Just a quick post about yesterday. It’s a 4+ hour drive from Munich to Cesky Krumlov, so the group and gear in 3 Sprinter vans got to the halfway point, Passau, Germany, for a little break. We stretched our legs, took a bathroom break, visited the cathedral, and ate Strudel from Anton Hoft, a bakery that’s been operating since 1890.
I must say, this visit to St. Stephens was the first time I’ve ever been thrown out of a church. St. Stephens has an organ that is the largest Catholic Church organ in the world and Europe’s biggest (17,974 pipes and 233 stops). We got there just in time to hear the organist hit a few keys, when our translator explained that the docents told him the organist doesn’t like to rehearse with people wandering around in the church, so we had to leave. The truth of the matter is that, if we’d bought tickets to hear the rehearsal, we could stay, but otherwise we were kicked out.
Anyway, it was a lovely town and church, excellent strudel served by wonderful staff with much patience. I only got a pic of the organ, one of a painted dome, and one altar while we were inside the church. I also took a couple of pix from the courtyard to which we were banished, and a few from the town before we re-boarded the vans to continue to C.K. So here are a few pix, plus one of an enormous man-made lake (25KM?) we passed along the way from Passau to Cesky Krumlov, which is the one at the top of this post, taken from the van by Jack.
peregrinations 