SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
Reblog
This is the day we would be transferring from the Gefjon to the Skadi.
Therefore, we were up at 5:30 a.m., dressed and finished packing. We had breakfast at 6:45 a.m. with Richard, Judy and Lucy, and Danny who is retired military. Richard liked to tease Danny, so we had a lively breakfast conversation.
We had to have our bags outside our door by 8:30 a.m. We were also to have our room keys turned in by 8:30 a.m. We boarded bus number 3 and left at 9:00 a.m. along with three other buses bound for Passau. We rode the bus for one-and-a-half hours to Passau.
We moved from the Gefjon to the Skadi. It was essentially the same ship, just a bit older. We even had the same room number, 325. We unpacked our tote bags (they would bring our suitcases later), then at 11:30 a.m. we went on a one-and-a-half-hour walking tour of Passau.
Passau (pass-ow) is known as the “City of Three Rivers.” It lies at the confluence of the Inn, the Danube and the Ilz rivers. It was originally a settlement of the Boil Celtic tribe, and later the site of the Roman fort, Castra Batava. Passau was an important medieval center for the salt trade, the “white gold.” It was transported from the Alpine salt mines to Passau, where it was processed by entrepreneurs called Salzfertiger. The salt imports to Passau were forbidden in 1707, and that trade was lost.
During the Renaissance, Passau became famous for making high-quality knife and sword blades. Local smiths stamped their blades with the Passau wolf, and superstitious warriors believed that the wolf granted them invulnerability.
When fires ravaged the city in the 17th century, it was rebuilt to reflect the baroque character that survives today. Today, Passau is home to 50,000 people.
We were back on board the Skadi by 1:30 p.m. and had lunch in the lounge with Richard, Judy and Lucy. By the time we had finished lunch, our suitcases were in our room, so we unpacked them. We hoped this would be the only transfer we would have on this cruise. One nice thing about a cruise – you usually get to stay in the same room for the duration, which makes it quite nice. This was just a small disruption.
After we had unpacked, we went back into town. We saw St. Michael’s cathedral first,
and then Saint Stephen’s.
It is one of the town’s foremost baroque landmarks and boasts the largest pipe organ outside the United States. Beautiful. It has 17,974 organ pipes, 233 stops and four carillons. All five parts of the organ can be played from the main keyboard, one at a time, or all together.
The Skadi sailed at 5:00 p.m. At 7:00 p.m. we had dinner with John and Denise from California, and a couple from Los Angeles who were originally from Denmark (never got their names). He was a German teacher in a high school in Los Angeles.
More interesting sights in Passau:
| Remember, we were told that the incomplete “8” equals a “4” – therefore, the date shown is 1499. |
| A plaque on the wall in the Glass Museum |
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Old Things R New 
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