The Linz trip: the first ten hours

21 July 2009

So, Linz. On Thursday 2nd we got up at seriously? o’clock and flew from Stansted to Salzburg. I’ve done the trip a few times and was able to point out various landmarks to Suzy. Then when we landed I was able to show her the Gaisberg and Untersberg mountains. Which isn’t a great skill when you consider that the Gaisberg has a big antenna on it and the Untersberg is The Big One You See From The Runway. But if you don’t consider that, then I’m very clever and deserve a round of applause.

We headed to Salzburg station, where we had a train to catch to Gmunden. We bought our tickets and there stood our train at platform 12, ready to leave in about 0.2 seconds. Cue another “train run” as first experienced on our last trip. I don’t do running and attempting to run while wearing my huge rucksack, just involves a whole lot of noise and sweat, but very little forward motion. But we made it and finally collapsed into a train carriage with a nice little lady onto whom we did our best not to drop our luggage and sweat.

A bit over an hour later we reached Gmunden and although there were signs of an earlier rain shower the day was now beautifully hot and sunny. We took a taxi to the Stadtplatz, where we had some food and enjoyed the lake while we waited for the musicians to turn up. There were a few posters up in the square advertising the street concert that was to take place, using the photo I’d taken for the homepage.

Soon enough the bus full of 40 musicians from across Europe arrived in the square and began unloading and setting up for the street concert. A crowd was forming and quickly grew as the Bulgarian gypsy brass band Karandila came playing through the square to where Hubert introduced the bands and Bavarian rising star Claudia Koreck, German jazz legend Klaus Doldinger, Moldovan stars Zdob si Zdub and Hubert and his band played their own sets as well as jamming together.

It was great and went down very well with everyone who had gathered. It was my first time seeing Karandila, Claudia Koreck and Zdob si Zdub live, although I’d seen bits and pieces of their performances on DVD. Despite not understanding the lyrics I couldn’t help but be infected by the rhythms, music and fantastic atmosphere. The musicians played for an hour before everyone and everything was loaded onto the coach. We climbed aboard too, glad to now be safely with the band and have transport stress behind us for the rest of the day.