When we woke this morning the boat was just pulling in to the perfect docking location in Passau, right at the tip of the peninsula where the old town is located. The peninsula lies between the confluence of the Danube and the Inn rivers and a few metres back opposite the boat the little Ilz river also flows into join the current.
There had been three options for passengers today. Firstly, have a short walking tour of Passau and then stay on the biat for the day’s cruising down to Linz. Secondly, take a day excursion to Salzburg in Austria and thirdly, take a day excursion to to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. We have already been to Salzburg and will be visiting Cesky Krumlov next week after the cruise ends,so the decision to stay on the boat was easy for us. Therese and Bob decided to head off for Cesky Krumlov so it was just the six of us that assembled by the boat at 8.30 for the walking tour of Passau. Our guide, Josephina, was excellent – informative, entertaining and quick.
Towering over the city is the fortress, which Gae and Greg climbed up to after the tour was over. They said the view from the top was lovely. It looks down towards the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) with its spectacular neo-gothic clock tower.
The fortress
Old City Hall
We passed a pretty building that was an orphanage, once only for Catholic children of good, devout families , which now provides a home for disadvantaged children of all faiths.
On the wall was one of the High Water Markers that shows how bad the floods had been in Passau in previous centuries. 2013 was one of the worst years when the city was inundated. The cleanup was a massive task carried out by the military and the local university students. Prior to the flood , many in the city frowned on the students for being to rowdy and drinking too much, but the students’ efforts in the flood cleanup endeared them to the entire town.
The pretty orphanage
Flood marker
The lower ateas of the town near the Danube are uninsurable due to the flood risk and let at a bery cheap rate to local artists who use the buildings for studios and galleries. Each year they choose a theme and this year they painted sll the lanes in rainbow shades.
Climbing up the hill past pretty frescos on baroque buildings, we found the main square and the Bishop’s Residence.
Greg and Steve walking under a painted gateway
Main Square
The Bishop had his own private entry to the cathedral via a high closed bridge.
Bishops Residence at left with high corridor entry to the cathedral
The Cathedral of St Peter has the largest Baroque interior north of the Alps and it was truly beautiful inside. I love Baroque churches, all that white and gold! This one has the largest organ of its kind in the world with 17000 pipes and 230 registers.
Neil under the Pipe organ
Josephina left us in front of the Cathedral where a small market was selling the usual fruits, bakeries and crafts.
We all split up at this stage, Neil and I headed down through the town again and walked some distance along the Inn river. From here we had a good view of the pilgrimage Church of Mariahilf. The covered stairway leading up to it has 321 steps, where devout pilgrims climb , saying a prayer on every step, often on their knees!
Walking along the Inn
The covered stair climbs to the Pilgrimage church
We strolled back along the river to the Three Rivers Promontory at the tip of the isthmus before finally heading back to the boat for “All Aboard” time. From the boat we tried calling the family who were all out to dinner for my Mum and Marlee’s birthday but the internet meant we could only see fuzzy faces and they couldnt really hear us. It was nice to see those fuzzy faces though 😊
The boat set off down the river and in a short time we crossed into Austria. Today was the first day in a while that the sundeck had been open, due to many very low bridges that needed to be negotiated on the canal, so we made a beeline for the seats up top. It was lovely to see the passing villages and castles from the top.
Enjoying the view from the sun deck
We could understand the hazards when we went through the large lock at the border, cruising under a very low bridge. We were able to stay up top but the crewman dropped all the gazebos down and we were ordered to stay seated … or we’d be knocked flat!
Duck!
The sun was out but it was pretty windy up on the top deck so we decided to hit the pool again. This time we swam under the open roof and enjoyed the sunshine streaming in.
Neil, Jo , myself and Gae staying in the sun!
Late in the afternoon we arrived in Linz, the third largest city in Austria. We had time to go for a short walk through the main city centre before dinner and finished off our night with a “Name that Tune” competition. Im afraid we only barely passed this one as we were a good 15 years too young for the questions, Dion and Connie Frances were before our time! A little dancing to finish up the evening and we headed for bed.
Linz
