Passau to Linz

Today we arrived in Passau for breakfast. Stay the morning here to explore and then sail on to Linz for dinner.

This is a beautiful town. We loved it. Perched on the side of The Danube we found ourselves exploring up flights of steps, along little curling cobblestoned alleyways, down winding flights of steps...
Always there was another interesting snickelway leading off to somewhere - quite irresistable.

Moored right in the town, we just strolled off when we were ready. There were a few things we wanted to look for here, and as the town is quite compact it was easy to find them. The main marktplatz had the Cathedral on one end, and the Christmas Market in the square itself.

The cathedral is an ornate Baroque edifice, glorious in all it's white and gold ornateness. It has the largest pipe organ in Europe - over 17,000 pipes. The decorations - especially the paintings - are terrific. The ornate decoration, so typical of the Baroque period, was all around us and simply stunning. Rather over the top to modern taste perhaps but such an amazing survival from another age.

The christmas Market was attractive, but had many of the commonly seen items. We shared a cup of Apfelpunsch (to ward off the cold), and I had some raclette on rye brot. Arthur was a whimp and wouldn't try this (it smelled just like one of my socks now I have been wearing it for a week! - A). There were several toppings you could choose, and I chose roasted onion chips (yum) and also Lingonberry conserve - VERY delicious!!

As we made our way on board again a few drops of rain began. Sailing at the perfect time.

After the first lock we were now in Austria on BOTH sides of the river. The stretch of Danube between Passau and Linz is amazingly attractive. Even today, in winter time with the day dull and getting dark early, the mist was forming in the valey above the river and the whole scene incredibly mysterious and tranquil. Beautiful mountain scenery, typical Austrian dwellings, the gentle motion of our riverboat.... what a relaxation.

Arrived at Linz after dark. Although there was the option of a walk into town, we declined. Just plain weary, I guess.

Jillienne's Strudel Excitement

Later in the afternoon the head chef and the pastry chef gave us a demonstration of how to make applestrudel. Fascinating!

 I've never seen pastry behave the way theirs did. Important things, it seems, are: To have everything at room temperature. This means (they said) - take the butter out of the fridge for a day! Have the egg out for 6 hours or so. Have the flour in the room for all day. EVERY ingredient has to be at Minimum 15C degrees. Even the milk or water... all at the same temperature. Then, when the pastry is mixed it MUST rest for at least 30 mins. ...during the resting it must be covered with oil!! All this is so the dough will be VERY elastic.

Also, the breadcrumbs are very important. And they MUST be fried in the pan till they are GOLDEN brown. Very important to get the golden colour. Use green apples. Any apples can be used, but if you use the green sour apples, you don't need as much lemon rind, so the strudel has a strong apple flavour.

Have a smaller cloth on the table. (They had a cloth on a big cloth.) Doing it this way, the small cloth is used to roll up the strudel easily, and then both cloths can be Washed. The table/bench stays clean. (Actually, the chefs English was not so good, and he said to use the cloth so that when you finish you could just throw it away....!!!

  I've NEVER seen pastry stretch like this. It was absolutely fascinating.

The head chef said his grandmother always told him you should be able to read a book through the pastry!! He took a book from the shelf, held the dough over it - and you could read it!!!

The Pastry Chef demonstrated the whole thing twice. Then when he asked for a volunteer, there was a little silence - so I volunteered! It was fantastic! The pastry just stretched and stretched - like a piece of floppy knit fabric... I got a little hole near the edge, but not as big as the chef did at one point, and he said - "is Gut Madam"!! And so - I made Applestrudel!!

Then we ate some that we(!) had made earlier. VERY YUMMY!!

In the evening, dinner finished with Sacher Torte - quite a nice idea.


-  photos now appear with trembling thanks to The Mysterious Pink Ponther -