Monday in Passau.....
River time, our clock while sailing, put us into Passau early. We are in lower Bavaria near the Austrian border. This is a very interesting city sitting on the confluence of three rivers: The Danube the Inn and the Ilz.
The Danube is the longest of the three originating in the Black Forest. The Ilz wends for forty miles through the Bavarian forest, its waters blackish from it's marshy transit. Widest is the Inn whose headwaters in the Swiss Alps formed from glacial and snow melt bring it's green alluvial tint with it.
We are berthed near the end of the old town where the Ilz joins the Danube from the north merging with the Inn at a lovely green park at the tip. Here the different tones of the two bodies of water are distinct separated by the shimmy of their two currents meeting. These are fast moving currents filled with eddies and whirlpools and drownings are not uncommon.
Passau has a population of just over 50,000 of which about 13,000 are students at the University of Passau, founded in the late 1970's as an extension of the Institute for Catholic Studies. The University is renowned in Germany for its institutes of economics, law, theology, computer science and cultural sciences.
In keeping with the Bavarian demographic, Passau is a Catholic City and today is the Feast of Mary's Assumption, so again the shops are closed. Several Masses are celebrated today so the peal of church bells fill the air.
We meet our guide Anya on the promenade next to the ship. A young mother, she splits her time between guiding tours through her birth city and working at an office. Tall and lithe with a sandy colored ponytail she has a wry sense of humor and accent-free English. We can tell at the start that this will be a good tour.
She brings us around the tip of the park continuing on the edge of the Inn River. This is student territory where an an apartment can be rented for about 400 Euro per month including utilities. Students can walk to the university and the area is filled with bars and cafes. While August to mid-September is the official German summer vacation and schools are on hiatus, we can hear the occasional blast of rock music coming from the apartment buildings.
To our left is a hillside monastery connected to the water's edge by a covered ramp. Tradition recommends making the transit to the monastery on one's knees for penance. We, however, simply do not have the time today.
Anya takes us past her Catholic elementary school for girls with bars on the windows, which bring back some memories from my education. Here in the Convent Niedernburg Queen Gisela is interred in a sarcophagus. A local who made good with her marriage to King and Saint Stephen of Hungary, she returned to Bavaria after his death.
This entire area was razzed by several fires, the last in 1662. The boy's high school, or Gymnasium, run by the the Jesuits was rebuilt in 1664. The fires also extended to the Cathedral and the Domplatz burning the wooden structure down. In 1668, St. Stephen's Cathedral was rebuilt by Italian artisans and it is a masterpiece of Baroque style. Anya says that is all her years in Passau she has never seen the cathedral without scaffolding.
The entire inside is a jewel box of ornate carving, one thousand statues and one hundred and fifty frescoes. But the dominating feature is the massive pipe organ comprised of 17,774 pipes. The largest in a cathedral, the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles takes the size prize in mere scope. Unfortunately, there is no organ concert today. Held from May to October, they are extremely popular and are always sold out.
Currently led by a charismatic fifty-one year old bishop, co-incidentally named Stephen, attendance for the congregation has ballooned. Previously, Anya stated that church going was a bit like the French model where the majority of the congregants were pious little old ladies in black.
Anya concisely summarized German tax structure for us. Income tax ranges from 14 to 45%. Citizens will then pay 5.5% of that figure for a solidarity tax that underwrites the absorption of East Germany into West Germany and plus a church tax of 8 or 9% that funds the maintenance of churches. There are the mandatory insurances: health care, pensions, unemployment and long term care. So out of 3000 Euro of monthly gross pay, a German will net about 2000 Euro.
Non-Christians do not pay the church tax and Christian residents can "opt out" by getting a document from their parish confirming that they have renounced their faith. This might not be such a clever move if one ever wanted to get married, buried or have their children baptized by the church. Not to mention the number of Catholic employers here, such as schools and businesses with church connections that would rather hire the faithful.
Of course there is no fee for education, private or otherwise from kinder to university. University fees are calculated on a sliding scale based on income and seldom exceed 500 Euro per year even in the most prestigious institutions.
