Howells in a Castle

Tuesday 6^th September 2016

We did nit have a morning excursion today so had a sleep in and a late breakfast at 9:00am. Overnight our ship sailed from Melk heading for Passau. On the way it stopped at 6:35am for a brief time in Brandstatt to drop of the people who were doing the Salzburg & Cesky Krumlow day tours. We then continued sailing to Passau.

Weather today has been cool again, predicted to be only 19° with cloud but no rain.

We spent the morning arranging for washing to be done and sitting in the lounge catching up on social media posts and generally having a rest. During the mornings sailing we went through 2 locks and it was very interesting to watch as the ship went into the lock and rose up before sailing out the other end.

Had a light lunch in the Reflection Lounge.

The ship arrived Docked in Passau around 2:00pm and we disembarked at 2:30pm for a guided walking tour of the City. The tour was very interesting and made more so because the guide had an excellent sense of humour . The City is full of very narrow lanes & alleys. Passau only has a population of approx. 58,000 and about 15,000 are students.

Passau in actually has 3 rivers flowing through it, the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz. The city floods frequently with water levels rising up to 5 meters above normal.

Walked to St Stephens Cathedral, which is a stunning building with the 3^rd largest pipe organ in the world weighing 35 tones. Amazingly when the organ was installer in the gallery level the building did not have to be modified or strengthened at all.

At the end of our tour we walked back to the ship and as Passau is famous for beer, (it has over 1,000) private breweries) we stopped at the pub outside the Rathhaus (Council Building) to sample one of the dark beers which was very good.

Dinner tonight is at 7:00pm, which will be followed by live music in the lounge. We will probably talk to some of the people we have met so far before watching the ship leave Passau heading for Regensburg.