Got up early this AM because Jeremy, one of our Tour Directors, told us that it was a beautiful cruise into Passau.... he, was right, it truly was lovely, very green and forested right down to the river with the ever present swans along the way, then the approach to Passau was so unique...the confluence of the Inn, Ilz and Danube Rivers with lovely red roofed buildings (some dating back to the 15th century) on all of the shores. The waters are supposed to be 3 different colors, but we didn't see the difference. Much like the Danube which is NOT blue! The stories are that blue does not represent the color of the water but, rather, means drunk in German. Another story is that blue means depressing (from "I feel so blue:" and there are several other variations on those themes. Any way it clearly does not reflect the color of the water.
We had the most delightful tour guide in Passau. A lovely young woman, clearly enchanted by her city and funny, cute and knowledgeable. She had stories about most of the buildings, shared that 70% of the 50,000 population is Catholic, with the remaining 30% Lutheran. There is a town nearby that has 2500 Jews living there and the Rabbi and the Archbishop are friends so activities are planned between the 2 religious groups. We felt quite enightened by her stories (historical and current) about the place of the church in the politics of the area, taxation, the frequent flooding of the rivers, etc. Many buildings show high water marks from recent and long ago floods which seem to occur quite frequently in the rainy season. We also had tickets to an organ concert at the cathedral (the 2nd largest in the world and the largest in a cathedral). It was very powerful and we were glad to have had the opportunity to attend.
We walked around a bit after our guided tour, then returned to the boat for a Bavarian buffet lunch and packing in preparation for disembarkation in Regensburg tomorrow.
Pictures of Passau
We had a briefing to prepare us for the bus ride to Prague, hotel arrangements and transfers to the airport. Tauck takes care of everything...people are staying for different amounts of days in Prague - 2 days as part of this tour with many people adding extra days. They provide transportation to the airport no matter when you leave. We will be picked up at 7:30 AM on Wednesday for our 10:30 AM flight home.
After the briefing, we finished packing and dressed for the Captain's farewell dinner....consisting of open bar service reception pre-dinner, a fabulous multi-course dinner with touches such as a strawberry vodka shot between courses, silver metal napkin rings which they gave us as gifts to take home (not really silver :)), Baked Alaska with each plate including a mini-eclair, kiwi fruit, mousse filled chocolate cups as well as the Baked Alaska and after dinner brandy!
We waddled back to our room to finish packing and organize our carry-on stuff for the morning. We will be leaving the boat at 9 AM, our luggage will be taken to Prague awaiting our arrival there, and we will have a 1 1/2 hour walking tour of Regensburg prior to boarding the buses to Prague.
I think we'll have better Internet access at the Prague Marriott and, hopefully, I'll be able to work on my pictures...off to bed now...more tomorrow.
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