Passau and Bavarian Cruise

There are differences between a river cruise and a sea cruise. River cruise ships are small and you get to know most of the other passengers. The rooms are smaller, although quite comfortable and carefully laid out to provide maximum storage. This cruise is very destination intensive, and to take advantage of all the offerings, there is little downtime. Lots of people don’t like sea days on an ocean cruise, but Bob and I have enjoyed having a few days periodically to relax on the ship. Unlike an ocean cruise, there is little to do on a river cruise unless you are taking the shore tours, and we have met a few younger people who have commented on this lack of things to do on the ship. There are board games and puzzles, you can stroll on the upper deck unless you are crossing a lock, and there is one thing you can do at all times. Eat.

On an ocean cruise, unless you are in one of the specialty restaurants, you go to the buffet, and select only those things you want. But on this Viking cruise, meals are served by the friendly and competent staff, and there are three meals daily, with everything you could possibly want, including dessert at lunch and dinner. At home, Bob and I generally settle for two meals daily: a simple breakfast with yogurt or cereal, and an early dinner usually with a protein, a few vegetables and a shared starch, such as a potato or rice. Rarely do we include dessert, unless someone is joining us. So, it was probably inevitable that our systems would rebel at some point.

Bob led the way. On our day in Passau, he was not inclined to join our first tour of the day: a walking tour in the town. I was still game, and the ship was slipped such that we could walk right into town. So while Bob took the morning off, I joined the tour.

Our tour guide this morning was Cornelia. I have a tendency to be reminded of someone else by our guides and Cornelia was no exception. She reminded me of Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein. She ‘vas full of good cheer’ but led our band of tourists with clear German control. You didn’t want to attract her ire by stepping out of line. I would not have been at all surprised to discover that she had a wooden arm.

Passau is a small town with a population of about 50,000, 12,000 of which are students at the University. It sits at the convergence of three rivers, the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz. The streets are small, narrow and cobblestone, and cars travel quickly on roads that appear to be too small for them. Cornelia was very strict in our road crossing habits, and good thing. She told us, ‘der people in Mercedes and BMW’s vill gladly run you down, so follow only in my steps!’ She asked us if we wanted to go to the St. Stephen’s church, and when our group indicated we did want to, she told us ‘I vill take you dere and meet you after in ze beer garden!’ Not a big fan of religion. But she really knew her stuff and had a super grasp of the history of the town and the religious practices of the community. She gave us an inservice on the practice of men bowing—the idea is to demonstrate subservience by exposing the neck and looking down, giving the person the opportunity to kill you. She noted that now we shake hands, which puts both parties on equal footing. St. Stephen’s is a beautiful church and has the largest cathedral organ in the world. After she had toured us around for an hour, she gave us directions back to the ship and we were on our own.

Passau is very cute and had loads of shops. It was getting pretty cold so I bought Bob a warmer cap and myself a pair of coated pants lined for warmth. Because of the tall buildings and narrow streets, it is pretty easy to get lost—and although Cornelia had shown us how the church spires could orient us, it was hard to see them everywhere. And I got lost. I thought I was heading in the right direction, but things quickly looked different than our walk in. At one point I stopped a lovely German woman, and attempted to ask her directions to the Danube, where our boat was slipped. Sadly, my google translator was not working—poor reception—and after a few minutes it was apparent we would not be able to communicate. We smiled our inability and I moved on. I found a younger women with a baby who spoke English, and discovered I was going in the wrong direction. I quickly changed course and found the ship with no further delay.

Bob was feeling better and we had lunch and queued up for our bus and boat trip to the town of Scharding. This was billed as a boat trip on the Inn River as upper Austria and lower Bavaria unfold. This would be followed by a walking tour of the small Austrian town of Scharding. Because the Vali, our ship, would cast off and head further up the River Danube, we were instructed to bring our passports and we would travel from Austria to Germany and might get stopped to show passports.

Our tour guide for this one was Sebastian, who informed us he was not Bavarian but Italian, although he had lived in Passau for many years. He sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger. As all our tour guides have been, he was a wealth of information. I love the little tidbits our guides give us, and Sebastian called our attention to the small, low fences next to the road. These are to keep the frogs from trying to cross the road and getting smashed. Real life game of Frogger. Periodically, the fences give way to tunnels, which allow the frog to cross. They do this because the frogs eat insects, and they want to protect the frogs. As we drove to our boat, we passed numerous farms using solar power. He told us that Bavaria is famous for the three B’s—beer, BMW and Brezels (pretzels). Our river boat was older, with many wooden tables and a full bar. Each table was set with several types of beers and thick pretzels. It quickly became apparent that the purpose of this tour was to drink a lot of beer. As we approached the dock Sebastian and the server on the boat brought everyone shots of their local brand of Jagermeister. I thought perhaps this would have been a better idea to have the on-foot portion of the tour before the drinking cruise, but no matter. Everyone managed. Sebastian had promised us a treat, and this turned out to be a visit to a small shop that created its own spices. We were each given a mortar and pestle, a container of salt and a container of spices, which we ground together and spread on a small piece of buttered bread. It was pretty salty, but we were able to put our concoctions into small paper containers for a souvenir.

Sebastian was a real character, as seemed to become more inclined to make things up as we went along. It was hard to know what was based in fact, but he was certainly amusing. He told us that in the past, men would get drunk in public, which carried some harsh punishments in this religious community. To keep them from being punished, there were people who would pick up drunks in the street and hang them over a fence to protect them from aspirating. He said this is where the term ‘hang over’ comes from. Hmmm. We drove through the German check point without being stopped for a passport check and got back to the Vali around 6 pm. Then we went to dinner (after all those pretzels and beer) and headed to bed.