The City of Three Rivers: Passau

Passau...the Italy of Germany

Wow.  We paraded off the boat today, met our guide and headed out to see the sights of Passau.  What a city.  I Instagramed the picture below and used a couple of special effects on it, but otherwise it's the real thing.  After lunch we climbed to the top of the Veste Oberhaus which offered incredible views of Passau, thus the photo.

Passau sits within the "V" of a landmass made by the convergence of the Inn, Ilz and Danube Rivers.   It's called the "City of Three Rivers" for obvious reasons.  It is, like a couple of the other German cities we have visited, quite colorful and quaint.  (Below is the actual photograph without the filters.)

After our tour today, we had lunch at a little cafe just on the other side of the suspension bridge in the photo.  One thing I have noticed over and over....Americans are unbelievably loud!  There are ten of us on this trip (which, granted is a large group) but we have encountered other large groups of Germans and you don't hear a peep out of them.  They sit there, eat their meals, and are as quiet as mice.  We have a couple of things working against us...We are Americans and we are Louisianians; therefore, we are loud.  That's pretty much not going to change.

All the pictures above were taken after our tour of the city.  We climbed to the top of Veste Oberhaus, a 13th-Century fortress built by the prince-bishops, which offered incredible views.

After climbing to the top of the fortress, Lynn, Tony and I went to the Museum of Modern Art in Passau.  It was very small.  The building it was housed in was pretty old and cool.  Then we walked down to the park at the tip of the peninsula (above).

Everyone rides bikes here.  I loved all the bikes in this alley.

 A vegetable stand in Passau

 Walking behind our friends on our tour

St Stephens is the magnificent baroque cathedral located on the highest point of the Old Town.  We went to an organ recital at noon.  The organ here is the largest in the world other than a relatively new one in California.  It was quite impressive.  

A couple of people have asked about our ship and the food on board.  This is not a great picture so I will try to get another.  I also took pictures of our cabin when we arrived...before we had our stuff scattered all over the place.  The pictures really make the rooms look much larger than they are.

The food has been wonderful.  Each night we sit in the dining room that has floor to ceiling windows on both sides and we are given a menu.  We usually have 3-4 selections in each course.  The portions are not too large so you don't feel stuffed when you leave.  Breakfast is especially good.  The chef makes omelets and fried eggs to order.