Today was spent in Passau, Germany, which is our last stop in this country. In the morning we had another walking tour, followed by an organ concert in Saint Stephen's Cathedral, and then some free time. This city is situated by three rivers - the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz. As a result, flooding has been a big problem here, with the water sometimes rising as high as 30 feet! When this happened, people would turn on their taps and fill their homes with water, so that there was no way for the sewage to come in. This city is quite picturesque, with colourful rows of houses along the waterfront, large impressive structures high up on the hills, and cobblestone pedestrian walkways full of shops and restaurants. Our tour guide told us that since we were leaving Germany soon, this would be our last chance to get good beer!
At noon we were treated to a half hour organ concert in Saint Stephen's Cathedral. This organ has almost 18,000 pipes, making it the largest cathedral organ in Europe. At its loudest, the sound was magnificent!
In the evening, Marek (our program director) dressed up as Mozart, and told the story of his life in a humourous fashion. He even sang (he has quite a good voice) and entered the room as if he was a rock star, but at the same time he was able to tell us a lot about Mozart in a way that would be interesting even to those who are not fans of classical music.
Luckily our ship was able to sail to it's destinations today, despite the river being very low. Had it not been able to do this, we would have had to pack up our belongings and move to another ship which is sailing in the opposite direction, and then this boat would have turned around and taken us to Budapest. We were warned of the potential problem, and last night we kept hearing grinding noises, which was a bit disconcerting, but apparently no damage was done to the ship.
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