Vienna - Linz, Austria

Saturday 10th July 1999

We left Vienna just as a storm broke. I had to wait five minutes to run the ten metres from the campground reception to the van. We headed west back along the motorway until we again reached Melk abbey. We then turned off and joined the small road along the north bank of the Danube to finish that part of the trip.

We were planning to leave Austria today and get back into Germany but we had one last place to visit, the abbey of St Florian, near the city of Linz. It was similar to Melk abbey in that it completely dominated the small town below it and it was almost more palace than abbey. Due to some motorway delays we arrived quite late but they added an extra tour and we were able to see around. Of particular interest were the state apartments, one occupied by the pope for one night in the 1700's and not touched since, and the marble hall, with ceiling frescos featuring optical illusions making the ceiling look much higher than it was and giving the figures a dramatic three-dimensional appearance. Our group spent quite some time wandering from corner to corner admiring the effect. Particularly impressive though was the Altdorfer Gallery, containing fourteen excellent 16th century paintings by Albrecht Altdorfer.

We finished with a visit to the large chapel and crypt, home to neatly stacked bones of some 6000 people, before heading back to the van. It was quite late so we abandoned the idea of reaching Germany and instead just took the motorway west and stopped at one of the many roadside pull-overs.