Day 10 - Passau, Germany

Leaving Linz, the bridges in front of and behind us were brilliantly illuminated.  This was a fitting end to a peaceful day (mostly - as I noted, Anne took the optional tour to visit a former concentration camp.) Meanwhile I walked into Linz in search of souvenirs. I had seen an interesting shop on our morning tour and returned to find it closed! The only other shop that I found open sold an unappealing variety of wholesome organic lotions, scented candles, and slippers. There was a giant rack of chocolates, but not knowing the language, I could not tell if they were sugar free or made with strange fruits or nuts. I returned to the ship empty handed.

We arrived early the next morning in Passau, Germany, our final destination and awoke to a steady downpour. Undaunted, we geared up for our morning walking tour of the city. We boarded a bus for the 15-minute drive into town and paired up with our guide, a chirpy young man who spoke very good English without an accent even though he is a native German. It rained on an off, and our hooded rain jackets proved equal to the task (the large bright red Viking umbrella was more trouble to manage than it was a help). 

The city of Passau is actually built on a peninsula, bordered on one side by the Danube and on the side by the Inn River. There is a third smaller river that joins the Inn River near the tip of the peninsula. We learned that the border with Austria is very near and that gas is 30 to 40 euros less expensive there. The fountains and the public building illuminations are turned off to save power in anticipation of the need to conserve power for the approaching winter due to the anticipated severe reduction in natural gas supply from Russia.

We learned that the large palace, Veste Orbhouse, that we could see on a hill across the river was built in 1499 and that the Bishop was able to escape invaders at one point and return with a large enough army to defeat them. Our guide was most enthusiastic about the very large and beautiful church, St. Stephen's Cathedral, into which we were able to retreat from the rain and sit down while he told us about its famous organ - or actually five organs all of which were wired to be played from one central control console. It is the largest church organ outside the US and offers a half-hour concert every day, except Sunday, at noon for a fee.

We were shown the high water marks of past floods recorded on a building by the river and learned that the worst flood since the 1500’s occurred in 2003. The mayor of the city closed the university (which is free to all 12,000 students) and offered the students free food and beer for their help in cleaning up the flood damage - which was accomplished in 10 days, though reconstruction, paid for by the government, took much longer.

Leaving Linz:

Passau photos: