Our last stop of the cruise was Passau, Germany. We were docked right in the heart of the old town. Passau is known as the “City of Three Rivers”, as it sits at a point where the Danube is joined by both the River Inn and the Ilz River. Everytime I heard somebody say the “River Inn” I could swear they were talking about a hotel.
We had signed up for a hike along the Ilz River, and met our guide on the dock. There was road work going on so our bus had to take a back road to our starting point. We were basically taking a bus down what should have been a one-way residential street, but it was two ways, and it wasn’t wide enough for that! I was so stressed (terrible back-seat driver that I am) to even take photos! Needless to say, our driver ran into two spots where I thought for sure he was either taking out a parked car or the wall of a house….but he managed to miss them both with nary a scratch! We even had one spot where a guy ran out of his house to move his car because he was sure the bus wouldn’t make it by! The bus driver earned his pay and then some!
We finally made it to the start of our hike, and I needed some time to decompress because I always put myself in the position of the driver. Thankfully the hike was beautiful! First up were some castle ruins overlooking the Ilz River. I loved seeing the windows of the house just to the right of the ruins…what a cool spot to call home!
Here is our trusty group of 8 fellow cruise passengers who opted for the hike. I can’t imagine how crowded the other excursion was! Three busloads = not a fun time!
We crossed the Ils River on our way upstream.
The views upstream from the bridge are excellent!
Our guide pointed out these markers on the trees, which marked the path of Pandurensteig. This is the same path taken by the Pandurs, a troop of soldiers working under a charter from Empress Maria Theresa (her name keeps coming up!) who took this path in 1742 during their campaign in the War of the Austrian Succession. We just did this little snippet of about 5 miles…the complete path is 112 miles long! Maybe in our next lives.
The hike we took was a loop, and the place where we looped back was this damn on the river. The dark color of the water is due to bogs upstream, much like several waterfalls we saw in Ireland.
The view across the lake created by the damn is so gorgeous!
On our hike back we hit this high point looking down on the river. I’ve gotta say that if the rest of Germany looks like this I can’t wait to get back!
As we finish the loop we look down upon the bridge where we previously crossed the river. Off to the right of that bridge is a set of man-made islands that were placed there to assist with logging in the past. They would line up barricades to keep the logs from going downriver, and then feed them into a tunnel they blasted into the side of the hill we were standing on to bypass a tight part of the river.
Here is that tunnel, set up today to allow hikers to complete the loop. The water would have to be a lot higher than it is in this photo to float any logs through this passage. The stream on the left was barely flowing.
We made it back to the ship without making the bus driver endure his prior experience…we ended up taking the city bus, which we should have done in the first place!
Once safely back, we took a walk around the city center, which sits on an island between the Danube and the River Inn. The confluence of these rivers is quite interesting, since they all have a different color of water. Here is a photo that tells the story better than words (not my photo).
We had some extra time to walk around Passau, so we headed towards yet another “Saint Stephen’s Cathedral”. We passed this beautiful square near the church, and were disappointed to see all of these young people smoking…it remains a huge problem in Europe, but seems particularly bad here in the Czech Republic. We’ve even seen the old smoking vending machines littered through the cities here. Ok, enough of the negatives.
Saint Stephen’s comes into view between two other buildings. I love the views on the streets in these old cities!
The interior of the Saint Stephen’s Cathedral was of course beautiful. As we say when we are traveling in Europe, it was “ABC”…Another Beautiful Church! This site held a church as early as 730, but the current Cathedral was built from 1668 to 1693 after a fire destroyed its predecessor in 1662.
My only minor issue is the lack of stained glass windows, which we have come to love…so a little ding there. A- perhaps? In their defense, they did lose the entire roof during WWII due to flying sparks from houses which were burning in the vicinity.
I noted this reliquary in the cathedral. I love my reliquaries, as they always hold something interesting…or comical…depending on the implied item held within.
This one is supposed to contain an organ, I can’t remember which one (heart, liver, whatever) of Altmann, the Bishop of Passau from 1065 until his death in 1091. They truly were pretty damned morbid!
As you exit the Cathedral you get a damn nice view of the main shopping street that runs through Passau.
Everybody was out shopping…the weather was perfect! One thing to note, I go out of my way to try to avoid shots of large crowds, so presume that no matter what my photos show, it’s more crowded than it appears.
The next morning we departed our Uniworld ship, and had a driver ready to take us to Prague, but not before stopping at a Czech Republic highlight and the subject of my next post, Cesky Krumlov!