Waaay back when we first arrived, we noticed a church at the top of a mountain next to Linz. I’m sure one of us has mentioned this, but I can’t seem to find a post about it. Maybe it was in a video… Anyway, it’s been on the list of places to visit ever since. Today we finally went up there. The whole top of the mountain is called the Postlingberg.
We took the tram up there and found ourselves in a park. We walked around the park a bit. We crossed a bridge and I happened to look down and see a woman feeding deer! It turns out that a good portion of the park is fenced off to house a family of deer. The baby is pretty cute:
The daddy is a little off-putting. I don’t think he appreciates people looking at him. I’ve got a video of him making some huffing sounds, but he might just have had a head cold.
The main attraction of the Postlingberg is housed in a circular building on the top of the hill. We assume it used to be a fort, because it has what looks like a pretty decent moat.
The moat is the part the deer live in.
Once we had gawked at the deer, we moved on to the Grottenbahn, the main attraction of the mountain. It’s basically a train ride through a tunnel lined with gnomes. Yeah, gnomes. The little ceramic things people put in their yards. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about, found in the waiting are for the train:
Creepy, no? The train ride is a rather odd thing to experience. The actual tunnel is pretty short, so they take you around in the dark with the gnomes lit up on the left side, then again in the dark with gnomes on the right lit up, then one last time with everything lit, including the tunnel itself. At the end, the train, which looks like a dragon, spews smoke out its nose. Here’s a short video of what to expect on the final train loop:
Up until the last loop, I found it to be pretty stupid. We did go when it wasn’t very busy. The people in front of us were the only others on the train. There were probably another 6 cars behind us that were just plain empty. Maybe seeing it with a group would be different. Once you’re done with the train, you go downstairs where they have a mini-city built up:
The buildings are actually very detailed.
They even have a few statues of humans. They are no less creepy than the gnomes.
That one on the left is extra creepy. *shudder*
Between the buildings they have little alcoves with two fairy tails each. Rumpelstiltskin makes an appearance as well as Snow White and her short friends. There a few that we’ve never heard of before. I might get this wrong, but one involved a guy complaining about the rooster waking him every morning, so then the whole farm started doing it:
I guess the moral was to not complain… or something. I don’t know. Maybe that’s not even what the story was about. It was all in German, of course. Mary Jo will have to correct me about it.
After the gnomes had creeped us out enough, we walked outside and found a couple of viewing platforms. One was right in front of the church we wanted to see. It was a bit hazy, but you could see the entire city, all the way down to the steel factories.
The last thing was to see the church. It was rather plain, but European church standards. Still far more ornate than anything in the states.
After that was done, we rode the train back down, came home, and made some delicious supper. Now we’re vegging and preparing for everything being closed tomorrow and Monday. Monday is All Saints’ Day, and another national holiday.
That picture is of the Bremen Town Musicians. The four animals run away from their respective farms because they’re getting too old to work. They meet up and decide to go to Bremen to be musicians. They discover a house with robbers in it, and they scare the robbers away with their “singing.”
The fence in front of the deer does not look very strong and no, the daddy deer (more commonly known as a buck) did not have a head cold. You are lucky you were not pawed to death!
All Saints’ Day is a national holiday? And they don’t have Halloween, right?