Passau

 Our final day. Viking offers two similar trips on the Danube. One has two days of Vienna but no Linz, Passau or Bratislava. It does include Regensburg, which we saw on our own two years ago. I do prefer Passau to Regensburg. We started off with  early morning walking tour on their  at walk though no studios were open, looking at flood markers which were about 9 feet high  during the flood of 2013.  Three rivers come together so our guide compared it to Pittsburgh which also has hree rivers. Our previous city Linz was also compared to Pittsburgh being a grimy steel center that now has cleaned up.

Hitler also spent his toddler years here falling through the ice at one point to be rescued by an older child who later became a priest. This priest later regretted saving such a monster to be but how could he tell. We ended up in their fancy church which has the largest organ in Europe and gives organ concerts almost every day. If there wasn't so much to see, we should have done that.. After lunch, we climbed the big hill going up lots of steps to an old fort and castle which had beautiful views. Rhen back down the hill to have a beer at the Art Museum cafe along the river. Then we went to the more modern part of town. Lots of walking. A beautiful city.

view of the other side of the river from our top deck

the guide is pointing out a marker around the level of the windows

One big difference between Europeans and Americans is the  eating of horses. This is a horse butcher

town hall. Students were camped in tents on the side wanting Germany and the world to be more green

our afternoon target

the execution house, now a bar

the River Ilk. The third river, the River Inn is much smaller. It's the one that Hitler almost drowned in

church courytard

a pretty church

part of their huge organ

church steeple

hat and necklace store

cute street

the world's only dachshund museum or Dankel museum containing all things dachshund. It's the Bavarian's favorite dog though I didn't see anyone with one. Did see a lot of pugs and French bulldogs though

outside the museum

climbing those stairs

the fort on top

the view

Steve sitting at my beer break

Steve at the confluence of the Danube and Ilk

church in the modern section

downtown stores

more colorful buildings

our dinner menu that night. They try to include local dishes. You pick three courses. If you don't like the menu, there is always New York Strip steak and Norwegian poached salmon.

So I picked the Tom Gai soup (i know, not Bavarian)krustenbraten and the donauwellekuchen. Steve had the tom gai also and dorado though I think he had the default creme brule on the other page

My Danube wave cake

Very tasty