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At our daily orientation meeting last night we were alerted to the possibility of a problem traversing the next portion of the Danube River from Regensburg to Passau, our next destination. In fact when we were out and about yesterday Bruce and Jan ran into a lady who was on the Viking ship and was upset because those passengers had to pack up their luggage, leave the boat and be bussed downriver to another boat!  I had heard this was a common problem with Viking ships because of their boat designs. Would this be our fate? As it turned out, no, but we did have to empty much of our water tanks to lighten up the boat to have enough clearance to pass through some low water conditions on this stretch of the Danube. During our night passage Yvonne was awakened (I slept through it) by the boat shuddering and later felt that is where we managed to pass over the sand bars in the shallow water. Needless to say we happily arrived in Passau this morning to another bright, sunny day but with a breeze that made it feel cooler than it was.

As usual Vantage arranged for a walking tour covering city highlights, including a noon organ concert at St. Stephen’s Cathedral on one of the world ’s largest church organs. We walked along the waterfront and saw the records of floods that devastated the area over the last 500 years. Several buildings had markings on the wall showing the levels to which water rose during those floods. We walked through the artist alley where there are numerous galleries, ending up on the central square where the church and Bishop’s house are located.

After the tour we were given tickets to a 30 minute organ concert at St. Stephen’s Cathedral so we could hear the famous organ that the church contains. The baroque church is over the top when it comes to decor. It takes your breath away when you see all the stark white interior with paintings everywhere. The current church was completed in 1693. The organ has 17,794 pipes and 233 registers. The concert was interesting but I did not think this organ sounded any different than other church organs I have heard.

We went back to the ship for lunch because it it was a Bavarian buffet, featuring popular German dishes. As we walked into the dining room we were handed a pretzel to start the meal. There were dozens of various dishes, highlighted by a whole roasted pig! We all consumed way too much food that meal because we were eager to try the various dishes.

Both Jan and Yvonne wanted to rest in the afternoon and Bruce and I wanted to visit the castle on the hill to see the views and go through the museum that focused on what life was like living in that medieval castle. They offered a shuttle to take you there and back so we did not have to hike up that steep hill. The views were spectacular and one could see why they built the castle there. And the museum was well done with plenty of English descriptions of life in the castle. We had way too little time to fully explore all that the museum offered as we had to return to the ship which was scheduled to leave that evening for Vienna, Austria.

At the daily orientation meeting we learned that we would NOT be leaving that night as one of the ship’s engines blew up its supercharger during the transit last night/this morning. We could not sail with only one functioning engine. Parts had been ordered and extra technical personnel were on the way to work 24/7 in an attempt to rectify the problem. So the immediate question of everyone in the room was:  what are we going to do tomorrow?  To their credit Vantage had already made arrangements for us to take an all day trip to Salzburg, Austria.  Now that is a neat alternative, and although it involves a 2 hour bus ride each way I did not hear anyone complaining. We all simply hoped that the repairs on the engine could be made in the next 24 hours so we could continue our journey.

Tonight’s entertainment was a showing of the “Sound of Music” movie, which was quite appropriate since we will be going to where it takes place. Since we have seen it multiple times we passed and simply relaxed in our room after eating a very light dinner as we were hardly hungry after the big Bavarian lunch.