Question 1

Vilshofen on Your Own

Accepted Answer

Vilshofen is a town to see on foot: the town square, the town tower, the parish church and the old customs house on the riverbank make an easy walk. Passau is a short train ride away if you want a bigger town. The Stadtplatz: Most of the town square was rebuilt after a fire in 1794 destroyed nearly the whole town, and it still has the look of that rebuilding. The town tower: Finished in 1647, it has housed the town's art museum since 2001. St. John the Baptist: The parish church is partly medieval and was rebuilt in 1803 and 1804. Its Baroque furnishings came from a monastery church in Passau. The old customs house: It stands right on the Danube bank, a reminder of the centuries when Vilshofen was a border town. Passau: Regional express trains run to Passau every hour from Vilshofen station. Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. It will not wait for passengers touring on their own, so if you take the train to Passau, check the last train back and leave a wide margin.

Question 2

Getting Around

Accepted Answer

The town center is for walking, and Vilshofen station, on the Regensburg to Passau line, is the way to go farther. Long-distance trains pass through without stopping, so use the regional trains. Regional express trains run every hour to Passau in one direction and toward Munich in the other. Regional buses and a town bus serve the area, and part of the town bus runs on request. The Vils valley cycle path, 113 km long, ends in Vilshofen and joins the Danube Cycle Path here.

Question 3

Beer and Brewing

Accepted Answer

Vilshofen once had six breweries, and one survives: Wolferstetter, founded in 1428. The town's brewing story reaches all the way to the first Pilsner. The Groll brewery, which produced Josef Groll, was later absorbed into Wolferstetter. Groll, born in Vilshofen in 1813, is credited with brewing the first Pilsner in Pilsen in 1842. The Wolferstetterkeller, in the heart of town, hosted the Political Ash Wednesday rallies until the crowds outgrew it and the CSU moved the event to Passau in 1975.

Question 4

Tipping and Currency

Accepted Answer

Tipping in Germany is common on top of the bill. Germany uses the euro. A restaurant bill already covers tax and service, and people commonly add about 10 percent.

Question 5

The Abbey, the Fireworks and the Floating Market

Accepted Answer

Schweiklberg, a Benedictine abbey, stands on the hill of the same name above the town. In town, the calendar is marked by fireworks on the Danube in summer and a Christmas market on the water in December. Monks settled on the Schweiklberg in the early 1900s, and it became an abbey in 1914. Its church, begun in 1909, is in the Art Nouveau style, and the whole complex was finished in 1925. Since 1990 the abbey has housed a museum of African art and objects, built from gifts brought home by its missionaries in eastern and southern Africa. Donau in Flammen, a riverside festival with fireworks over the Danube, takes place on the second weekend of July. The town's Christmas market in December is a floating one, partly on board a moored vessel. Vilshofen counts as the birthplace of Bavaria's Political Ash Wednesday. Farmers argued politics at the town's Ash Wednesday cattle market as early as about 1580, and a memorial on the riverbank marks the tradition. The Taferlsee, in the Vils-Engtal nature reserve, is a former granite quarry that has filled with water.

Question 6

History

Accepted Answer

Vilshofen's written history begins in 776, and for centuries the town stood on the border between Bavaria and the lands of the Prince-Bishop of Passau. Salt, beer and the railway each shaped it in turn. The first record dates from 776, when a farm called Vilusa was given to Mondsee Abbey. Count Heinrich I of Ortenburg made Vilshofen a town in 1206. The Duke of Bavaria seized the town in 1241, and it passed to Bavaria for good in 1262, as a border town facing Passau. Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian confirmed its charter in 1345. In 1504 the town held off an attack during the War of the Landshut Succession. In 1572 the duke allowed a salt depot here. A new Danube bridge and a wheat-beer brewery followed, and salt went on from Vilshofen toward Bohemia along the trade route known as the Golden Path. A fire on 12 May 1794 destroyed almost the entire town. The railway between Regensburg and Passau opened in 1860. On 29 April 1945, Waffen-SS units blew up the Danube bridge. Two days later the town was handed over to the US Army without a fight, and ferries carried people across the river until a new bridge opened in 1950. In September 1989, about 1,400 East Germans who had fled through Hungary arrived in Vilshofen, then the largest reception camp for new arrivals in Lower Bavaria. The town marked 800 years since becoming a town in 2006. To learn more ashore: The town tower, finished in 1647, has housed the town's art museum, the Stadtgalerie, since 2001.

Vilshofen

Good to know

What to Expect

Vilshofen on Your Own

Getting Around

Beer and Brewing

Tipping and Currency

The Abbey, the Fireworks and the Floating Market

History

Port crowds

Photos from travelers

Traveler reviews