(City Date: 11/23/2023) A little bit of a delay on the posting, it’s been so busy. Most of the day started with a neat cruise through the most scenic and picturesque forested valleys of western Austria, in addition to seeing an incredible sight – a lock, like the others, but off to the side was a massive river control construction (Called Schleuse Aschach (Aschach is a nearby town)), that was 5 massive channels of water pouring down from the upper level above. (I know this makes no sense, so I have posted a video of it below.) This day was a bit of an interesting stop, at least in terms of getting to the city. Nearing the end of our trip in Austria, we got off in a mini-village called Egelhartszell and der Donau, and took a buss for about a 30 minute drive into the German border town of Passau, in Bavaria. It’s a small and neat city, notable for being the location of where 3 rivers meet – the Danube, the Ilz, and the Inn, and the main part of town is in the middle, between the rivers.

We took a tour around the city learning about its history before coming to the great St. Stephans Cathedral, which is famous for having 5 grand pianos, and over 19,000 pipes for its pipe organs – yes, over nineteen thousand! Unfortunately for us however, is that the cathedral was undergoing massive renovations, and 4 pianos and the vast, vast majority of the pipes had been removed. Also there were walls of scaffolding and sheets covering much of everything up. Additionally, it was still too early for the Passau Christmas Markets to be open so we missed out on another city market. At the end of the day however, we did not take the bus back into that small Austrian town. Instead while we were touring around the ship sailed immediately and made its way into Passau where got back on quick and easy!

That night we were treated to a fun night of a few Christmas carols being sung by the crew, and got to meet Santa, who handed out little stuffed Ama themed bears as gifts.

Now including a map!