We're back home so I've got to get the final posts in while their still relatively relevant! Also I have a billion (well maybe a billion less 999,999,975) pictures left to upload. So I'll post those separate and you can use them tonight if you are suffering from insomnia and need something to put you to sleep.
Over night we have moved on to Passau, Germany, a small city situated in the far Southeast of Germany abutting Austria and the Czech Republic. Passau is renowned because it is a location where three rivers (the Danube, the Inn, and the Iltz all come together at a single point with the town of Passau being on the peninsula between the Inn and the Danube. As with many towns on the Danube (the ancient barrier between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes), its origins go back to the days of the Celts (who preceded both Romans and Germans). It was also the site of a Roman garrison town and became an important Christian bishopric being the mother church of Vienna originally. Passau’s medieval wealth derived from a monopoly it had on the salt trade that came down from Switzerland.
We are taking a walking tour in the morning and luck out with a really good guide who had lots of embellishments to accompany the basic tourist information. The highlight was the Cathedral of Saint Stevens (mother church to Saint Stevens in Vienna). While this is yet another Baroque style church, the balance of the decoration and art is over the top. Evidently when the Baroque work was done, the Bishop Prince brought in three Italian artists to do all of it, which is a reason why it is so unified in theme. Our guide is very good at pointing out the detail from that artwork that shows all of the individualism in the sculpture and painting.
During the afternoon, Wife and I wandered around town. There is a great castle on a hill other side of the Danube and I wanted to go up and take pictures, but I’m a bit sore from my two successive climbs and it was raining so we skipped it.
We packed up our things and then it was time for the Captains Farwell Cocktail and Dinner. Once again the chef is trying to do haute cuisine and it isn’t working. When dinner was over we had a drink in the lounge and said goodbye to a lot of the people that we had met.
Tomorrow will be the long flight home, we have a direct flight from Munich to Denver and then a short layover and a short hop to Albuquerque. We had a great time but are looking forward to going home.
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