Passau und Landshut

Passau, a town located in southeast Germany, again 2 hours from Munich by Regional Bahn. My friend, Nik decided on that town after reading the Germany guide book and after a good review from a Native german during our visit to Neushwanstein. So woke up earliest since i arrived a month ago at 6 in the morning, ate some bread and headed for the main train station to catch the 0723 train. Unfortunately it was sunday the day before, so all shops were closed, so no finger food. Germans have a reputation for their punctuality, and this is especially true in their train schedule. When they say the departure time is 0723, it WILL leave at 0723. So for those who wish to travel around in German by train, you WILL need to be punctual. Arrived in Passau at 0930, its a relatively quiet town when we arrived. Hardly a soul in sight, as it was Easter holidays. Renown for it's river cruise, and situated at the point where the 2 rivers meet, it is actually quite a touristy place. If you look at the town description in one of the pictures, you would see the difference in the colour of the 2 rivers. Bus loads of tourists arrive in batches later in the morning, by noon, the town was teaming with Tourists. Like other typical european town, the streets are narrow and cobbled. Ok i suck at describing towns, so i shall just let my pictures do the introduction. Nik who has great interest in Old buildings was quite disappointed. It turned out that the buidlings or architecture in Passau was not as old as what the native german promised. Walked at least 10 km in this town, across the river 4 times, up a hill to reach a castle, and again Kebab for lunch. After covering all the attractions in 4 hours, it was still early. Not wanting to waste our Bayern ticket, we headed back to the train station counter to find out if there are any other attractions within the area. The lady behind the counter couldn't help me with the search as her computer broke down. =( But more importantly, i asked everything in German, Woo! And i could understand what she replied! Initally we had planned to visit Salzburg, but realised that the trip there would take 4 hours, and that did not include the time to get back munich. So had to choose something along the route back to munich. By random, we chose Landshut. Pronounced as Lahnts...hoot.

(pictures starts from the very tall church clock tower with a very blue sky.) Without any plan, we alighted at the station and headed north, where we spotted a castle on a hill. Lots of castles here in Bayern. Along the way, we discovered a street lined with Ice cream shops and restaurants! It was teeming with locales enjoying the sunshine with ice cream or a mug of beer in hand. It was like a small version of Munich, except that tourists are not everywhere. Headed up the castle which turned out to be pretty new, but it offered a great view of the town below. Once again, i must admit that i suck at Town description, so more pictures to do the job. After the long day and a steep climb up a hill to the castle, we were totally exhausted. My Banglah knees started to hurt. Thus we headed back to the train station, catching the 7 pm train back to munich. Wanted very much to nap on the train, but couldn't bear to miss the beautiful sun setting into the vast open fields....