Between Ruhr and Pécs: Linz 2009

This morning I woke up against an horizon of snow-capped hills at ‘Haag’ service station. After a few phonecalls asking “Where exactly are you?” the photographer of ‘Der Kronen Zeitung’ (the leading Austrian newspaper) appears. A few minutes after the photoshoot we meet Peter Mandl and his colleague Thomas Nikolopoulos. They run a company in exhibition services and were driving back from home Essen. They are on their way to Graz, but after a nice conversation they don’t mind taking a longer way to bring us to a service station just before Linz.

Halfway our trip down the motorway we are passed by an Austrian policecar and the ‘Follow’ sign comes up. We follow them to a weighingpoint, where the car-caravan combination is put onto a set of scales. A serious looking policeman takes Peter Mandl apart while we stay at the scales. We are not permitted to take photographs so we don’t try to push our luck. It appears that we are too heavily loaded. Later, back in the car, Peter explains that only his car is too heavy and we don’t have to worry about the caravan.

Later, at the ‘Ansfelden’ service station just before Linz, we meet Pia Leydolt, a member of the Linz 2009 organizing committee. Our photos are taken once again for yet another newspaper and we are presented a beautiful book about Linz European Cultural Capital 2009. It is funny and strange at the same time, to have these official and formal moments at places like gas stations and parking lots.

At the service station restaurant we do an interview for the Austrian OÖ Nachrichten. All together it has quickly become late in the afternoon and we hav difficulty finding a lift to Linz city center from here. At 9 o’clock that evening there are literally no cars at all with a tow bar, and traffic is extremely light. Will we have to spend another night alongside the motorway?

Right at that moment Emanuela Cecchella appears. She has stopped to quickly walk her dog. “How nice, typically Dutch. From Utrecht, yes, a beautiful city. Of course I can take you to city center, where exactly do you want to go?” And before we know it we wake up in the middle of Linz, right alongside the Danube river. Speaking about rapids!