We have been home for two months and I have still not finished writing or publishing the blog posts from our summer trip. I have three more, after this one, so we're almost there!
In case you've lost track of how long we were traveling, I'll catch you up. Thirty-three days into our trip, we arrived at Lake Constance. According to Google, "Lake Constance (known as Bodensee in German) is a 63km-long central European lake that borders Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Fed by the Rhine River, it’s composed of two connected parts, the Untersee (lower lake) and the larger Obersee (upper lake). Ringed by resort towns, it's a summer destination for sailing, windsurfing, and swimming. The Bodensee-Radweg cycle path encircles the entire lake in about 260km." We were excited about this leg of our trip because we had read wonderful things about this region of Germany.
When planning the trip, which took close to a year (on and off), I had a bear of a time securing accommodations for us in this region. After contacting more hotels than I care to admit (no sane person would work as hard as I did to find a place to stay), I almost gave up. Because Lake Constance is a popular summer resort destination for travelers from all over, the prices were alarmingly inflated, especially in the high season of summer. Most places I contacted were either too pricey or required a lengthy minimum stay (many had a five-night minimum, or longer). I finally found one option in Meersburg that met our price point and would also allow us to stay only two nights. Although I didn't end up loving the hotel, the host was kind and Meersburg was our favorite of the three larger towns we had considered staying in.
After leaving the "Disney" castles hear Fussen, we made the 2.5 - 3 hour drive to Lake Constance, over the Oberjoch Pass, which is a popular scenic mountain pass in the Allgäu Alps one mile south of the Austrian border. It links Bad Hindelang, Schattwald and Jungholz. During WWII, the pass was called "Adolf-Hitler-Pass."
We arrived in Meersburg late in the afternoon. Meersburg is another of those charming walled German towns, making parking and getting around it with a car, next to impossible. As such, we had to park our car outside the town and schlep our luggage in on foot, as was often the case. Once we unloaded our luggage in our rooms, we set out to explore the town. Meersburg is set up high on a hill above the lake, so the views are beautiful. We wandered the cobblestone streets looking in store windows and admiring the architecture and windows with overflowing flower boxes, everywhere. For dinner, we decided to try the charming restaurant at our family-run hotel. We dined on weiner schnitzel, of course, and the most wonderful delicious starter salad which included a side of warm German potato salad. The old-school chef even brought each of the children a complimentary bowl of ice cream with a dollop of whipped cream and a heart-shaped waffle cookie for dessert. They were thrilled! After dinner, we walked down the steep hill toward the lake to take in the sunset. I sampled some local gelato and we people-watched well into the evening. That is until we were alerted of some breaking news (my phone blew up with texts from friends at home) at which time we jogged back up the steep hill to our hotel to watch the unfolding news of Joe Biden withdrawing from the presidential race.
The next morning, we were up bright and early. We had a full day planned, per usual. We started in a nearby lakeside town, Lindau, which is technically an island. .The highlights were the impressive Bavarian Lion statue, the stone lighthouse, and the scenic harbor with its sizable yacht club. We walked by the water's edge admiring hundreds of spectacular yachts, which I especially enjoyed.
From there we took the short drive to Friedrichshafen, another charming town, to visit the renowned Zeppelin Museum. Friedrichshafen is the birthplace of the Zeppelin airship. The museum comprises the largest collection on airship travel in the world and chronicles the history of the Zeppelin airships. One of its main attractions is a full-size replica of the passenger cabins from the Hindenburg, which mysteriously exploded and burned while docking in New Jersey in 1937. Visitors can walk through and experience what it was like on board the airship. Visitors can also take sightseeing tours in airships around Lake Constance, however after studying the various newspaper accounts and photos of the Hindenburg explosion in the museum, I decided to forgo that adventure. Please use this link to learn more about this fascinating museum: https://www.zeppelin-museum.de/en
Later in the afternoon, we headed to the town of Uberlingen. This was another town we had considered staying in. The town, also set on the lake, was charming and walkable with a lovely waterfront area and some of the best gelato we had tasted in Germany. We returned to Meersburg in the early evening for a copy and paste of the prior evening, (same place for dinner, same gelato shop, and the same great people watching by the lake at sunset).
On our final day in the area, we were up and out early again (checking out of our hotel and schlepping the luggage back to the car). We started our morning at the Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen (German for 'Stilt house museum') which is an archaeological open-air museum on Lake Constance, near the Swiss-German border, consisting of reconstructions of stilt houses or lake dwellings from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The setting was spectacular, with panoramic views of the lake and so much to be learned. What a great place for kids (and adults too)! I am including a link to the museum's website to learn more about this fascinating place: https://www.pfahlbauten.de/en/.
Nearby we stumbled upon a tiny reptile museum (formally known as the Uhldingen Reptile House), which we had not planned to go to, but for some reason drew us in with its giant (but unrelated) dinosaur statue towering over the building, outside. This stinky but quaint museum had an interesting assortment of reptiles (mostly snakes, some iguanas, and a few amusing tortoises that we watched "run" laps around their habitat). There was even a snake out on display that visitors could pet and hold. I chose not to partake in that activity, but the kids quite enjoyed the entire experience. The place was quirky, for certain, but memorable nonetheless.
By the mid-afternoon we were back on the road and heading to our next destination, inching ever closer to Switzerland as we made our way.
Remembering Fitzy...
Fitzy was always a good sport and up for anything, which worked out well given he had four human siblings. On this particular day, Miles moved Fitzy's bed to the center of the family room, with him in it, and built this enclosure out of magnatiles. Fitzy was kind enough to stay in it for quite a few hours so as not to disappoint Miles after all his hard work. Always the thoughtful gentleman, that pug.
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