Friday

Today we had to get back to Konstanz to our Hotel, where the car was being parked and where we would be staying at for one night before the ride home. First tourist spot for us was the historic place Arbon, which is inhabited since the Stone Age. The raised situation and view over the lake were strategically important and so it is not astonishing that there were found remains of late Roman fortifications. The Latin name of Arbon, Arbor Felix (meaning "happy tree"). In the middle age was added rather an impressive donjon. Arbon has got some nice old houses especially at the fish market. Remarkable are the shutters: Solid wood, closed top-down and can be locked from inside; these really can keep out almost anything.




Along the shore we biked to Romanshorn a city with a greater harbor - the counterpart of the German city of Friedrichshafen on the opposite shore. Next to the port is a nice park with a beautiful fountain.


Along the way we passed an apple juice factory, where the fruit farmers were delivering their crop. They unloaded their apples it in a big weighers from where they fell into a storage. Would you buy a bottle of apple must from the storage hand ? I would do - anytime !



Sometimes the bikeway led along the railway tracks. At a crossing the had an acoustic signal plant. It shows that those signaling devices not always have to be nasty.


Riding along the lake we passed a nice little power station. I think it is a clever idea letting go a stream of water through a hydro turbine to generate electricity that way.



At Muensterlingen we visited the Saint Leonhard Chapel and the Monastery Church.



Eventually we reached Constance where we checked in again in our nice imperial barrack hotel. Then we walked downtown and had a good dinner in a pleasant restaurant. The next morning we had a nice shopping tour there before we headed home by car.

Well, that was our wonderful bike tour around the Lake Constance.

Thursday

Today we had to reach Steinach in Switzerland. As it was raining in the morning we had to put on our rainwear for the first time. After having crossed the German-Austrian border we passed the interesting outdoor swimming pool "Mili" which is a building on stilts in the lake and made from wood. It was build in 1825 as a military facility for young recruits and is the oldest swimming pool on the lake. This pool has the advantage that you can get into the deep water by walking down over a stair. It is not necessary to go from the lake shore into the deeper water where you can swim. Without bathing shoes this can be very unpleasant, because the shores of the lake Constance are stony at the most places.

We passed the open air theatre in Bregenz, where they gave the opera"Tosca". According to day time and weather it was total empty just like the "Mili". We couldn't had had the opera going anyway (no evening wear in our bike bags).




Beyond Bregenz we crossed the alluvial fan of the Upper Rhine river, where it flows in the Lake Constance (flows out at Constance). The fan was created by a correction of the "Old Rhine" river, which flew in the lake at the Austrian-Swiss border at Rheineck. About 100 years ago they dug a canal to derive the water into the lake in a short and direct way ("New Rhine"). The reason was that the pebble-bearing Old Rhine often was blocked up, burst its banks and deluged the fields. Results were crop failure and famine. The canal of the New Upper Rhine has the advantage, that they can keep the flow velocity high more easily by dredging. Nearby we saw an automatic device which had the purpose to clean the river permanently from swimming stuff like branches, reeds etc. In the triangle of Old Rhine, New Rhine and Lake was created a wonderful nature reserve with many interesting plants and birds.


Via the mayor town Rorschach / Switzerland we eventually reached Steinach where we moved into the fine little Hotel "II Fiore" (Italian: The flower). Seen from the outside as a timber-worked building it looks rather antique but inside it is quite a modern hotel with a good restaurant.




But we didn't have our dinner there.We did a little walk through the village to the See and found a very good seafood restaurant, which obviously was very well-liked by the villagers. It had some fish meals on its menu list and each one was made from fresh fish. There only was one meal made from deep frozen fish. We had Bodensee-Felchen (Coregonus lavaretus wartmann, this is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family (family Salmonidae), which is numerous in the Lake Constance). We had it as catch of the day with fried potatoes and apple must (delicious !).



On our walk we passed the little "old washhouse", which is a couple of hundred years old and affectionately restored. At former times a public washhouse certainly was a necessary facility. It is one thing to wash one's dirty linen in public, but it is a different matter to do that job it in rain and snow, like the weather very often is in Switzerland, especially in fall and winter. On the wall of the washhouse is written "Kleines Haus, kleine Sorge !" (Small house, small care !) I don't know if that is true, but I do know for sure "Big house, big worry !" Perhaps the conservator of Steinach can confirm that regarding the big old storehouse which is a stone's throw away from the old washhouse. This house ("Gredhaus") is 500 years old also and well equipped with firing ports: So the storehouse guards had better working conditions.

Wednesday

Today we got to reach the peninsula of Lindau. Next mayor village was Langenargen with its nice sea castle "Montfort". On our way there we passed the nice fruit farms where the farmers where apple and pear picking. We crossed the Argen River via Germany's second oldest suspension bridge built at the end of 19th century.




We passed Kressbronn and Nonnenhorn. At Nonnenhorn we had lunch at the lake and I was wondering about the gulls having a rest as well sitting on a boat at a mooring. All the gulls were looking into the same direction to the sun. For what reason were they behaving that way ? Probably without any reason. Next nice town was Wasserburg. People there were holding a flea market. The offers were good, but for transportation reasons we couldn't buy anything.




Further on our trip we passed the beautiful park of Villa Lindenhof with its tiny private port from where you already have a nice view to the city of Lindau. After having reached it we made a nice little walk down-town and continued our bike tour to the village of "Zech" at the German-Austrian border.





In the German language this word is the imperative form of the verb "to carouse" and the hotel owner could not resist to call his Hotel "Zecher" (carouser). This Hotel where we already had been staying in summer is o. k. and we had a good dinner there.

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.