Well, the trip from Dresden to Passau was uneverntful and went as planned (for Luelle, who went by plane and then the Uniworld provided transfer) Dave chose to stay later and participate in a PassivHaus field trip and take the train. All was going well until there was a medical emergency and the train stopped for 16 minutes. Since there was only an 8 minute wait for the next train, we missed it.
There was one more way to get to Passau that evening but it went all over the countryside, stopping in dozens of small towns. It was a wonderful adventure.
The first part I sat with an architect who had put on the PassivHaus conference.
Then after moving to plan B, I wound up in Passau, arriving on the board the ship about 2 AM.
My first thought walking down the hallway to our room was, “Wow!” they’ve really outdone themselves on this latest addition to the Uniworld family of river ships.
One thing that makes a difference in the daily walking tours is the guide. Guides who feel their job is to impress you with facts and give you lots of them are actually rather boring. Our guide on the Passau walking tour was the opposite, She described herself as a “storyteller.” The good guides weave the facts and figures into stories. And the best guides do all that with humor and transparency that shows their love of the area. So we agree on what’s a good tour guide. But because you are given a radio with a number that corresponds to the guide who is waiting for you on shore, it’s like, as Forrest Gump said, “a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” So it becomes part of the adventure.
And I would have to say that all of the River Cruise daily tour guides have rated at least “Good” … But it sure is nice when you get one that is “Great,” like our guide on the Passau walking tour.
Passau is at the confluence of 3 rivers, The Danube, The Ills and The Inns … which comes from Innsbruk. They all continue on as the Danube, a mighty transportation and business corridor all the way to Budapest and on to Bucharest at the Black Sea.