Be Sure to View Other Posts from This Trip: Bratislav, Slovakia – Salzburg & Vienna, Austria, Budapest, Hungary
Hey Guys,
It’s the Mink! I know you all thought I had gone back to the jungle and that I was living in a tree there or something, throwing things at other animals and stuff, but I’m back!
If you saw my last post, I’ve been in Europe on an amazing river cruise with Minkey Mama and her sis to 4 countries. So we have to split em up into several posts or you would all be wearing eye patches after you read them all.
Anyway, we went on a Viking River Cruise — a trip of a lifetime. I kept looking for them to put crowns on us all because they treated us like Royals! The Minkster even had his own waiter named Christian. Christian was Hungarian, and was the coolest guy. He met us the first time we came to dinner and took Minkey Mama by the arm and told her he wanted us to eat at his table at every meal. And he did special things for Minkey like bringing out a banana and tucking it under my arm. Awwwwwww!
He loved the Mink (so easy to do – hehe), and was always playing with me and bringing me wine and other special stuff. Minkey was in Primate Heaven. They fed us gourmet meals and fabulous desserts, and I think I gained a whole quarter of an ounce, cos my clothes got all stuffed and tight.
Largest Pipe Organ in the World – St. Stephen’s Cathedral – Passau
ANYway, on to Passau, Germany. That city is in lower Bavaria and is known as the town of 3 rivers as it has 3 major rivers on each side of it. Our trip was on the Danube, which goes through TEN whole countries! WOW! The Mink can’t even count that high on his fingers.
Passau was pretty small, but very cool. One of the most important places today is Saint Stephens Cathedral. It has the largest pipe organ in all of the world with 17,974 pipes! Minkey started sniffling and then bawling out loud when it started playing, because it almost blasted me to the moon!! I’ve never heard anything so loud in my entire life. It vibrated every bone in my tiny little one ounce body, and I thought I was going to fall apart.
Finally, it shut the heck up, and the Minkster tried to settle down, but it was too late. I WAS WIRED and my hair was sticking out like a big ole porcupine I had been so rattled. You can tell that when you look at my pictures up above.
Anyway, I started playing, and looking all around while I was climbing all over the pews and the other people around us. People were hissing and shushing me and looking at me real mean, so Minkey Mama had to snatch me up and whisper in my ear that I’d better hush or she’d leave me in PASSAU!! Yikes! It was cool there, but the Minkster didn’t want to stay forever.
Minkey Mama said Passau had some dark history too. Oooooo. That scared Minkey ‘cos I thought I might see some ghosties of Hitler or some of the other Nazis there. From 1892 until 1894 Hitler and his family actually lived in Passau. The city archives mention him being in Passau on 4 different occasions in the 1920s for speeches, too. It also has 3 sub-camps of the infamous and monsterous Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
None of the camps in any of the countries we visited are “advertised” or really spoken about. You have to seek them out if you want to see them. We kind of wanted to see one, but never went, so that’s one fit less the Mink had to throw. lol
Next, we went on a walking tour around the town and did a little shopping, saw all the important buildings and heard more about the town’s history like the Oberhaus, which had been the home of the area’s Bishop a kazillion years ago, but in 1802, his rule was ended. Napoleon occupied the fortress, but in 1805 surrendered to the Austrian army and had to leave the country.
Passau today is a very charming little town right on the Danube, and we all liked it a lot because there weren’t a lot of other tourists, and the buildings in it were really colorful. A lot of the streets were very narrow, too since people didn’t have cars back when it was built. The only thing the Minkster didn’t like is that there weren’t a lot of trees to climb and I got tired of walking. I started whining and fussing, so Minkey Mama put me in her purse to shut me up.
CAFE STEPHEN’S DOM – PASSAU, GERMANY
After our tour, we had the rest of the day free, so we decided to eat at a restaurant in town rather than to eat lunch on the boat. We went to this really quaint restaurant called Café Stephen’s Dom that had a gift shop and pastry shop inside where you could pick out any delectable dessert your heart desired and then the waiters would bring it to you.
In Europe, people bring their dogs into shops and restaurants, unlike in America. That meant the Minkster was welcome in there, too. Minkey Mama LOVES animals, so she thought that was great. They were so well-behaved (unlike the Mink), you hardly knew they were there.
I however, wasn’t so well behaved. I ate with my foot in the plate and got chocolate all over my face and then got up and started running around and shrieking at people from eating all that sugar. I was so jazzed up, I got in BIG trouble when we went back to the boat.
The Minkster loved that place though, because it was really wild with all those bright colors and cool looking chandeliers and other fun lamps and stuff. You wouldn’t expect something like that in the heart of Germany for sure, but it was ranked really high for the restaurants in Passau. Anyway, it was fun, because there were no tourists except us in there, and the waiter didn’t even speak English!
After we ate, we window-shopped a little and went on to the ship and hung out with several of the other passengers on the deck and in the lounge. It was a really fun day.
“Auf wiederseh, Passau!”
HOPE THIS WAS WORTH WAITING FOR! Minkey Mama’s shattered shoulder is starting to get a little better, so y’all won’t have to wait as long for the next blog post. Thanks for waiting and for being so patient! The Minkster loves you all and promises …… he’ll light a fire under Minkey Mama’s butt if she doesn’t start the next one soon!
Good-bye Germany, and good-bye for now, Peeps and Fans! I’ll see you again as soon as we can get the next post up from the trip.
xxxooo Minkey and Minkey-Mama
And here’s the slideshow …… LOTS of the MINKSTER in this one!
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