Day 6: Tour of Passau, the city of 3 rivers

Local guides took us for a walking city tour in the morning. Passau is located where the River Danube, Inn and Ilz join. It is counted among the 7 most beautifully situated town in the world. In 1662, a fire broke out, the whole city was burning after 2-3 hours. In 1680 there was another fire. Two third of the town was destroyed. They also have problems of flooding with the 3 rivers flowing together. Most houses are in the Italian style. We were most impressed by the magnificent St. Stephen Cathedral which is the largest in Germany. Everything inside, the altar, the pillars, the statues, every inch of the ceiling is so beautiful, it is really beyond description. This Cathedral also houses the largest church pipe organ in the world. Before ending our morning tour, we enjoyed a 15 minutes concert in St. Stephen by paying a small amount of fee.
We then hurried back to the ship for a quick lunch. In the afternoon we set off to explore the town on our own. First we visited the glass museum. Quite a large collection of beautiful glassware there. 30,000 items were on display, collected from Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia and other parts of Europe from over 250 years. Then we took the city bus to go uphill to see the Castle Veste Oberhaus, built by Passau's Prince Bishops. Today it is used as a Cultural History Museum. We tried to time ourselves carefully, in order to catch the last bus and return to the ship before 5:00 pm.