Friday, January 05, 2007

the city on three rivers











during my visit to germany in november,i went to a beautiful village called buchelberg.it takes about 20 minutes by car from paassau.the countryside scenery is gorgeous.greenery everwhere,and the farmhouses are so beautiful.i have been visiting passau and buchelberg on an average atleast once a year for the last ten years. i like buchelberg for its simple village charm.i would love to stay there but as i normally reach passau rather late in the evening there is no suitable train connection. i generally stay at 'holiday inn' at passau.it is very conveniently located. a few minutes walk from the hauptbahnof(main railway station).when i was returning from buchelberg to passau i met a very interesting taxidriver. he was from iraq.he was so well informed about international politics.and he knew and understood indian politics and of course he reeled out the names of our many prime ministers and was full of praise for amitabh bacchan whom he considered better than many hollywood greats.

passau is a very lively modern town.it has plenty of history.it is located near the austrian and czech border.once i tried to get into the czech side and luckily got off with a brief reprimand! passau is a cultutal and artistic centre. its famous festival is called "europaische wochen" (european weeks) and there are any number of exhibitions in the numerous art galleries and museums of the town.

the old town has a history of about 7000 years. the rivers danube,inn and ilz meet here. the spectacle is so very natural and breathtaking. some of the important places in this historic city are: veste oberhaus built in 1219 having gothic,renaissance and baroque architecture. the magnificent st steven's cathedral. it was burnt down in 1662 by a massive fire. rebuilt by the famous baroque architect carlo lurago,its stucco works and frescoes were done by italian artists. the church organ has 17974 organ pipes,233 stops and 4 carilons. it is the world's largest cathedral organ. then the museum of the treasure of the cathedral, glass museum(bohemian glass),museum of modern art and the town hall. the roman museum 'kastell boiotro' was discovered in 1974. the excavations give a glimpse of the roman civilisation during the years 250 to 400 ad.

there is so much to see in this beautiful city of Baveria that i have decided to take a holiday when i am here later this year and soak in the natural beauty of this wonderful town. visit as many museums and art galleries as possible. and of course the fantastic st stven's cathedral renowned for possesing the world's largest organ.

As the Bavarian author Ludwig Ganghofer wrote "those whom the lord favours,he sends to live here".

3 comments:

david mcmahon said...

Dear GS,

Thanks for the heads-up about your blog. I've enjoyed my first visit and will be back regularly. Great to see youo began it so long ago. Nice wide choice of blogposts, too.
More power to your blogging.

David (McMahon)

gs said...

hello david
many thanks for your comments on my blog. i went over to the oxford book store yesterday evening hoping to get a copy of 'vegemite vindaloo'. no luck. though the computer showed that one copy was available,they couldn't locate it. i will try in 'crossword' today .what did i do on return? posted a blog on 'veg vindaloo'!

gopal(gs)

Lotus Reads said...

Wow, you travel so much! Lucky us because we get to live vicariously through you! I, too, have heard much praise for Bavaria...some day I will visit the place, but in the meantime I look forward to more impressions from you when you visit the place again later this year. Oh, yeah, and taxi drivers are really interesting people, I never miss the opportunity to talk with them, especially when I am in a foreign country.

Thank you for a delightful post!