As we descend back toward the water we see the high water marks left from previous floods. Since the turn of the century there have been two major ones in 2002 and 2013. Anya was told that a flood was a once in a lifetime experience so imagine her surprise when 2013 came around, fortunately, she said, ruining her mother-in-law's tchotchke filled basement.
The town is dominated by the Veste Oberhaus and the former fortress of the Bishop on the mountain crest between the Danube and Ilz rivers. When Anya deposits us at the water's edge we pile into a twenty seat Mercedes mini-bus for the trek up to this former monastery with our South Carolina buddies. It doesn't take long too understand why the bus is the size it is. We barely squeak through one of the arched portals into the property.
Led astray by me, we wander off in the wrong direction away from our stated mission to take photos from the promontory next to the Oberhaus Restaurant. Crossing the bridge, however, did give us a chance to take this wonderful shot across the Danube.
Once we arrive at the top the views are magnificent, the two water colors distinct and the city with all it's landmarks at our feet. It was a 45 degree incline of a climb which will certainly mitigate some of the sausage we will be eating later at our Bavarian lunch, planned to commemorate our exit from Germany.
As reported........Due to its location on the German-Austrian border, and in the south-east of the country, Passau has become a major migrant entry point into Germany. Refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa who have reached Europe, often entering either overland via Greece or across the sea via the Mediterranean, then head north and sometimes enter Germany. In 2015 the BBC reported that traffickers drive them through Austria and leave them on the side of the autobahn. The migrants and refugees then often walk unaccompanied into Passau, the first German town to the north. This situation has caused the government of Passau to divert funds from flood prevention to housing and feeding of the migrants, around 10% of whom are unaccompanied children.
This particular water enthusiast looks right in character with his shades and perfectly tanned visage.
After dinner we were treated to some lovely chamber music in the lounge. From Strauss to Mozart, from Gershwin to John Williams's theme from Schindler's List it was a very professional and rousing concert.
Afterwards we adjourn to the top to watch the light show that is Linz, Austria compete with a full moon.
River time, our clock while sailing, put us into Passau early. We are in lower Bavaria near the Austrian border. This is a very interesting city sitting on the confluence of three rivers: The Danube the Inn and the Ilz.
The Danube is the longest of the three originating in the Black Forest. The Ilz wends for forty miles through the Bavarian forest, its waters blackish from it's marshy transit. Widest is the Inn whose headwaters in the Swiss Alps formed from glacial and snow melt bring it's green alluvial tint with it.
We are berthed near the end of the old town where the Ilz joins the Danube from the north merging with the Inn at a lovely green park at the tip. Here the different tones of the two bodies of water are distinct separated by the shimmy of their two currents meeting. These are fast moving currents filled with eddies and whirlpools and drownings are not uncommon.
Passau has a population of just over 50,000 of which about 13,000 are students at the University of Passau, founded in the late 1970's as an extension of the Institute for Catholic Studies. The University is renowned in Germany for its institutes of economics, law, theology, computer science and cultural sciences.
In keeping with the Bavarian demographic, Passau is a Catholic City and today is the Feast of Mary's Assumption, so again the shops are closed. Several Masses are celebrated today so the peal of church bells fill the air.
We meet our guide Anya on the promenade next to the ship. A young mother, she splits her time between guiding tours through her birth city and working at an office. Tall and lithe with a sandy colored ponytail she has a wry sense of humor and accent-free English. We can tell at the start that this will be a good tour.
She brings us around the tip of the park continuing on the edge of the Inn River. This is student territory where an an apartment can be rented for about 400 Euro per month including utilities. Students can walk to the university and the area is filled with bars and cafes. While August to mid-September is the official German summer vacation and schools are on hiatus, we can hear the occasional blast of rock music coming from the apartment buildings.
To our left is a hillside monastery connected to the water's edge by a covered ramp. Tradition recommends making the transit to the monastery on one's knees for penance. We, however, simply do not have the time today.
