Tuesday

Today we got to reach Friedrichshafen, what should be in the bounds of possibility by bike. At first we stopped at the wonderful rococo monastery church Birnau now being situated in vineyards of grapevines with mature grapes. Next stop were the lake dwellings of Unter-Uhldingen. Actually these dwellings are a reconstruction. Maybe this reconstruction (huts on stilts over the water line) is wrong. True: The Lake Constance already was populated at prehistoric times and at all shores of this lake are remnants of these dwellings under the water line today. The archaeologists of Unter-Uhldingen assumed that these were built over the water line, since they were raised on stilts. The archaeologists of the village of Arbon on the lake bank opposite assume that they were on the shore and just built in this fashion because the ground was swampy. The prehistoric builder of these dwellings should have built them - on the shore or not - on long stilts anyway: There are no daily tides, but especially in spring when the snow in the mountains is melting, the water level of the Lake Constance can get rather high. So long stilts only could be of advantage. In there were stilts on the shore as we have it today the remnants of those probably would be gone today. Next stop was the historic city of Meersburg, where we had an apple must and - on a park-bench with a beautiful lake view - our lunch. Interesting: The Fritz Preiss - http://littlequarry.blogspot.com/ - painted the castle of Meersburg on his picture post card of the thirties exaktly from the same direction from where I took the photo. Passing the nice little port of Hagnau we came to a winery, where some winegrowers were delivering their grapes. Luckily the winery had got a shop, so we could buy an excellent bottle of a good vintage year for the night. Eventually we reached Friedrichshafen. This is a mayor city, where once the airship Zeppelin was invented and built. During World war I and II there were developed armaments industry, which had the follow-up of a couple of massive airstrikes during world war II. In 1944 the historical center was almost completely destroyed. This is the reason for its present architecture, which is shaped by the plain style of the fifties. The Zeppelin Museum - a building in the architectural style of Bauhaus - survived the intensive bombardment. In the tallest building of the fifties on the highest floor is a nice restaurant with a beautiful view on the lake and the city. If you would like it to compare to the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan you could call it the "Rainbow Room" of Friedrichshafen. We slept in the 4 - Star - Hotel "Goldenes Rad" which is run by the hotel chain Best Western. It has got a very good restaurant, where we had an excellent dinner.

Monday

Today the day stage was about 40 km. At first we had a tour through thelovely little old town Stein on Rhine. At this place the Untersee ends inthe down flowing river where at former times the merchants could transship their goods to bigger or smaller boats. Furthermore they could build a bridge there. This village is the best preserved medieval town in Switzerland. It has wonderful painted houses, which are hundred of years old and not seldom still owned by the same family. The facades are rich decorated under the roof as you can see it from the street. Many houses have got an oriel and rich decorated waterspouts.




In Stein we visited the small island of Werd with a small convent. We were told that it is the most quiet place in the region. Seven friars are there. Of course three would be too little, twelve would be ideal, but seven is o.k.



On the Southern lake shore of the Untersee we biked further on via Mammern, Steckborn, Mannenbach, Ermatingen, Gottlieben to Constance, where we crossed the Rhine river via the bicycle bridge, leaving behind us the Southern of the threesome part of the Lake Constance Untersee, Zeller See and Gnadensee with its great island Reichenau.






We crossed the city of Constance heading the peninsula Mainau at the shore of the upper part of the Lake Constance the Ueberlinger See named after the city of Ueberlingen, where our next hotel was. The Mainau is famous for its wonderful garden of subtropical plants. Regarding the ship we got to get at Wallhausen we just had too little time, to visit the Mainau. In addition to that we already had been there before, needless to say that the admission is rather high.



Short time later we passed a nice place in Litzelstetten a nice meadow at the lake used as a swimming pool with a nice little restaurant where we had a break (glass of wine and a beer) and enjoyed the beautiful view over the lake to the monastery church of Birnau.




After that we took a nice little ride to the small harbor of Wallhausen, where we entered the ferry boat to do the short, sunny and calm passage to the historical city of Ueberlingen, where our next hotel was situated. Hotel and Restaurant Schaepfle is a very nice and comfortable Hotel where you also can dine very well.

