Passau

We are in our last German town today. It is still raining and the folks around here are quite concerned about the possibility of flooding. This town has two major rivers going through it and last year had serious flooding with a lot of damage. In fact, several home have just completed the repairs and now the waters are pretty high and they might have flooding if it continues to rain. The night before and that morning, the crew were raising the sun deck and putting up all the railings on the sunroof again since we have now gone through all the low bridges. We were supposed to dock at a specific location but the docking authorities said that we couldn't get there with all the railings up and the sun roof up since the river is so high. So the captain docked right before the bridge that we were supposed to have gone through and we disembarked. We were told when we return to the ship, it will have moved further down past the bridge - once they lower everything again. Thankfully we were able to get past the bridge and will move down the river later that night. There is another Viking River boat that started in Nuremburg and will take the same route we will until Budapest. We found out this morning the the Freya (other ship) was in the middle of the river and planning on docking on the other side of the bridge - like we were going to - and communications obviously got mixed up and the captain didn't realize he should have docked before the bridge. The pilot house was raised and he hit the bridge. They were put in a repair port and repairs were made on the pilot house while the passengers were in port. It seems that the river boat companies have parts warehouses all along the river to handle problems and they luckily had the necessary parts to repair. Wish I had seen that!

Passau was a pretty little town but what made this day even more special was St. Stephen's cathedral. This is our first church in the baroque design. This church was built on the highest point of the old town so had never experienced any flooding but it was nearly destroyed by fire in 1662. It was rebuilt by an Italian architect who favored the baroque style.

On top of that, it is home to the largest cathedral organ in the world, with 17,974 organ pipes, 233 stops and four carillons. All five parts of the organ can be played from the main keyboard, one at a time or all together. The organ was built I. 1928At the end of our tour, we were able to hear an organ recital. I will admit that the four pieces played were not particularly to my liking but they beautifully demonstrated the versatility, range and power of this magnificent instrument.

This is the Rathaus

High water marks through the years

 

We walked up this street. This photo does not do justice to the walk since the street curved twice and I couldn't get a photo of the entire street

View of the cathedral from the back. The exterior just did not prepare one for the interior

This was the view when I walked into the church.

 

 

 

I just cannot describe how breathtaking this church was. As I said, the music selection was not one to my liking but when the organist played some of the chords, I believe the building vibrated. Oh my gosh, what an experience.

Tomorrow we will be arriving in Melk, Austria. We have heard that the Abbey there will make St. Stephens church look a bit plain. Can't wait to see that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy