Passau

Passau:

After breakfast this morning we were bussed to Passau where we will meet out new ship the Viking Emblar. 

The city of three rivers. It is here the Inn, Ilz, and the Danube converge. Each river has a distinct color. The Inn is green , the Danube is blue and the Ilz is black. Passau ofttimes suffers from high water the latest was 13 meters high in 2013. 

Historically many of the river towns started as parts of trade routes. The item of wealth which was traded was the precious salt. Salt was a valued commodity as there was no refrigeration the use of salt was very important in the preservation of food. 

One of this towns highlights is St. Stephens Cathedral, simply magnificent. Very difficult to explain and photographs were not allowed. 

Since we were doing our third ship swap, we were provided lunch at a local restaurant. Here we had a beef broth soup with a dumpling, roast pork with spatzle, and berries for desert.  

As it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed and  we meandered the streets. We then climbed to the top of Krempelstein Castle in an effort to get a view of the three rivers converging. The primary overlook was closed, but we did find an alternative. From there we returned to the waterfront and walked to the point where the rivers meet. 

We finally got to see some sun and the warm alpenglow bathed the buildings along the river. 

We returned to our new ship and unpacked, met the new steering committee, and had dinner and crashed. We have been lucky and I would guess 85-90% of the service crew has traveled with us. The Cruise Director has been with us all the way. 

A quick lesson in architecture,  Gothic style will be pointed reaching to heaven and Baroque style finds heaven here on earth. 

We have seen many cathedrals and each is very humbling in its own right.  Some are beautifully awe inspiring with their ornate grandure.  The smaller cathedrals are humbling with simple reverence.