Sunday

The day stage of today is just 20 kilometers. So we didn't need to get up too early and had a good breakfast in the hotel. On the other hand we mustn't get up too late because we had to deposit our suitcases in the hotel lobby not later than 9 o'clock a. m. for the transport of the luggage to the next hotel. Next overnight stay was Stein on Rhine (Switzerland). We also had to take in consideration that we had a marine transportation from the Island Reichenau to Gaienhofen. So we had to make sure to get at least the latest ship.

First stage was the Island of Reichenau (world heritage), which we headed via a street dam. This dam leads through reeds (Wollmatinger Riet), which is protected because of its rare flora and fauna. The island of Reichenau is famous for its Cathedral. At all times it was famous for its soil fertility and mild climate. We were arriving at the boat landing place in time, shoved our bicycles on the ship and crossed the Untersee to Mannenbach (Switzerland). But as this was just a stopover point. So we stayed on the boat and crossed the Untersee a second time to Gaienhofen (Germany).



There we didn't want to miss a visit at the Museum for one of the greatest authors of German tongue Hermann Hesse. In the museum I took some nice photos. One shows a glass window made from colored glass for decoration purposes. When you open it, you see through the transparent glass Windows. Until then I just had known decoration Windows as permanently installed Windows instead of transparent glass Windows, I also took a photo of a painting in an expres sionistic style, showing a view from the Hesse-house to the Untersee. You can see, that it is a very nice landscape.




1919 after the World War I Hermann Hesse moved to Montagnola at the Lake Lugano, where they have a Hesse-Museum as well. Maybe Ticino in Switzerland is more beautiful than Gaienhofen on the Hoeri-peninsula, but there you just have three seasons. Gaienhofen has a wonderful white winter too .

We biked on and had a good plain dinner (pork knuckle and a great beer) in a beer garden on the lake shore at Wangen-Oehningen ("Residenz am See"). Eventually we reached our Hotel in Stein on Rhine (Switzerland). We were content in Hotel "Grenzstein", which is situated next to the Checkpoint. This Checkpoint is not used very often. During the night we were not disturbed by any passing cars. And you can't deny a matter of fact: The room had lake view: The lake is behind the gas Station.

Saturday

Day of journey to our destination to Constance by car.

The apartment hotel was a converted barrack of the Imperial Era, which after 1945 was occupied by French soldiers. Our ample room in former times was a crew accommodation for probably 10 soldiers, which subsequently was equipped with bathroom and kitchen. We liked to stay there very much.





After having checked in we collected our bicycles from the tour operator. The many bicycles in his big storeroom showed that most of the borrowers use to come during summer. The storekeeper gave us a repair set with a spare bicycle tube. l thought by myself a replace of a defective tube would be a nice Job for a vacation because never in my life had done that before not even as a boy. For the worst case we had got a voucher for a repair and a emergency phone number in our paper work.

Having got our new bicycles we took a ride downtown. Constance is a nice old city with many bikeways. The many remnants of the lake dwellings at the lake shore show that this was a populated era already at prehistoric times. And the old Romans had good reason to be there, because there are two connections crossing: Firstly the river Rhine leaves the Lake Constance and they could control the shipping traffic going out and in. Secondly a land connection for people who want to cross the lake Constance at its narrowest place (to Meersburg). So this city is a place of historic importance.

We had a nice walk there from the cathedral to the port, saw the beautiful turn of century houses. And for dinner we had a "Flammkuchen" (some sort of pizza with beacon and onion) and a glass of "Suser" (new wine, with almost no alcohol). In the pedestrian zone we found two street musicians: Billy and Jon. In appearance they seemed to be a duo (singer and drummer man). But after a closer investigation we found out that it is an early technique of an hidden instrumental self accompaniment.

Our tour around the Lake Constance by bike

In fall we did a tour around the Lake Constance by bicycle. It started at Constance where it ended after one week. The average day stage was about 40 km.