Nothing but the truth

I must have misunderstood the tour guide yesterday in Regensburg. I thought she told us that the only cathedral in Germany was there. When the guide this morning orientated us to our surroundings in Passau, she pointed out the spire of the cathedral. I told her about Regensburg having the only one and she was confused. Not only does Passau have one but lots of other German towns do too. Too much information in too short a time.

Passau sits on peninsula between the Danube River and the Inn River. The Ills River comes in too. It is a wonderful little place with again about 20% of the population being university students. The tour guide was at a loss to explain the low population growth and the high number of students. A fellow traveler pointed out that education is free so obtaining a degree is no reason to stop attending.

A confluence of events lead to this being a Baroque town. Most significant was a fire in 1662. The west side of the cathedral didn't burn and is still Gothic. The east end was destroyed and subsequently rebuilt but in the Baroque style. I don't know and can't understand why they didn't want to match the existing style.

A number of the German towns we have visited have had some version of a sea wall. Usually a meter or two tall, they would be raised out of the ground or brought in from a staging area to completely separate the town from the river. Passau doesn't have that option. A flood in 2013 had water more than five meters above the dock. If you want to use that to show the effects of global warming or climate change or whatever the term of the day is, the flood of 1501 was even higher. Just saying.