Passau, Germany

Today is our last stop in Germany.  We had breakfast with Debbie and Peter.  Debbie is taking the side trip to Salzburg.  It is an all day affair.  Peter is not sure about going.  We are not going.

Passau is where the Danube, Ilz, and the Inn Rivers all meet.  Historically it prospered from trade in wine, wheat and salt.  Passau is called the City of Three Rivers.   The old town sits on a narrow peninsula between the Danube and the Inn.

We decided to do our own walking tour so we headed out toward the meeting of the rivers.  We passed many river boats docked here.  We also passed the town hall.

The tower of the old town hall.

The old town hall.

More views from our walk.

These tunnels were across the river.

Spring is here in Passau.

Passau was the largest bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire, a legacy that endures today as there are 52 other churches in this town with a population of only 50,000.  The most imposing of these churches is St. Stephen's Cathedral with contains the world's largest pipe organ.

We were able to get inside the Cathedral for a short visit.  While we were there, a man came and told us to leave as he was locking up.  Seems they have an organ concert at 11:30am and in order to make sure everyone pays, he empties the Cathedral and then reopens it for the concert.

One of the towers of St. Stephen's.

The interior of St. Stephen's is just beautiful.  The ceiling is all frescos.

The front altar from a distance.

Just look at this ceiling.  Just beautiful.

The pulpit at St. Stephen's.

More of the paintings in St. Stephen's.

Also lots of sculptors inside the Cathedral.

A close up of the front altar.  Bob was rushed and not able to change lens so we were not able to get the entire sculptor.

Two close ups of the front sculptor.

The dates of the St. Stephen's.

The Cathedral was originally founded on the site of a Roman camp.  Its Baroque appearance was created by Italian architects after the town was destroyed by fire twice in the 1600's.   Napoleon called Passau the "most Italian looking city north of the Alps".

While the walk along the river is flat, the city itself is very hilly.  But we were lucky as we walked mostly down instead of up.

I am at the bottom of the hill.  These are some of the homes in Passau.  The people must go up or down to get to the shops, church, etc.

After our visit to the Cathedral, we returned to the ship.  We are setting sail at 11:45am to head to Linz, Austria.  There we will pick up the people from the Salzburg tour.

We went up to the sun deck to watch us leave Passau.  Then to lunch with Joe and Emily.  Joe now has a cold.  Then back to the cabin to nap.

The rest of the afternoon we sailed toward Linz.  We continue to travel through the locks.  We will arrive around 7pm to pick up the other people who went to Salzburg.

We are eating tonight with Stephen and Nancy from New Orleans.  This will be in the other restaurant. We ate there last night but they asked us to join them and I thought it would be rude to say no.  But I did tell Nancy that we ate there last night and to see if it would be okay for us to eat there again.  So we will have a good dinner for sure.

I will post this now and if anything different happens, I will add a post.