Passau a Bavarian City on Three Rivers

We visited a peaceful, beautiful city yesterday--Passau. It is situated on three rivers, the Danube, Ilz, and the Inn rivers. It forms a peninsula because of this geography, and becomes an old quaint European city of charm.

The city is at least 2,000 years old, and was founded as much was in ancient Germany, by the Romans. The Celts were here for 4-500 years, and left in 100 B.C. No one knows why--possibly the economy? The Romans left in 480, as Rome was disintegrating, and the outpost was no longer viable.

The current town has a population of about 50,000, and a University with another 10,000 students. The University was founded in the 1960s. The largest industry here is a factory that makes gears for John Deere tractors. It employs about 3000 workers.

The narrow streets house many different high and low end stores, and the shopping is excellent. There is a church here, Saint Stephan's, that was originally built in

850, but it burned twice (1662, 1680) and was rebuilt after that in the baroque style. It is magnificent, and I have included a few photos of it. The interior has elaborate sculpture, and painting that cannot be shown in this limited description. The alter itself depicts the martyrdom of Saint Stephen and graphically, but tastefully shows his stoning. One cannot look at any point in this church without seeing some form of artistic expression of the Christian message. It is awesome! It was mentioned that this town was not heavily bombed in the war, and the Cathedral was only hit by six of seven shells.

Ironically, supporting churches this size takes many Euros, and a tax instituted by (yours truly) Adolf Hitler, helps with this issue. He instituted a "church tax" in

an effort to stop church attendance. It still exists, and is about 8% of your total income tax. It has helped to keep the beautiful churches viable and repaired.

Anne and I found a beautiful local restaurant for lunch, and ate some local bratwurst (lamb and pork), sauerkraut, and a liter (4.5% alcohol) of a local beer. It made the walk back to the ship easier. It was local, as the waitress had a difficult time getting our order. It was worth it!

It should be mentioned that Napoleon stopped by in 1803, and removed all the church rulers and monarchs. He made Passau part of Bavaria. That's why we were drinking so much beer there.