Passau, Germany

Saturday we decided on a day trip to Passau, Germany.  It was supposed to rain all day but we are running out of weekends so we went anyway.  It rained most of the 2 hour drive there, but when we got out of the car it was overcast but not raining.  We didn't have a plan or a guidebook, jut the recommendation of friends in Graf that it was a cool city and had an incredible church.

We parked right on the edge of the old town and began wandering toward what felt like the center.  The cobblestone streets were narrow and there were little shops to browse in along the way.  We stopped at a cute little church built right into the row of stores. 

After checking that out wandered further into the city and came upon St. Stephen's Cathedral, the church everyone had been telling us about.  St. Stephen's claim to fame is it's organ, which for many years was the largest in the world, and currently is second only to one in LA.  The organ have almost 18,000 pipes and unfortunately when we arrived an organ concert was just about finished and the doors were shut.  Once the concert ended we were able to get in and admire the baroque interior. 

St. Stephen's

2nd Largest Organ in the World (can't see all the pipes in this pic)

Altar

Follwing the church we decided to try and find the Tourist Information office since we had no idea what other sights we should see.  We found it but it turned out not to be very informational so we just kept walking away from our car.  Eventually we came upon a park with a playground just as the sun came out.  Passau is located at the intersection of three rivers, the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz.  This park was basically at that intersection so while the kids played Carissa and I admired the view.

Hilltop Fortress

Passau Rathaus

The Inn

Intersection of the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz

We decided it was time to find some food so we walked along the river until we found what looked like an area with restaurants.  Apparently there was some sort of festival going on because there was some live music, kids activities and better than average street performers - a group of unicyclers doing tricks and a bunch of people walking on stilts.

We ate at a German version of Noodles and Company and then decided to find some gelato.  We were walking through a really busy area, Carissa and the girls up ahead of Haaken and I.  Carissa had stopped at a big intersection in the pedestrian zone and as Haaken and I caught up to her I noticed her scanning the crowd, presumably for one of the girls.  Once I reached her she asked if I had seen Lydia, which I hadn't so I joined her in her search.  A couple minutes passed and there was no sign of Lydia.  I ran down the street we had come down and Carissa tried another.  Still no sign and we were starting to panic.  What seemed like 10 minutes was probably only a few and by now we were running around, down streets and in and out of stores yelling for Lydia.  People probably thought we were nuts.  Finally one of us spotted a flash of pink down the original street we came down and I ran down to find Lydia walked toward me with an elderly woman.  Apparently she had walked all the way back to the restaurant looking for us, started to cry and thankfully this woman spoke English and was able to calm her down and look for us together.  Hand holding was required for the rest of the day.

Crisis averted we found some gelato and ended our day playing at another park we'd seen from a distance.