Passau

After all the travelling we did both before and after Christmas, we were craving a little continuity, and stayed in Regensburg for our 1^st weekend back in Germany. Since we arrived on a Monday though, this worked out to two weeks chilling with no travels. If we don’t travel, I don’t have too much to write about, hence the lack of blog posts. However, we’ve got some big plans coming up so expect some more posts in the near future. This past weekend we went to a city called Passau. We knew we wanted to travel somewhere, and after a quick weather check settled on Passau because the forecast predicted sunshine. Another bonus: it was about an hour away on the train, making for a nice easy day. The city is located at the conflux of 3 rivers, the Danube, the Inn, and the Ilz, with Old town on a peninsula between the Danube and the Inn. The Ilz is much small than the other two and makes less of an impact, but it too is visible on the peninsula.

The point of the peninsula of Passau, DE where 3 rivers become 1. The river on the left is the Inn, the river on the right is the Danube, and on the right side coming between buildings on the far right shore, is the Ilz river. 

Passau drew us in because of its cathedral–one picture in the guidebook was enough to convince me we needed to go there. Dom St. Stephan is located in Old Town and from the outside has all the appearances of being like Frauenkirche in Munich. The inside though, is breathtaking. The cathedral was rebuilt from 1668-1677 after the Great Fire of 1662. It was rebuilt in the Italian Baroque style and the largest and best example of this architecture north of the Alps. It is also home to the largest cathedral pipe organ in the world. When we walked inside, all we could do was stare dumbfounded at the artwork above us.

High Altar of Dom St. Stephan in Passau, DE

St. Stephan Cathedral in Passau, Germany
Baroque Architecture

Dom St. Stephan in Passau, Germany

The largest cathedral organ in the world, located in the baroque Dom St. Stephan cathedral in Passau, Germany

Back outside the cathedral is a remnant of the Great Fire of 1662, a stone head with a silly grin on its face, called the laughing fool. Passauers assume that this head fell off the original cathedral during the fire. The body has disappeared but the head survives, and is memorialized nearby its former home.

There are many other sites in Passau worthy of attention, but to be honest, we came to see the cathedral. When we had our fill of Baroque architecture, our plan was to wander around and check out whatever seemed interesting at the time. Our next stop became the Passauer Glasmuseum in the Wilder Mann Hotel. Approximately ⅔ of the historic hotel has been turned into a glass museum and the other ⅓ is still used as a hotel. The hotel has historic rooms, and if you are interested, you can stay in the wedding bed of King Ludwig II and his wife Duchess Sophie Charlotte. Personally, I don’t like to know who has been “sleeping” in beds before me, even if they are famous. When I stay in hotels, I pretend I am the first person in the bed and try not to think about other people who have already been in it, but to each his own I guess. http://www.wilder-mann.com/index.php?id=1152

The glass museum is pretty cool (at first) but it is A LOT of glass, and gets boring (unless you are a glass enthusiast) by the 2^nd floor. 2^nd floor you ask? Yes, this museum is 4 twisty floors full of cases of glass from the last several centuries. I was happy to go, because I like the concept of preserving the glass. In small sections, the collection has a lot of information to offer, but I think housed all together like that, it loses some of its novelty and its audience.

Our last stop before hopping on a train back to Regensburg was the Veste Oberhaus across the Danube from Old Town, and up a mountain. The goal being to see the Old Town from the mountain and get some great panoramic views, and after a serious uphill hike we were rewarded with the beauty of all that is Passau. 

View of Passau, DE from Veste Oberhaus on the banks of the Danube River

[Great Fire of 1662] This fire is mentioned a lot on the landmarks of Passau. Apparently, it consumed much of the city. I’ve googled it, and nothing historical has come up, so I can’t say what caused it or how much of the city was destroyed, I can only speculate due to the frequent references.