Sep 18 - Passau, Germany

St Stephen’s Cathedral

( tap to enlarge)

Passau, a German city on the Austrian border, lies at the confluence of 3 rivers -  the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz.  A 13th-century hilltop fortress which now houses a city museum and observation tower overlooks the old town below.  The original buildings made of wood, with shingled roofs were largely destroyed by fire in 1662.  There was a notable Italian influence in rebuilding with the new buildings being constructed of stone with tile roofs and painted with pastel colours.

Our walking tour took us through the old town.  The guide explained that farmers from the surrounding areas used to bring their wares into town and each colour of the pastel houses was significant so the merchants were easily recognizable.  The pink was the butcher - with the pink colour representing the blood of the animals.  The pale green was the pharmacy as remedies of the time were often herbs and plants.  The yellow represented beer and wine. Those colours, and others are still seen throughout the town today.

          Photo taken from the Sun Deck ( top deck) of our ship.

             This photo taken sailing up the Danube near Passau

                 Watermarks on the wall of a building showing 

                   how high the water came during the floods.

                                  The Bishop’s Residenz

Passau is known for its baroque architecture, including St. Stephen's Cathedral, featuring distinctive onion-domed towers and Europe’s largest pipe organ with 17,974 pipes. Its baroque cupola identifies it as a Roman Catholic Church.  European cathedrals are breathtakingly beautiful!  Even though it is under repair, St Stephen’s is amazing!

Some of the pipes of the organ

After an interesting tour, we made our way back to the ship for lunch.  During lunch we heard an announcement that our afternoon excursion had been cancelled for safety reasons.  Apparently they have been having a lot of rain in the area of Schärding, which is where the tour would have been, and it was determined that the boat cruise we were taking would not be safe.  This is OK with us as we were both tired after all the walking this morning

So now we have a free afternoon to relax, play games on our iPads, read, and generally enjoy the cruise.

We haven’t said much about the ship.  The Viking Rolf is beautiful, one of about 30 identical longboats. The meals are delicious, attractively presented, and servings are average in size.  Thank God, or we would need to be shopping for new elastic waisted pants, and bigger tops as we seem to be going to another meal, snack, or food demonstration non stop!  And the ice cream is to die for!!!  So rich and creamy!!  I can’t even think about the calories!!  The crew are very visible and constantly interact with the guests.

We find ourselves comparing it with our ocean cruises.  We like the size of the river ships; we continue to meet the same people at meals or in the lounge so it feels much more intimate, there are no line-ups for anything, we can dock right in the cities. The crew are always available to fulfil any request and seem to be happy doing their jobs.

The itinerary is very port-intensive!  I have found the excursions to be a negative for me because of the walking involved.  I think Europeans tend to be great walkers, so what they deem to be a ‘short walk’  is a workout for me!!  And at every port the included excursion is usually a walking tour. Whereas on Ocean Cruise excursions they tend to get us out into the Countryside,  covering a much larger area. Mary’s comment is quite apt as she describes this more like a bus tour, than a cruise.  It does feel like that.

I must say, Viking is a class act!  You will remember from an earlier post on the blog our experience at the Lipizzaner Training School.  I returned to the ship on my own by cab and chatted with one of the people at guest services about the misleading description of the tour as ‘easy’.  

Again, yesterday, the extensive walk to the bus from where we were docked was a surprise and as it happened, Tessa was leading our group and could see what I was faced with, falling farther and farther behind with each step.   Mary said Tessa spoke with her at some point during the tour of the Abbey and said they would be refunding my Lipizzaner tour.    

Then, last night, when we returned to our stateroom after dinner, there was a little box of chocolates and a bottle of wine with an apology note from Tessa, the Program Director, and Dimitrios, the Hotel Manager.  Completely unexpected - and very much appreciated!  

 We have had our first rainy day today with temperature around 10°C.  I think, unfortunately, it may be the same tomorrow.  We can’t complain as we have had good weather to this point, and hopefully more to come as we sail towards Amsterdam.

So tomorrow we’ll be in Regensburg.

Talk soon!

The Lazy Ladies!

❤️❤️❤️