Regensburg

We were able to visit Regensburg (Germany) for approximately half a day on our recent Danube River cruise. This wasn't nearly enough time to see all of the interesting-looking sites, but we did get a decent introduction to the city. Regensburg features historically significant structures as evidenced by its being named to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Regensburg is another city by three rivers (Danube River and its two tributary rivers Naab and Regen). It is the Regen River, of course, that lends its name to Regensburg.

For me, one of the most memorable sights in Regensburg is its Stone Bridge (Steinerne Brücke).

The views from the Stone Bridge perhaps surpass even the views of that bridge.

It's amazing to think that the Old Stone Bridge was constructed in the 12th century. Relative to that, the Bruckmandl is relatively young, having been erected in the 16th century.

The other landmark of Regensburg that can be used to quickly identify it (and to figure out where one is when in and around the city) is the Gothic Cathedral of St. Peter (Regensburg Cathedral). Sacred Destinations describes this as "the finest Gothic building in Bavaria."

We spent some time in the sizable market area of Old Town and sampled some of the local snacks and desserts.

Although we saw and were able to spend significant time at the Old Stone Bridge, at St. Peter's Cathedral, and in Old Town, a half day in Regensburg did not afford us nearly enough time to see all of the interesting-looking attractions in that city.

Passau

Before planning this first trip for us to Europe, I had never heard of Passau (Germany), but it turned out to be a very nice surprise when we visited it on our Danube river cruise. We only got to spend half a day there and I would have liked more time in this beautiful and charming city.

Passau is sometimes referred to as Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") or "Three Rivers City" because of its location on the Danube (Donau) River where tributary rivers Inn (shown in next two photographs) and Ilz join the Danube River.

This location by three rivers contributes to the beauty of Passau, but it also has been cause of severe flooding throughout Passau's history. The markings on the Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus) indicate the peak level of each flood over the years can be seen in the bottom right corner of the next photograph (2013 was one of the highest!).

Doug Nield took the next photograph that shows the flood level markings close up.

One of the most impressive sights as one sails into Passau is the fortress known as Veste Oberhaus.

Beyond the things to see in Veste Oberhaus itself, the walk up to it is worthwhile for the views of Passau alone. These photographs provide a small taste of the visual appeal of Passau from that vantage point.

For someone who had never visited Europe before, Passau met many of my expectations of what an older (compared to most cities in the United States) European "old town" would be like (cobblestone streets, fountains, statues, dramatic cathedrals, etc.).

The Wittelsbacher Fountain is part of Residenzplatz ("Residence Square") in Passau. Two of Saint Stephen's Cathedral's three green domes can also be seen in this photograph.

The baroque St. Stephen's Cathedral (Dom St. Stephan) is one of the most obvious landmarks in Passau from near or far.

The Cathedral of St. Stephen features short organ concerts that demonstrate one of the world's largest organs. I wish we had more time so that we could have listened to one, but with only half of a day in Passau, we chose to ascend the hill to Veste Oberhaus in our free time instead.

Passau at night is gorgeous, but my simple camera cannot adequately convey that.

We really enjoyed visiting Passau and were sorry to have to leave so soon. There definitely was much more there to see than we were able to see in half of a day.

Vilshofen an der Donau

Vilshofen, Germany, was the Danube River port town from which we embarked on our Gate 1 Travel river cruise on the Monarch Empress.

Donau is another name for the Danube River and Vilshofen is referenced as "Vilshofen an der Donau" based on its location, which is described on the International Trading Company's web page as, "located in the southern part of the Bavarian Forest and on the banks of the Danube."

That same web page states that "three creeks - the Vils, the Pfudrach and the Wolfach - add here more water to the mighty [Danube] river."

Vilshofen was one of the smaller towns we saw on our river cruise and seems to have been the smallest in which we were docked in its port. However, we were happy to have the opportunity to spend several hours here before starting the river cruise. It was a great town to kick off our first trip to Europe.

Narrow cobblestone streets would be experienced frequently through the course of this trip, but we don't see them as much here in the United States except for certain areas such as in Boston. We really enjoyed strolling through the Stadplatz section of Vilshofen (with the historic town tower) and along the riverbanks.

We ended up having lunch on the street shown above (it seemed to have the restaurant options). We had been told that nearly all European restaurants accept credit cards, but all three proprietors we talked to in Vilshofen only accept cash. We had a small amount of local currency (Euros), but decided to play it safe and withdrew additional Euros from an ATM at a bank located on this street. We ate lunch at Burger Brothers & More because they had really nice outdoor seating available, because the items on the menu photographs looked good, and because the menus included English titles above several of the German food item descriptions.

Vilshofen provided us with a nice, relatively quiet introduction of the types of things we'd see on this trip. I didn't really "feel like I was really in Europe" until we visited Vilshofen. I'm very happy now that I selected it as the embarkation point for our cruise, a decision I made without really knowing what I was doing at the time.