August 27-29: Passersby in Passau

 

High above the city of Passau sits the Veste Oberhaus which was originally the home of the bishop also known as the  TAX COLLECTOR. Passau sits, like Pittsburgh, at the juncture of three rivers, Danube, Ilz and Inn and had plenty of river traffic  (often in salt from Salzberg) for the taxing! The fortress was attacked seven times, three of them sponsored by none other than the townspeople of Passau who had no love for the bishop in their hearts! We hiked up here in the rain. The path was seriously eroded and we had to detour due to a fallen tree, but it was worth the effort to see this structure from the year 1499. 

The Danube River

Long live the Danube River
Where every man from all over the world sail
Just to be with you.

Aldo Krauss

Passau, in additional to being a clean, old and interesting is where we ended our river journey with Viking cruises. As far as the cruise went, the service, food, scenery and value were great, although they did seem to cater in general to an older, less active guest demographic. But hey. I'm not complaining. We had a great time and got to spend quality moments with our US friends whom we don't see as often as we like because they live in Nashville and Cincinnati. 

Claudia biking along the Inn River. We took a 2.5 hour electric bike tour and can't recommend it enough. It follows the German Camino de Santiago de Compostela! We had SO much fun and the eBike made it super easy. I am definitely having eBike lust...

Shelley, longtime friend and coworker, fashioned a tiara for herself. You wear it well!

Shelley and Claudia departed for home and we will miss these lovely ladies and travel companions extraordinaire for the rest of our journey. Safe home, y'all!

Passau is a German city on the Austrian border, and lies at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers. Known as the Three Rivers City, it's overlooked by the Veste Oberhaus, a 13th-century hilltop fortress housing a city museum and observation tower. They wisely left the steel mills down the road in Linz unlike Pittsburg.  

Our Viking ship, the Aegir at the confluence of the rivers. The Inn River drains from the Alps and has six times the volume of the Danube (not blue here due to rain this day). When it rains heavily or snow is melting, there is a tendency for the Danube to "back up and flood" due to the stronger waters of the Inn River. We saw water markings on the Town Hall up to 15 feet above the ground. When we left, the Danube was also flooding somewhat as it rained for 2 straight days all day long. The bridge we passed under with the boat was impassable. 

The Veste Oberhaus has a reconstructed apothecary in it and these are some of the flasks as well as a fireplace for concoctions that need heating. 

There was a paper lamp exhibit from a Japanese artist. Very cool!

The apothecary shop. The scales make sense. Not sure about the alligator!

 

Paul peruses Passau in the rain from the top of the observation tower. 

The Oberhaus is on the Austrian side of the Danube where Germany has encroached a bit on amicably for these old structures. On the German side of the Danube,  Old Town is known for its Baroque architecture, including St. Stephen's Cathedral, featuring distinctive onion-domed towers and an organ with 17,974 pipes.

St Stephen's Cathedral Passau. Apparently nearly all churches in this neck of the woods are named after Steve..

Massive pipe organ at the church. However, the church was undergoing a major renovation so we saw only parts of this and lots of scaffolding 

Interior of St Stephen's Cathedral

Closer view of the ceilings

Not exactly a picture of the organ loft! There appears to be a big restoration in progress. 

We spent the next two nights in the MK Hotel right next to the train station. We found it reasonably priced with good sized rooms and two desks!

Train station Passau. Not exactly a Baroque beauty but convenient and  a very nice train ride.

The next day, we took extra time to explore Passau. It was raining pretty heavily, so we looked for something indoors and a bit off the beaten track. And we found the Glasmuseum! Very indoor indeed and housing over 36,000 pieces of fine art glass. This one is definitely in Atlas Obscura! And it started as a private collection. The museum opened in the 1970s with none other than Neil Armstrong cutting the opening ribbon!

I'm not sure Neil Armstrong was this happy when he walked on the moon, but they probably didn't let him have any beer made with the German purity law of 1516 up there on Luna!

The glass museum is housed inside the Hotel Wilder Manz and consists of 5 stories of glass. It's a mind-boggling amount of art glass and so pretty. Here are a few examples:

One of my favorites. I personally was drawn to the Art Nouveau and Art Deco pieces but they had pieces dating back about as far a glass does. 

Case after case after case and 36,000 pieces!

Paul was fascinated by the tongue on the snake and how they managed to curve this critter around the vase. 

Honestly, I could have filled up all the storage in my phone if I photographed all of it. 

I would go to this museum even if it was sunny outside. So unique. 
From here, we celebrated our survival of five floors of art glass by looking at three other glasses:

Bavarian beers and a complimentary lemoncello from the friendly barkeep 

That summed up our day, except for the dinner at a very nice restaurant ZW020 which a brave chef opened DURING the pandemic. That took some guts, but he has made it work and the Asian influenced fusion food was great-- if anyone is looking for a restaurant recommendation. They didn't have a lot of wine selection, but what they had was good. 

A very good place to eat in Passau

Overall, we had a fantastic couple of days in Passau with good friends, good food, hiking, biking sightseeing and more and the rain wasn't a deterrent to any of this. (And we got to purchase two very lightweight overpriced umbrellas, so what's not to love?)

“Most of Ludwig's excesses involved pursuits popular among Bavarians, who shared his love for hiking, drinking, and over the top decorating”
― Susan Barnett Braun , Not So Happily Ever After: The Tale of King Ludwig II

Paul's Passau Ponderings:

The Viking cruise has ended and we definitely enjoyed our time and saw a number of fantastic European cities and sights along the way. 

Passau was not a city I was aware of prior to the cruise. We found it to be somewhat medieval in that it was full of numerous narrow closed lanes that allowed no vehicles. Lots of cobblestone streets. This is a town that seems like you could devote more than the day and a half we had to exploring it and the surrounding areas. 

One thing we agreed on about the cruise is that it well managed, but you are docked in so many historic locations for such a short period that it is difficult to get an in-depth feel for those places you visit. 

Passau is a town that we would possibly return to in the future.  We recommend it as a regional place to visit. 

Now, we return to Vienna by train.