Dec 11, Start of Cruise in Vilshofen

Checked out of the Munich hotel.  Uber to train station.  Everything went smoothly.  Got to station more than a half hour early.  Went to Platform 25 and the platform sign verified that our train was sitting there.  Others had already boarded, so we also boarded.  We had first-class tickets.  To get there, we had to drag our luggage up a flight of stairs.  We settled into nice seats with power to charge our mobile devices.  We sat for a half hour comfortably waiting for the train to leave.  Then, one minute before departure, I received an alert on my phone that our train was changed to platform 26!  We had been sitting on the wrong train all that time!  How could that be?!  Why did all the other passengers know they were on their correct train?!  We QUICKLY got all our stuff together, got off the train, with help from a guy to get our luggage down the flight of steps, and "ran" to the next platform.  We made it!  This was our 4th train, and 3 out of 4 had bad surprises.

We arrived in Vishofen.  Got a taxi to the dock to board the cruise ship, where we learned our ship already left and was now in Passau, due to the quickly rising Danube river.  (The huge snowfall that occurred in this part of Germany on the day we arrived in Vienna, was now melting, and the water was running down the Alps foothills into the Danube.)  If the ship hadn't left Vilshofen when it did, it wouldn't have been able to get under the next bridge.  So we had to wait for a shuttle to take us to Passau, about 35 minutes downstream.

​Meanwhile, we walked into the town of Vilshofen to see the old town and get lunch.

We tried four restaurants -- ALL were closing around 2:00.  So we missed out.  Finally found a deli/cafe with sandwiches and salads.

We met the shuttle and drove about a half hour to Passau and got on the ship.  Very impressive!  We unpacked into the very efficient state room.  Had a good dinner.  I was impressed with the efficiency of serving so many people, so quickly, with such a great menu!  They told us that the river was still rising, and we had to continue downstream to the next stop in Linz.  So we would be waking up in the town we were supposed to be at on day 3 of the cruise.  They told us the day trips would be somehow reschedule to work with the ships changing locations.

By then, we were very tired -- a head cold did me in.  We planned to sleep in till our 11:15 lunch.