Passau, Germany

Another grey day.  This morning we arrived in Germany.  Passau is located at the confluence of the Inn, Danube and Ilz rivers.  The city, which was founded by Celtic tribes and later occupied by the Romans, was an important medieval center for the salt trade.   It has been destroyed or damaged by fire and flood, and, as a result, you can see gothic, baroque and other architecture mixed together.

The old city was badly flooded in June as the runoff from more than 3 weeks of rain caused the rivers to rise to record levels.  This tower on the Inn shows the water mark from the flood.  The bridge in the background was completely underwater.

Work was going on everywhere as they tried to dry out and repair buildings.  We were lucky -- for a while the cruises could not call here.  The town was flooded for a week, then it took several more weeks to restore facilities to even let the ships pull in along the quay. 

 This is not the first time the city has been flooded... the markers on this building show water marks from 1054, 1787, 1899 and 1786.  The 2013 flood was 1.5 m above the top mark.








The east bank of the Danube is "guarded" by a fortress that was built in 1399. 
















Above the Inn, there is a church that sits atop the hill.  The pilgrims must climb 321 steps to reach the church from the river level.  The yellow building at the bottom of the steps is a brewery (one of 5 in Passau)... the guide said that one's knees don't hurt as much if you start the pilgrimage with a few beers at the brewery.

While we were in front of the cathedral, a truck pulled up carrying what our guide described as "holy water" -- it seems this brewery is owned by the church.

St Stephen's Cathedral is the centerpiece of old town.  It is from the baroque era, and the décor inside is ornate plaster work.  It has what was the world's largest pipe organ when it was built  (it is now the 5th largest).  There are more than 17,000 pipes in five organs that are linked together electronically and can be played from a single control station with multiple keyboards.  The tallest pipe is 42 feet and the smallest is 1 inch.  Normally the tours get a short concert, but they quit doing them at the end of Oct because the cold weather makes it hard to keep the organ tuned.