Passau

This morning we arrived in Passau.  It is a very elegant town and is called the Dreiflussestadt which means City on Three Rivers.  It is situated on the confluence of the Danube, Ilz and Inn Rivers.  We went on a walking tour into the Bishop’s Residenz, the 14^th century Town Hall and the magnificent 17^th century St Stephan’s Cathedral which has Europes largest pipe organ.  We arrived too late for the daily organ recital which was a shame.  the inside of the church is stunning.  Definitely my favourite church of this trip.

 

We then had some free time so we walked all around the path that links the 3 rivers.  Passau is a very pretty town.  Because of the 3 rivers it has suffered many devastating floods and the most recent flood was in June 2013 and the lower part of town was completely under water.  No-one is allowed to have housing on the ground floor.  Ground floor space is occupied by galleries, restaurants and shops generally and all the fitting and fixtures must be able to be moved to higher floors when a flood is imminent.

 

OOPS !!!!!

We returned to the ship and it cruised through the night.  Before dinner there was an announcement about our cruise.  We were told that the lock in Bratislava was broken and closed for urgent repair.  This mean that our ship was unable to proceed down the river.  The Viking Aegir ship was also stuck on the other side of the broken lock.  So it was decided that we would get off the Viking Embla and transfer by bus to the Viking Aegir.  However, due to the logistics of transferring passengers from one ship to another and the behind the scenes cleaning etc we were to be put up in a hotel in Vienna for 2 nights.  They booked us all into the Grand Hotel Vienna.  A very old former palace now a top class hotel right by the Opera House.  We had pack all our bags and be ready to disembark the ship after breakfast.