A Very Active Day In Passau

I've been dreaming about yesterday morning's activities since I booked this trip. Our boat made a short "technical stop" to let everyone off to get on the bus for the city tour of Passau, and about 25 of us skipped the bus and rode bikes instead. Our 16-mile ride took us from Engelhartzell to Old Town Passau. We had three bike guides, and two extra staff members that were training to launch a new biking excursion in Regensburg. Two of the guides would bike ahead to clear the roads for us to cross. It was a great way to travel.

We biked to the lock and saw our ship go through. This was perhaps less than a mile from our dock, but it was a chance for people to adjust their helmets and seats.

Our next stop was about 6 miles in. From this point on Aaron, Mom, or I were always the leader of the pack. This allowed us to bike as fast as the guide, without falling behind some of the slower passengers.

We biked past some lovely farm houses and a deer farm. We were in apple country, so for our next stop we picked apples fresh from the tree, and heard about the "Austrian weather station" (which I swear I've seen before in Wisconsin).

After leaving Engelhertzell just after 9:00 a.m., we arrived in Passau by 11:45 a.m., a full 45 minutes ahead of schedule. In addition to Aaron and myself (the youngest guests on the cruise by far), and my mom (who has been biking all summer), there was a spin instructor and a few other very fit people on the bike ride. I think we picked up the pace a bit more than some other tours. I worked up a bit of a sweat. In Passau we rode over cobblestones and on traffic-filled streets. It was a really great experience—I'd welcome the chance to bike in Europe again.

Since we had arrived early, Aaron and I walked back into Old Town to find a small beer garden, where I had my first radler of the trip. I love radler - it's a mix of helles and lemon soda. It was just the thing I wanted after the bike ride. It didn't appear that our waiter spoke any English, so I got to practice my conversational German.

After our drink we went back to the ship for lunch and to change our clothes, as the sun was out and it had gotten quite warm. My mom joined us for a self-guided walk through Passau. We had three goals for the afternoon:

1. Visit St. Stephen's cathedral
2. Visit the Uberhaus fortress overlooking the three rivers
3. Stop in as many beer gardens as possible.

Objective number one was met quickly. We were too late to see the organ concert, but I didn't mind because I'd heard the organ in Seville on our last European trip. The cathedral was impressive, but I think I'm at the point where I don't really need to see another European church unless there is a really, really good story to hear about it. I did take a picture of the pulpit, which was in the shape of an eagle.

We had asked come guides from the bike tour for beer garden advice, so after the cathedral we took a slightly hidden staircase down to a street that was full of shops and restaurants. The beer garden was small and unique. The name was something like "Golden Ship." I had a second radler :)

We then set off on a long walk to the Uberhaus. I'd estimate it was about two miles, but it took us over a bridge with a great view of the Danube and Old Town. Some of the houses on the other side of the reiver were precariously perched on the top of a stone cliff.

It's situated on the top of a bluff, and I had heard there was a bus to the top. So Aaron walked up the staircase while Mom and I walked to the entrance to find the bus. We looked and looked ... no bus. So we had to walk up a very, very steep .5km hill to meet Aaron. This picture doesn't do it justice.

We made it, and wandered for quite some time until I found Aaron. So long, apparently, that he had already gone up to the top of the fortress lookout without us. I couldn't walk up there for nothing, so we climbed a few more sets of stairs and took a couple pictures.

At that point I was exhausted, so we stumbled to the beer garden and I had a russen (the same as a radler, but with weissbier). Leaving the beer garden, we went to take the stairs down (the same stairs that Aaron climbed), only to find out the gate had been closed ten minutes earlier. At this point we saw the damn bus. Turns out, it didn't start at the road that lead up to Oberhaus—it picked up at the Rathaus in Old Town. I would have known this if I had done any reading at all (including the daily schedule my mom had in her purse) before heading to Oberhaus. The bus wasn't going to leave for fifteen minutes, so we chose to walk back down the hill of death and across the bridge to the boat.

Dinner was delicious once again. My entire family had the lamb chops and loved them. Aaron liked them so much that the restaurant manager brought him a second entree, and he ate every bite.

After dinner, we attended a concert by Elizabeth Von Trapp. She was good, but I imagine I would have enjoyed it more if I had ever seen the Sound of Music. I find it interesting that she's an American citizen that lives in Vermont, but spends her summers in Europe performing for American tourists. By 10:00 I was quite tired, so I returned to the room to journal and watch a movie. I felt the day's activities in every ... single ... step back to the room.

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