The Danube (part 2)

The other part of the day needed to be separated from the Danube cruise because it has a completely different theme. This post should more aptly be titled "Um, Derrick?"

To explain a little, the only part of our trip that I did not read or research about was of outside of Vienna and alongside the Danube. Derrick did, and his interest revolved around old castles and an "electronica museum" in Linz.

The day started in the early morning taking a train out to Leobendorf where we had a 3/4 mile hike to an old castle. Actually, scratch that, when we arrived Derrick realized it was not 3/4 a mile but 3/4 an hour hike.

So we began our hike through the fog shrouded woods in the direction Derrick claimed the castle was. The fog of course shrouded anything natural or man made farther than 20 feet away so whether or not there was a castle at the top of the hill we were climbing was anyone's guess. All the signs were in German, which Derrick claimed to understand, and he continuously kept replying, "it is just up here," to my question of, "Um, Derrick?"

To end any suspense, yes there was a castle and seeing it while half shrouded in mist was definitely eerie and cool at the same time. Derrick only told me on the way back that he too was unsure the entire hike up though.

After this we headed to the pick up point for the cruise and experienced three hours of eye popping beauty.

Later we left the boat and walked over to a cafe and had some amazing food. Once again small towns are where its at for awesome food.

We were suppose to explore a large abbey after that but were in such a euphoric state it was too much effort so we opted to catch the train to Linz.

In Linz, Derrick had been raving about the "electronica museum," so that night I grabbed a brochure to begin excitedly reading about it for the next morning. Three sentences into the brochure I looked up at Derrick and said, "Um, Derrick? This museum.. it isn't about music, is it?"

The "electronica museum" is not in fact about electronica music, but instead about electronic arts. In fact it revolves around one of the biggest electronic arts conventions in the world.

The moment of silence after Derrick told me this, us starring at each other both stunned from across a table, and the fit of laughter after realization set in for both of us is an indescribable moment, but so hilarious it is necessary to write about.

So tomorrow instead of writing about the museum I have been anticipating for weeks I will let you know how the Ars Electronica was. :-)