Page 574 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

Sat & Sun Nov-Mar), you can Mon-Sat, 8am-7.15pm Sun) is
purchase monk-made a neo-Gothic giant of a
brews (dark Gregorius, cathedral with a riot of STIFT ST. FLORIAN/BEYER
amber Benno, and blond pinnacles, flying buttresses
Nivard); the shop also and filigree traceried
sells liqueurs and cheeses windows.
produced here. Adjoining
the shop is the abbey’s 54 p575
gorgeous rococo church, The Drive » Take the A1
completed in 1764. southeast to Ebelsberg, then
continue on the L564 to St
The Drive » Take the B130; at Florian (21km all up).
Aschach an der Donau, cross the
river on the B131, and continue
east to Ottensheim to join the TRIP HIGHLIGHT
B127 to Linz (52km in total).
4 St Florian
Rising like a vision above
3 Linz St Florian is its mag-
The Austrian saying In nificent abbey, Augustiner
Chorherrenstift (www.
Linz beginnt’s (It begins
in Linz) sums up this stift-st-florian.at; Stiftstrasse
AUSTRIA 40 ALONG THE DANuBE
technology trailblazer. 1; tours €8.50; h11am, 1pm &
Its leading-edge Ars 3pm May-early Oct). Dating
Electronica Center (www. to at least 819, it has been
occupied by the Canons
aec.at; Ars Electronica Strasse 1;
adult/child €8/6; h9am-5pm Regular, living under
Augustinian rule, since
Tue-Fri, to 9pm Thu, 10am-6pm
Sat & Sun) has labs for 1071. Today its imposing
interacting with robots, yellow-and-white facade is on the B3. After 2.4km take
overwhelmingly baroque.
animating digital objects, the L1411 for 2.5 signposted
Compulsory guided
converting your name tours of the abbey’s interi- kilometres to the Mauthausen
to DNA and (virtually) Memorial (22km in total).
travelling to outer space. or take in the resplendent
After dark, the LED glass apartments adorned with
rich stuccowork and fres-
skin kaleidoscopically 5 Mauthausen
changes colour. Directly cos, including 16 emperors’ Memorial
rooms (once occupied by
across the Danube is Linz’s Nowadays Mauthausen
world-class contemporary- visiting popes and royalty) is a peaceful small town
art gallery, the glass-and- and a galleried library on the north bank of the
housing 150,000 volumes.
steel Lentos (www.lentos. Danube, but during WWII
The Stiftsbasilika
at; Ernst-Koref-Promenade 1; (h7am-dusk) is an exuber- the Nazis turned the quar-
adult/child €8/4.50, guided tours ant affair with an altar rying centre into the KZ
€3; h10am-6pm Tue-Sun, to Mauthausen concentra-
9pm Thu), with works by carved from 700 tonnes of tion camp. Prisoners were
pink Salzburg marble, and
Warhol, Schiele and Klimt, forced into slave labour
among others. a gold 18th-century organ. in the granite quarry and
But it’s not all new in The Drive » Head northeast many died on the so-called
Austria’s third-largest on the L566 to join the B1. Todesstiege (stairway of
city: the Mariendom (Her- Follow it for 7.5km then turn death) leading from the
renstrasse 26; h7.30am-7pm east on the B123 to cross the
Danube, before turning west quarry to the camp. Some
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