It has a population of around 50,000 people, and another 8,000 when university is active. Passau is situated at the point where the river Inn and the river Ilz meet the Danube (Donau), and for this reason it is often called the "Three River City" (Drei Flüsse Stadt). It lies around 2,000 km from the end of the Danube, and enjoys a small but thriving local tourist trade.The area of Passau was first settled by the Celts, who were living in southern Bavaria since ages before the Romans came and founded a fortress here because of the excellent strategic position of the peninsula of Passau. Later on the fortress grew and Passau became a real city. Much of the money in the city was made from the salt business with nearby Bohemia (now called Czech Republic), with the salt coming from Bad Reichenhall near Salzburg (city)|Salzburg. In the middle ages, Passau's Saint Stephens church was the head of the local church district which extended all the way to Hungary. Most of the old buildings survive today and are in active use.Nowadays Passau is known for its historic buildings, its University, and its location at the 3 rivers and the last German train station before Austria. Like much of Bavaria, it's also predominantly Catholic. If you look very closely, however, you can spot Protestant churches.It regularly snows in winter, and it is warm to hot in summer. Quite often you get over 30 degree Celsius days.Most of tourists Passau receives are on river cruises going along the Danube, but also many busses arrive here from all of Germany and Austria. Because Passau is not far from the Czech Republic and Austria you will meet also a lot of Austrians and Czechs getting here for shopping or even for working purpose. But most tourists here are native German speakers, so don't think you can go everywhere and speak English, although you may be surprised how common it is.Having said that, as in the rest of Germany, almost everyone under the age of 30 speaks excellent English.*'''Passau Tourist Office''', Rathausplatz 3, Phone: '' 49'' 0851 / 95598-0, (Email mailto:tourist-info@passau.de tourist-info@passau.de).**'''Second location''', Bahnhofstraße 36 (Diagonally opposite the train station.), http://wikitravel.org/en/Passau