20240819 Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 18/27 - Passau, Germany to Salzburg, Austria

Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 18/27 - Docking in Passau, Germany and touring in Salzburg, Austria

Rain. It's good for us so the river level stays high, but it sure makes excursions suck. That was the case today for many on the ship who did the walking tour in Passau, Germany. It rained the entire tour and everyone got soaked. Lucky for us, this didn't impact us. We stood in the rain briefly before boarding our bus for the two-hour ride to Salzburg, Austria.

Oberhaus Fortress in Passau

A sea of red Viking umbrellas

The ducks weren't bothered by the rain

We passed this lovely lady on the walk to our bus

Two hours later, we arrived in Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart and the setting for the movie, The Sound of Music. Our walk from the bus took us to Mirabell Palace and its gardens.

From the gardens, we could catch a nice view of Fortress Hohensalzburg

Mirabell Palace - built in 1606 by Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitena for his mistress who had 15 children with him

We're not sure if these were supposed to be cats or demons

Mozart University

Another view of the palace

We left the Mirabell Palace grounds and walked into town.

Mozart Residence

Christian Doppler birthplace

The Doppler Effect explains why a moving object's sound increases in pitch as it approaches and decreases in pitch as it moves away

Marko Feingold Bridge crossing the Salzach River

It is also known as the Love Lock Bridge as lovers attach a lock to the bridge and toss the key into the river to seal their love

Museum of Modern Art

The fortress from the Love Lock Bridge

Hotel Sacher Salzburg

Looking back at the Museum of Modern Art on top of the hill

The narrow pedestrian streets of Salzburg

Mozart has a large presence in Salzburg. He composed The Magic Flute, the first opera ever written and performed in German. His mother had seven children but only two survived to adulthood.

Mozart's Birthplace

The banner holds the notes of one of his first compositions as a small child, the melody currently used for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (you're singing that in your head right now, aren't you?)

Collegiate Church

University Square

The original chocolate treat is known casually as Mozart Balls

Meteorological Pillar of the 19th Century from 1888

Salzburg Cathedral

Salzburg Museum

A baroque fountain

The entrance to the Salzburg Cathedral courtyard

FestungsBahn - Austria's oldest funicular railway, operating since 1892

The fortress with some recent modern art in the square

Salzburg Cathedral's main facade

The Franciscan Church - Franziskanerkirche 

The entrance to St. Peter's Abbey

St. Peter's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery - the oldest in the German-speaking world, dating back to the 7th century - far before the Melk Abbey we toured yesterday

The abbey contains a cemetery with graves dating to the 1500s alongside graves from the current day.

The small chapel in the cemetery

Our lunch today was in the abbey at St. Peter Stiftskulinarium. It is the oldest operating restaurant in Europe!

They have been serving guests since 803 - more than 1220 years!

We enjoyed roasted chicken and veggies

Singers and a piano player performed several songs from The Sound of Music

Dessert was a light and sweet merengue

After lunch, we had free time to explore.

St. Rupert's Church

Clemens-Holzmeister-Stiege is a stairway in the old town of Salzburg

Wild Man Fountain

Karajan Square & the “Horse Pond”

St. Blasius Church

We took the Mönchsberg Elevator near the Museum of Modern Art to the top of the hill for panoramic views of the city.

Arlona took a photo of me (in the green), taking a photo

The side of the Museum of Modern Art

We rode back down and did some additional wandering and shopping.

Gstättentor Gate

The buildings here are seriously old

Arlona found some unique jewelry in this store - I'll try to get photos later

I had to grab an authentic Bavarian pretzel for the two-hour ride to the ship

It was a long day, but a good day. It rained most of the way back to the ship but quit before we got back. We sailed shortly after boarding.

There was a lot of banging happening up top on the ship tonight. The crew was taking down all the covers and railings, essentially flattening the ship. Over the next several days, we will be sailing under some extremely low bridges where we will have perhaps a couple inches of clearance. The wheelhouse is also retractable, lowering into the top of the ship.  We will also pass through 68 locks - we've already passed through a few. It will be an interesting few days of sailing.

Tomorrow will be another long day. We will dock in Regensburg, Germany, and take a bus for the two-hour ride to Munich for the day.