Passau; Sunday, 07 December, 2025

Given the weather forecast for the morning I decided to have a bit of a lie in and a late breakfast, which meant I missed the worst of the heavy showers of the morning before I checked out and headed into the city centre in a light drizzle.

I had a bit of a wander around the city centre taking in the sights of the city, eventually finding myself at a very nice terrace overlooking the Danube and across to the fortress, or what you could see of it that wasn’t shrouded in mist and slightly larger very low clouds.

Just behind the gardens is the Church of St Paul which sits high above the street at one end and almost at street level on the other as it takes advantage of the hill. Inside it’s a much plainer church than the cathedral with white painted walls and ceilings and the only adornment being on the altar and side chapels.

From St Paul’s church it was a short walk up to the Domplatz and a brief wander around the Christmas Market before heading back down to the Danube. I was originally planning on heading down to the town hall, but as I reached the river the rain was starting to pick up in intensity and as I was right by the booking office and landing stage for the river cruise, and as there was one departing within 10 minutes I decided that I’d rather stay warm and dry for an hour.

The tour start by heading up the Danube to go past the city centre before turning round and then heading back down the Danube, past the fortress and the confluence points of the Ilz and Inn and heading a bit further downstream before turning round again and then heading up the Inn until just before the first/last bridge before turning around again for a sail past of the Dreiflüsseeck taking in the full swing from the Inn back round into the Danube before returning to the start point.

The rain was still pretty heavy when I disembarked so I quickly walked down to the Rathaus to take some photos before packing up my camera and making my way back through the city centre to my hotel to grab my luggage and head over to the station, arriving a couple of minutes before the train came in on it’s inbound journey from Freising so I was able to quickly board and get a good seat for the journey back to Freising.

For once the DB train ran pretty much to time the whole way to Freising, until it got to the penultimate stop at Moosberg where it promptly ground to a halt for more than 15 minutes before finally setting off again. By the time we got to Freising we were 20 minutes late, so it’s fortunate that I’d got a train an hour earlier than I needed to as the delay meant I missed the next connection to the airport and had to wait another 20 minutes.

I had a smooth journey through the airport and out to the plane which, thanks to having the new larger overhead lockers, was able to swallow up all the luggage that people came on board with meaning we were all locked up and ready to head back to London on time.