Wednesday May 28
Linz
During breakfast the ship docked briefly in Linz,
in Austria, to allow the passengers to board the buses for their selected
tours.
The city was founded by the Romans, who called it
Lentia. The name Linz was first recorded
in AD 799. It was a provincial and local
government city of the Holy Roman Empire, and an important trading point
connecting several routes, on either side of the river Danube from the East to the
West and Bohemia and Poland from north to the Balkans and Italy to the south.
Being the city where the Habsburg Emperor Friedrich III spent his last years,
it was, for a short period of time, the most important city in the empire. It lost its status to Vienna and Prague after
the death of the Emperor in 1493.
Adolf Hitler was born in the border town of Braunau
am Inn but moved to Linz in his childhood. Hitler spent most of his youth in
the Linz area, from 1898 until 1907, when he left for Vienna. To the end of his
life, Hitler considered Linz to be his "home town" and envisioned
extensive architectural schemes for it, wanting it to become the main cultural
centre of the Third Reich. In order to make the city economically vibrant,
Hitler initiated a major industrialization of Linz shortly before, and during,
World War II.
After a short tour around the old city we left for
the city of Český Krumlov a small city in the South Bohemian Region of the
Czech Republic.
The trip took half an hour longer than expected as
the main road was closed for repairs and the narrow road we had to use made it
difficult to pass oncoming traffic, so there were times when vehicles had to
back off to allow us to pass.
Old Český Krumlov is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and
was given this status along with the historic Prague castle district in the
1990s.
The Český Krumlov Castle is located
on a high point overlooking the town, construction of the town and castle began
in the late 13th century at a ford in the Vltava River, which was important in
trade routes in Bohemia. In 1302 the town and castle were owned by the House of
Rosenberg. Emperor Rudolf II bought Krumlov in 1602 and gave it to his natural
son Julius d’Austria. Emperor Ferdinand II gave Krumlov to the House of
Eggenberg. From 1719 until 1945 the castle belonged to the House of
Schwarzenberg. Most of the architecture of the old town and castle dates from
the 14th through 17th centuries; the town's structures are mostly in Gothic,
Renaissance, and Baroque styles. The core of the old town is within a horseshoe
bend of the river, with the old Latrán neighbourhood and castle on the other
side of the Vltava. Additions to the
castle continued until the 19th century.
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| Castle Courtyard |
During the interwar era it was
part of Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1945 it was annexed by Nazi Germany as
part of the Sudetenland. The town's German-speaking population were expelled
after World War II and it was restored to Czechoslovakia. Because the town didn’t have any industry or
occupy a strategic position is was untouched during the war.
During the Communist era of
Czechoslovakia, Krumlov fell into disrepair, but since the Velvet Revolution of
1989 much of the town's former beauty has been restored, and it is now a major
holiday destination popular with tourists from Germany, Austria and beyond. In
August, 2002, the town suffered from damage in the great flood of the Vltava
River.
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| Old Town from Castle |
Leaving the bus we had a ten minute walk to the
entrance of the castle and on the approach walked over a bridge spanning a bear
pit containing three bears. The town’s
legend is that while bears remain the town will survive.
Entering the first courtyard we observed that the buildings
and surrounds were in the Renaissance style, this style was retained for all
the extensions over the centuries which is unusual as many buildings and
churches were converted to the Baroque style.
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| Houses in Krumlov |
Leaving the castle we walked down to the river and
crossed a bridge to the old town which is within a horseshoe bend of the river
and spent the next three hours wandering around the narrow cobble stone lanes
of the town.
Our return to the ship which had continued up river
to Passau in Germany was a little quicker as we travelled on wider roads. We arrived in Passau at the same time as the
ship and had to wait to board while the crew rigged the gang plank.
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| Passau Castle |
Passau has a 2000 year history and its walls are
proof of the presence of the Romans. It
is known as the Town of Three Rivers as the Inn, Danube and Ilz rivers all meet
here. We were only in Passau for a very
short time before sailing for Vilshofen.
On the wharf at Vilshofen a large marquee had been
set up and we went ashore to enjoy an ‘Oktoberfest’ in Vilshofen, with local
beer, Bavarian music and dancing. The
four male dancers provided three examples of the Bavarian “slap dances”
accompanied by a four piece band and when the passengers were invited to come
out and try to copy the dance, there weren’t any takers.
After a pleasant and entertaining ninety minutes we
re-boarded the ship to continue our trip.
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