Mauthausen

We got an early start out of Linz today, 8.30 am. After an obligatory visit to a trailside playground, there was a long  stretch of beautifully paved dedicated bike trail, with lots of bikers. One family of 5 from France passed us, with all their camping gear, too.

A last view of Linz

A water-moving device at a local playground - I think it's called an Archimides Screw

Along the trail

The destination for today is the town of Mauthausen, but on  the way, we also visited the Mauthausen concentration camp. I was there once before when I was about 12 years old, with a school group (my aunt was a teacher, and managed to get me taken along on this school trip).

The visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp was less affecting than it was when I was 12. I think it's because they changed things significantly. If I remember right, there were rooms and rooms of different things like suitcases and shoes, taken from the prisoners when they arrived. And the barracks still had beds in them, so you could really visualize more, what it had been like.

Now it's very different, the barracks are all completely, 100% empty, and there's no displays of items from the prisoners, like there were before. Also, before you were allowed to go down to the quarry, where the prisoners were made to work. Not any more, it's all off limits.

Just inside

A washroom

The quarry pit, where many prisoners were made to work

We stayed there a few hours, then went on to our hotel, Gasthof zur Traube. A nice room, kind of basic, but unfortunately the internet doesn't reach up to the 4th floor, where we are.

After resting in our room for a while, we walked to the modern part of town, where there was - a MALL! Yes, a pretty authentic looking mall, full of chain shops. I haven't seen that yet. We went to the McDonalds and got Peter a chicken burger.

The room

View from our room - it's supposed to be a building from the 1500s. 

I remember these "cut your own length" bandages from decades ago - now they're "classic" 

The mall - pretty quiet

There was a "manner schnitten" store - they're a type of cookie wafer

This old telephone booth is now a "tiny library".

I still need to do some planning for tomorrow - we may head to Grein, about 30 k away, or we may try to do a little longer distance. We only have 9 more full days in Austria - and we want to spend a few of them hanging out in Vienna.