Passau - The Town of Three Rivers
Passau is known as the Town of Three Rivers because this is the place where the River Ilz joins the Danube from the north and the Inn River joins it from the south. Its old town is one of my favorite places to walk. Arriving by a river cruise, you dock on the Danube right by the old town area and simply head uphill into the old town.
As you start walking into the old town area, take a minute to turn around and look to the opposite bank of the Danube. Here you see the hillside rise steeply up to the former fortress of the Bishop, on the mountain crest between the Danube and the Ilz. If you feel energetic, you can hike up the hillside to the fortress. Plan on about two to three hours to get up the hill, look around and get back down.
At any rate, continuing into the old town area, one of the highlights is St. Stephen's Cathedral with its famous organ of 17,794 pipes (second largest in the world). Before the cathedral is a large square where their larg