We arrived from our night train into Constance at 10 in the morning. It was sunny and the beautiful autumn weather evoked something powerful from this very old city that we felt lucky to be a part of for the day.
There were huge churches and large statues places strategically all over this city—of course all of the information is always in German—but we think that they are beautiful and it is fun to try and decipher their meaning and relevance.
The buildings are typical of southern Bavaria—they are painted with beautiful stories and tales from the city’s history.
This is the statue of a woman at the end of the dock where you enter onto the ferries that take you across the lake. For your enjoyment let me tell you that it is not just a statue, it is also a weathervane and it spins, you might count yourself quite lucky that you got to see the backside of this very anatomically correct weather instrument in our picture.
It was about 45 minutes on the first ferry to Friedrichshafen—it was a beautiful journey on the catamaran over the water.
Once in Friedrichshafen we took a long walk along the lake, we drank coffee, and just enjoyed the gorgeous view on a gorgeous day.
At the end of the walkway around the lake is a church that is HUGE—but the most breathtaking part of the church was this grounds. This gazebo was tucked back in the corner and I just couldn’t resist taking a photo trying to capture the peacefulness that the setting brings to person standing there.
The red building in the middle is our very sweet hotel. It was so nice to have a comfortable bed (ours in Hamburg was actually broken when we got here because the guy we rent from didn’t have time to get it fixed). It was a wonderful place tucked into a neighborhood and it was run by a sweet old couple who gave also gave us a great breakfast!
On Sunday we took the bus around the lake to Meersburg…a medieval city that climbs up and around a hill and has a castle at the top. It is precious and the foggy weather only added to the history and charm.
So…it doesn’t get any better than a RENAISSANCE FAIR in a medieval city, does it????? After much deliberation David and I decided that yes, we must enter into the festival taking place(it only happens once a year and it was while we were there) and so we joined the lines with all of the people dressed in their medieval clothing (furs and swords even) and watched wide eyed as a whole new world was opened to us.
At the festival we enjoyed music and food and people watching…and more people watching…and some more people watching!
Before we left Meersburg we went to the winery in the center of the town and enjoyed a little German wine tasting. It was a wonderful way to bring the weekend to an end before we got back on the ferry to Constance.
After we departed this ferry we are on in Constance, we took the 10 hour train ride back home. We returned today to our Monday morning bright and early…it was a good start to the week: David has now started studying for his exams, I can’t believe that they will be here next week already, while the kids and I enjoyed an outing to the park to enjoy the autumn sun while it lasts.This weekend we traveled to the southern region of Germany to a place called Bodensee. Bodensee is the term for the entire area that surrounds Lake Constance (Germans spell it Konstanz). There are several countries that border the large lake and our plan had been to take a ferry into Switzerland but when we reached this area we decided to change our plans...
Our first day was spent in the city of Constance. From there we took a ferry to Friedrichshafen, this is where we stayed the night. In the morning we rode the bus that drives along the lake and through German vineyards to the town of Meersburg. Then we took a ferry back to Constance to head back to Hamburg.
It was a wonderful weekend and we had a relaxing time. It was really neat to see a new area, new landscape, and have a fun time on the water (it reminded us a great deal of Seattle).
The weekends may be quick for us, but we truly are packing in as much as we can in the short period of time that we have, and having a wonderful time while we do it!
