Last weekend we tried unsuccessfully to coordinate an opportunity to attend church in Hungary, but this week in Passau, Germany, we were successful. Our Cruise manager Laslo researched the mass times and directions. Instead of going on the official city tour, Theresa, Dad and I took our own tour, saw the old part of the city and made our way to one of the most beautiful churches we’d seen during this trip. St. Stephen’s Basilica was white inside and out, in the final stages of a restoration and had plenty of natural light flooding in. While the mass was in German, one of the great things about the Catholic service is that it doesn’t vary from country to country, or from one language to another. We had all attended enough services that we could definitely follow along and responded in English when appropriate. This church actually has the second largest pipe organ in the world and we fell upon it mostly by chance, although Dad would say there are no coincidences.
Gus joined us at the end of mass because that’s where his city tour ended and was able to give us a bit of commentary as we returned to our ship. He pointed out the pub/brewery that had won “World’s Best Beer”. Well, despite it being right after mass and not yet 11:00, we decided that we couldn’t miss the opportunity. Dad was not interested in the beer, but was very enthusiastic when I mentioned that they had homemade apple strudel with ice cream and whipped cream. What a wonderful breakfast!
Our ship set off to our final destination at Vilshofen, Germany at lunchtime, leaving us with free time on board. As often happened, we all went separate ways after a meal and yet many of us found our way back together (likely due to the size of the boat). Several days earlier Dad had brought it to the attention of the Cruise manager that the corn hole game on the sun deck had broken, sure enough, they procured a new one and Dad, David, Chris and I battled it out. David was the champion.
We finished the day in Vilshofen with a Bavarian celebration of music, dancing and beer. Great fun. After dinner we knew that we had to pack but perhaps, knowing that the magic of the trip was ending, we all made our way to the lounge one last time to enjoy the music of Norbert, our in-house pianist, and we (Debbie, Theresa, Stephanie and myself) enjoyed one more dance, cheek to cheek with Dad.
Add comment
Comments