The weather for the last two days has been a bit misterable. It was so grim the night before last that I used the ear plugs to deaden stop the noise of the rain on the roof. But this morning there is blue sky and breakfast outside. The proof:
It is warm and very pleasant. I hope it continues. This site is quiet mostly people on their way home wherever that is. They roll up later in the day and have gone by the time I'm moving. I was just talking to a chap from Holland who is here fro a day or two who was singing the praises of all the distilleries in Scotland. That is a trip to do I think.
It says in the guide book that Linz is pretty industrial. It is. Driving into the old town yesterday was like driving through a very large factory, all chimneys, steam and pipes. Also the look of the place is pretty much what I imagine thoses dire soviet cities to be like. However the old town was lovely. It has its share of Baroque and Renaissance architecture. It plays a lot on its Bruckner connection. He was a composer in the second half of the nineteenth century. After Linz I went to St Florian which has a very large Abbey where Bruckner sang as a child in the choir and then taught for many years in the choir school. It is a magnificent place. I may go back today and do the guided tour.
Mauthausen on Saturday was a very sad place. It made Dachau seem like a much less threatening place. I have learnt a number of things. First that the war is not something swept under the carpet. Things to do with the war are there and on view. There was something on the radio yesterday about Hitler though I couldn't really follow the detail of it, for instance. The churches all have their memorials to their 'fallen heroes of both wars.' I think that what is becoming clear is that the ordinary 'gerry' in the Wehrmacht was probably just as frightened of the SS and the Nazis as everybody else. And local populations were manipulated which is why they were able to accept these camps in their midst - or they were profiting financially from the camps. So that is all an interesting story that is beginning to uncover.
There are a few other things around here that I want to see - either musical or war. Probably stay till Wednesday and then head off to Vienna.
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