December 21: Day 7
We departed Linz, Austria after dinner last night and sailed overnight into Germany, docking at the confluence of three rivers in Passau. We were on shore by 9:30am to start our three hour tour where we met our guide Sebastiano. He wasn't German, but was from Rome, but married a German girl and now they live here. His narration and stories were so animated, and he used the guests to make his stories more personalized.....for those of you who knew me in my classroom days, he reminded me in his approach of the way I told stories to my kids.....he was far and away THE BEST guide of the trip. We walked the town, including up and down several inclines as we piled on the steps. Viking provided us with a free mug of gluhwein and the souvenir mug - thanks! and after a short tour of the Christmas Market we hooked up with our new-found pals Nancy & Amy and went for pizza. It was funny, in a way, that we were all four very specific with our orders but the waiter brought us delicious pizzas that were not at all what we ordered! LOL. He was overly apologetic, but we were more interested in just having pizza and sharing an experience together. Was a great way to end the final excursion. Spent the afternoon packing (bags out at 4:50am tomorrow - depart the ship at 5:50am). And a final dinner with our girls before wrapping up the adventure. Here's the final set of photos......
Turret & Arch in the bend in the river
May not look but much, but this is such a story.....the turret was placed here to force the river to bend, which slowed it down. This allowed for the salt ships to dock & unload here. In medieval times salt was a precious as gold and in fact was called "the white gold." The Latin for salt is "Sal" and so when workers were paid in salt it was "sal-ary" - fun fact for the day!
The Bishop's Palace on the hill
The cathedral - the left section is original, built in 1407 The cathedral from the front Gingerbread making demonstration Wreath-making demonstration
The giant advent wreath (24 candles - one for each day of Dec leading up to Christmas) One of the many passageways of Passau - note the Christmas lights and the graffiti on only the right wall.....because the left wall is a Church! The Passau Christmas Market Last shot of gluhwein and souvenir mugs - thank you Viking! Another view of the Passau Christmas Market Examples of the Christmas booths (note the Gluhwein booth!) A pizza lunch with "our girls" Those who know me know how much I enjoy being on our porch - but it's hard to beat this "office" for working on my travel journals.....will miss this until our next trip in June Finally....many thanks to those of you who've followed along - over 1,200 social media hits through yesterday's postings. I so enjoy traveling and sharing it with everyone who follows us virtually! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
No comments:
Post a Comment