Anya takes us past her Catholic elementary school for girls with bars on the windows, which bring back some memories from my education. Here in the Convent Niedernburg Queen Gisela is interred in a sarcophagus. A local who made good with her marriage to King and Saint Stephen of Hungary, she returned to Bavaria after his death.
This entire area was razzed by several fires, the last in 1662. The boy's high school, or Gymnasium, run by the the Jesuits was rebuilt in 1664. The fires also extended to the Cathedral and the Domplatz burning the wooden structure down. In 1668, St. Stephen's Cathedral was rebuilt by Italian artisans and it is a masterpiece of Baroque style. Anya says that is all her years in Passau she has never seen the cathedral without scaffolding.
The entire inside is a jewel box of ornate carving, one thousand statues and one hundred and fifty frescoes. But the dominating feature is the massive pipe organ comprised of 17,774 pipes. The largest in a cathedral, the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles takes the size prize in mere scope. Unfortunately, there is no organ concert today. Held from May to October, they are extremely popular and are always sold out.
Currently led by a charismatic fifty-one year old bishop, co-incidentally named Stephen, attendance for the congregation has ballooned. Previously, Anya stated that church going was a bit like the French model where the majority of the congregants were pious little old ladies in black.
Anya concisely summarized German tax structure for us. Income tax ranges from 14 to 45%. Citizens will then pay 5.5% of that figure for a solidarity tax that underwrites the absorption of East Germany into West Germany and plus a church tax of 8 or 9% that funds the maintenance of churches. There are the mandatory insurances: health care, pensions, unemployment and long term care. So out of 3000 Euro of monthly gross pay, a German will net about 2000 Euro.
Non-Christians do not pay the church tax and Christian residents can "opt out" by getting a document from their parish confirming that they have renounced their faith. This might not be such a clever move if one ever wanted to get married, buried or have their children baptized by the church. Not to mention the number of Catholic employers here, such as schools and businesses with church connections that would rather hire the faithful.
Of course there is no fee for education, private or otherwise from kinder to university. University fees are calculated on a sliding scale based on income and seldom exceed 500 Euro per year even in the most prestigious institutions.
As we descend back toward the water we see the high water marks left from previous floods. Since the turn of the century there have been two major ones in 2002 and 2013. Anya was told that a flood was a once in a lifetime experience so imagine her surprise when 2013 came around, fortunately, she said, ruining her mother-in-law's tchotchke filled basement.
The town is dominated by the Veste Oberhaus and the former fortress of the Bishop on the mountain crest between the Danube and Ilz rivers. When Anya deposits us at the water's edge we pile into a twenty seat Mercedes mini-bus for the trek up to this former monastery with our South Carolina buddies. It doesn't take long too understand why the bus is the size it is. We barely squeak through one of the arched portals into the property.
Led astray by me, we wander off in the wrong direction away from our stated mission to take photos from the promontory next to the Oberhaus Restaurant. Crossing the bridge, however, did give us a chance to take this wonderful shot across the Danube.
Once we arrive at the top the views are magnificent, the two water colors distinct and the city with all it's landmarks at our feet. It was a 45 degree incline of a climb which will certainly mitigate some of the sausage we will be eating later at our Bavarian lunch, planned to commemorate our exit from Germany.
Note the mix of the two rivers
Covered staircase to the monastery is visible top right
Anya said that over 700 trials of traffickers were held here last year for those caught in the act.
After lunch, which was indeed a Bavarian feast complete with roast suckling pig, a variety of sausages, potato salad and sauerkraut...and of course, beer. Our servers in their Tyrollean costumes added to the atmosphere.
Many then adjourn topside to listen to guide Emil's commentary as we leave Passau. I think this parting shot shows the joining of the two rivers well.
Now we are sailing down the Danube past the bucolic vistas and the water enthusiasts.
This particular water enthusiast looks right in character with his shades and perfectly tanned visage.
Life is Good!
Afterwards we adjourn to the top to watch the light show that is Linz, Austria compete with a full moon.
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