if our waiter knew we were still here, culminated in dessert.  As they brought out the desserts to great fanfare, our dinner plates sat in front of us.  Six of us at a table for eight, a waiter came by to take the forks from the blank seats.  They finally cleared our dishes and then brought dessert…but they had taken all of our silverware.  So, finally we got their attention, and the one waiter gave me a spoon to eat the little bits of things on a plate.  OK.  Mike tried to get the attention of a waiter hustling by, and as he nearly made eye contact with Mike, his head abruptly lurched in the other direction.  I (Bill) almost lost it laughing, since it was too comical to believe!!  To be clear, we are so blessed to have wonderful experiences, and this trip is no exception.  So, I share the foibles of our service in the light spirit with which we will look back on this.