You Go Nate!

THE THREE RIVERS

I've had a busy week with nearly 50 hours of English teaching; meanwhile the weather has been perfect. This meant that I had no choice but to go somewhere interesting on Saturday. I decided to check out the town of Passau.

So I hopped on a morning train and soon found myself rolling past the green Bavarian countryside. There was also a lot of yellow as the rapseed fields are coming to life.

A troop of scouts were in my car as well, heading off to some sort of event.

About two hours later the train pulled into Passau and I had a full day of exploration ahead of me.

Passau is indeed located on a slice of land between two major rivers with a smaller river cutting in on the side.

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You can see the three rivers coming together in the map. The largest, lightest colored river is the Inn River which comes from the Alps, passes through Innsbruck, Austria and then works its way north to Passau. The next river is the Danube. It's source is found in the Black Forest. While the Inn carries a larger water volume, the Danube is longer, thus when they come together the Danube gets to keep its name. The smallest and darkest river of the three is the Ilz river which flows south out of the Bavarian Forest near the Czech border.

Here you can see where the Inn and the Danube come together...

This picture was taken from the mouth of the Ilz river as it joins the Danube which joins the Inn. If you look closely you can see all three river colors in layers...

Passau is a charming town with a fascinating history. It was an early Roman settlement and then an important Medieval city. During the Middle-Ages the city became an important trading port especially for the salt trade. This made it a rather wealthy city and many of the city streets still possess the narrow Medieval qualities.

As goods often came over the Alps from Venice, and then carried down the Inn, Passau has an almost Italian flavor to it. After a fire destroyed much of the city in the 17th century, much of it was rebuilt using the Italian Baroque aesthetic.

Passau was also the seat of the regional Catholic Archdiocese and possesses a spectacular cathedral, St. Stephan's.

St. Stephan's holds the largest cathedral organ in the world. I was able to eavesdrop on an afternoon concert.

Passau also boasts a large castle overlooking the rivers. One of the first things I did when I arrived was climb to the top for a view.

Did you know there are lizards in Germany. Neither did I until I saw them scurrying about everywhere around the castle.

I came down from the castle on the Ilz side and found a few great photo ops...

For lunch I found a quiet restaurant overlooking the Danube. I had a wonderful German meal of roast pork leg, Knödel, and Sauerkraut... mmmmmmm.... lecker!

I found a flea market going on along the banks of the Inn.

I then went for a bit of a walk over to Austria.

I climbed a forested hill to get a better view of Passau and the rivers from above. There was only one little cloud in the sky.

Here is Passau from above...

Then it was back to Germany...

I snapped a few more photos and then headed to the train station and back home to Munich. The sun set over the yellow and green fields as I headed home and I was glad I decided to get out that day.

Aufwiedersehen!

ps. be sure to check out more photos from the day by clicking here:

Passau

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