We got into Passau about 3 PM--it was getting dark. By 4 PM it is completely dark. All of the river cruise ships dock on the side of the Danube where passengers can get off the ship and walk everywhere--our ship however was late getting in and we had to dock on the other side of the river. This meant we had to get a taxi to go to town. Our taxi was a new Mercedes. The road was snowy and was it ever a wild ride--even more exciting than taking a cab in Mexico. We made it to the main part of town safely though.
Passua is a very old city but most of it had been rebuilt after WWII so it is more modern looking than the other places we had visited. The streets were still naqrrow and cobblestone--I kept forgetting that they were st
reets and thinking they were sidewalks.
As with all little towns in Eastern Europe, Passau had its share of beautiful old churches. 
When a church has a windvane with a rooster as well as a cross on top, it means that the church was originally a Catholic Church but has become Protestant. Many time these churches will date back to the time of Martin Luther.
Some of the name brand shops were open but all of the "Mom and Pop"shops close at dark--4 PM.We stopped at a little shop to buy some collectible German ceramic buildings that Renie and I had seen and liked. The lady working in the shop was Austrian but did speak English very well. She told us that she didn't get much chance to practice it . While talking to her we noticed it was dark and went out to find Jim and Jeff. We had been told we could stop at any cafe and they woudl call a cab for us but instead we asked the lady in the shop to call one for us. We realized that the cabbie probably would not speak English. Jim had taken German in college and had been reading and trying out his German as much as he could. The lady helped him figure out how to say Danube ship is over the bridge, or "Donau shiffe uber de brucke".
Our ride back to the ship was just as exciting as the trip to Passau. Renie, Jeff and I in the back seat, whispering, "Did he say it yet?" Jim had, and we got back "Donau shiffe uber bucke" with no confusion.
The next morning we got up at 2 am or 8 PM Texas time to ride the bus to Munich to catch our flight. Since Jim's mom was German he wanted to have a picture of himself by the Munich Airport sign.
No comments:
Post a Comment