Passau

Approaching Passau

Passau is another town that became rich at the confluence of the Inn, Ist, and Danube rivers. Salt mined in Austria was the principle trade good passing through. We walked along the Danube to the painted baroque town hall and next door was the executioners house. The executioner had two other jobs: He was also the town torturer, but because you couldn't kill the suspect with torture, he was also a doctor. Torture was encouraged by the church as a way to cleanse the soul, allowing the sinner to go to heaven. Being the town executioner was a family job, but who would want to marry an executioner? It was often the daughter of another town's executioner.

The back section of St. Stephan's organ

The scenic highlight is St. Stephen's Cathedral. The bells were ringing loudly to announce the ordination of a priest the morning we were there. At noon, we attended a organ concert. This was the largest pipe organ in the world when it was built in 1928 and has five different pipe sections with over 17000 pipes . I got goose bumps from the sound.

On the opposite side from Passau is Veste Oberhaus, the fortress on the hill, built originally in 1255, with a major renovation in 1499. We walked to the top of the hill after lunch and managed to get a picture of the confluence from there.

Confluence of three rivers

Courtesy of Judy Cannon

That night the crew put on the crew show. They had several hilarious skits. My favorite compared German words with English, French, Spanish, and Romanian.