Kylin's European Grand Adventure: Day 13

This morning at breakfast we heard two American couples complaining about the loud party noise last night. There was a wedding in the hotel -- the bride was actually getting ready two doors down from us earlier in the day. John and I heard "nada". We were so tired that the noise did not even penetrate! We definitely hear more Americans in Passau -- several cruise boats here.

We went to church at an evangelical Lutheran -- St. Matthias. This weekend was a city festival so the church had special music today -- small orchestra including a harpsichord with a wonderful chorale group. They did two J.S. Bach pieces as well as the organist doing a Bach prelude and postlude. His feet were amazingly quick! We sat right next to the organ. At the end of the service, the music maestro led us in singing Dona Nobis Pacem as a round (split the congregation down the center aisle). Absolutely beautiful -- brought tears to my eyes. The church was small with simple lines and wonderful acoustics. Service was entirely in German and the sermon was 20 minutes. The music master kept running up and down the stairs alternating between the organ and directing the chorale/ orchestra so at the end of the service when he came back up to do the postlude, his shirt was soaked (it was quite warm in the church). The woman sitting next to me whispered something and I told her "no German" so she whispered in English "looks like he needs a shower". True! I told her how much we enjoyed the service and she explained the service was usually an hour (70 minutes today). John and I hummed to the hymns as we couldn't pronounce the words but we could follow the notes so we kind of felt like we were singing although we had no problem with the doña nobis pacem.

After checking out of the hotel, we pulled our bags to the boat and since our room was ready, we unpacked. They served a lite lunch buffet: tossed salad, pea w/ grilled turkey and rice, carrots w/grains, chicken consommé with different bowls of ingredients to toss in the broth like chicken, carrots and parsnips, paper thin noodles and Parmesan cheese (it was wonderful), ham salad sandwiches with a sliced sweet pickle and hard boiled egg slice, baguette with fresh tomatoes and
pesto and some kind of cream cheese, smoked salmon sandwich, plus a pasta station. Can see that gaining weight is a real possibility here.

So far, we've met travelers from Vancouver ( two women who were actually in the same hotel in
Munich), 3 from the research triangle in NC, Myrtle Beach, and south of London -- all seem very nice.

The shoe picture is to show the Passau's love for clothes pins. They used them extensively at the street concert and then we saw these colored ones holding the shoe prices which made me smile.

I was so disappointed that none of the stores were opened today as I had my heart set on shopping. We are leaving Passau tonight rather than tomorrow night so can't shop tomorrow afternoon. Made us really glad we came a day early to see Passau and to hear the organ concert. We have to get out of German waters before midnight when the German dock workers go on strike. Going through the first lock was really neat. We sat on the front deck and watched the water recede and gates open and let us though well before midnight. Whew!

View across Danube on boat