Deutscher Kaiser Hotel Garni - Passau

For all fans of the austrian empress Sissi

by globetrott

It was in april 21st, 1854 that the bavarian princess Elisabeth (called Sissi) entered a ship in Passau in order to travel to Vienna to marry the austrian emperor Kaiser Franz Joseph.
Click on my picture and you may see the commemoration plate that you may see on the wall of the old townhall in Passau.
The german inscription is saying:
Dem Andenken weiland Ihrer Majestät, der Kaiserin Elisabeth
Höchstwelche am 21.April 1854 auf Ihrer Donau-Brautfahrt nach Wien
Hier in Passau von den bayerischen Landen Abschied nahm.

In the year 2004 - 150 years after that special event - a similar steamship made the same journey again, with actors onboard, performing Sissi and her court...

F*cking/Austria - 35km south of Passau

by globetrott

F*cking is a lovely place & NO bad word in Austria, and it is really not in a big distance from Passau ! Get to Braunau am Inn first, and then it is just a few more km.

To be honest, there is NOTHING else to see than the signposts, that also make no sense at all in Austria. This place is pronounced FOOKING, and only a few people live there at all.

In case that you belong to the tiny bunch of people searching for places with strange and funny names - click on my link below and see my page about F*cking.

Beautiful Cathedral!

by Roeffie

Dom St. Stephan

This is the most known and most beautiful church of Passau, with it's beautiful wall paintings and all the religious art.

But the biggest event is the world's biggest pipe organ with 17774 Pipes and 233 Registers.

On several occasions the organ is played normally every working day at 12.00- 12.30 hrs.

The entrance fee is then € 3,00 for Adults. On other hours you can enter the cathedral for free.

The Lamberg Chapel / Kapelle

by globetrott

The Lamberg Chapel / Kapelle is the tomb of Cardinal - Princebishop Johann Phillip Graf von Lamberg ( 1689 - 1712). he died in the age of 23 and his chapel is mainly famous for its great fresco at the ceiling:
The fresco shows the "last judgement", but not painted like a trial, but rather giving the hope for forgiveness...

Passau where the River Inn meets the Danube.

by dabidc

"City centre in a water world"

The river Danube or Donau rises in S.W Germany and flows east on its way to the Black Sea. One of the tributaries is the Inn, which rises in Switzerland as the Enn and flows into Austria near Landeck, in turn it enters Germany near Rosenheim.

The photo shows the Danube on the left looking brown compared to the lighter colour of the Inn.

The older section of Passau is built on a narrow section of land between the two rivers. Over the years there have been many times when the buildings were flooded.

There is a pleasant river walk along the Inn and the Danube, an excellent place on a warm day to watch the commerce on the river.

The view downstream is one of wooded hills and shows no buldings, but the view is of the very western part of Austria that is on the Danube.

"Danube floods over the centuries."

The Rathaus complex is close to the Danube and on one wall of the building the levels of previous floods and the year the flood occurred, have been marked.

I do not recall which years had the highest water levels nor the actual depth of the water. Suffice it to say that the height of the people shown could be just under 2 m, or the top of the arch be 5 m from the ground. Then it may be the greatest depth was possibly 7 m above the present river level. The depth guage does not account for the flood s since 1997. I believe there was a major flood in the last 3 or 4 years.