Passau- Rain & more rain

Overcast with rain and cold

The Ratskeller Building - City Government Bldg
Note:  This is right along the Danube River

We are now on the Danube River.  Today's port of call is Passau, where the Inn, Danube and Ilz Rivers all converge.  As usual, we took an hour to hour and half walking tour of the old town that lies between the Danube and Inn Rivers.  Of course, as usual, with this trip the rain continues to fall making our vacation a little unpleasant.

Hotel where the actress who played Sissy liked to stay

Saint Stevens Square

Cheryl always finds a friend. 
A musician playing in a narrow alleyway this morning.

Cheryl's Doorway
A secret portal to who knows where




True Germans



Nein, Nein, Fraulein

The remedy, of course, is to find a Chocolate Restaurant and to have a slice of cake.  I don't know what they call the cake but it had chocolate cake, strawberry filling, strawberry cake, and whipping cream.  A treat to die for--okay, take a break from the rain for.

Since it's Sunday, we decided to attend church, Catholic Mass, in German, in the Passau Dom.  This church bears the dual cross on top which means that it has a direct link to God.  Okay, we really didn't go to mass to worship but instead to hear the world's 3rd largest and Europe's largest pipe organ.  In order to do this it required us to sit in the Dom while mass was being conducted.  A beautiful Baroque cathedral with a bellowing organ was worth sitting thru part of mass.































Here is a sample of the sounds of this wonderful organ:

Some more shopping - as if we haven't done any this trip.  Then more rain and wind to soak us, at least from the waist down. Umbrellas were useless. We found a little restaurant to have a Coke and grilled ham and cheese sandwich.  Then back to the boat to dry out for the remainder of the day.






 Oh... do you really think is going to rain today?











THE REST OF THE STORY

On May 28th, we disembarked from our ship and flew home.  Our cruise ship continued on with a majority of the passengers to Prague. 

The rains never stopped!  June 3rd, an alert for flooding was issued and on the 4th of June the Danube River and other tributaries overflowed their banks creating the devastating floods of 2013 in Europe.  



Aerial View of Passau, Germany Flood of 2013

Remember, Passau Ratskeller Building?

Here is Anke, our tour guide, standing
in front of the Passau Ratskeller Building
Note the flood marks on the building.
Floods of 2013 exceeded the highest mark!

Passau Ratskeller Building during flooding

Passau Flooding - the bridge in this picture is the bridge
posted above where I took the picture and asked "Do you think
it is going to rain today?"

River Cruise Ships parked on the streets of Passau.
Note the little white building with a courtyard in front upper left center
We ate lunch here two weeks ago. 

I believe that this is the interior of the little restaurant that we
ate lunch at in Passau

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those people who are suffering and facing the challenges that nature can bring into our lives.  It is sobering to think of all the damage and destruction that has occurred to this beautiful town.  May God bless them is our prayer.