Along the border between Germany and Switzerland, there lies a long lake through which flows the mighty river Rhine, not too far from its source to the east. This massive lake is called the Bodensee, or sometimes Lake Konstanz, it touches three countries (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria), and is ringed by several biking and walking paths. From what I can tell during the short time I've lived here, it is a favorite vacation spot for Germans. This was the setting for this bike-centered trip on which I spent this Memorial Day weekend.
This trip started on Friday, May 24, as I rode my bike up to where our tour bus was parked on Friday afternoon. I was doing this whole trip with a large group of fellow Americans with whom I'd already done a couple ski trips with earlier in the year. The bus was towing a trailer, about the size of one of the larger U-Haul trailers, in which the bus driver hung all our bikes. After everything was finally packed and loaded, the bus ride south began. I don't remember exactly but it was probably about two or three hours from Stuttgart to Meersburg, our final destination for that day.
The Bodensee is laid out in a roughly northwest-southeast direction, but for simplicity's sake I'll just refer to the two ends as "west" and "east" and the two long shores as "north" and "south." The north shore is in Germany, the east end protrudes into Austria, and the south shore is in Switzerland. With all the bike/walking trails and country roads collectively ringing the lake, it is possible to ride one's bike completely around it, though we didn't do this. Many lovely towns can be found along the shores of the lake, of which we would stop in several. Even if you don't have a bike, or just aren't interested in doing such a long ride, you can easily make a weekend getaway out of three or four of these towns.
We spent our first night in a picturesque town on the north, German shore near the west end of the lake, called Meersburg. An appropriate name, since it literally means "Lake's Castle." Much of the town had an old medieval look to it. We stayed at a hotel called JUFA Hotel Meersburg am Bodensee. We had a pretty good dinner there, and the beer wasn't bad either:
After dinner I split off from the group to go walk around the town a bit and hit up a local bar, but I couldn't stay up too late since we had some serious bike riding to do the next day.
Notice those long poles and hooks at the top of every building? Do you know what those are for? They're really common on 1600s-vintage buildings like these. A few years ago, a tour guide in Amsterdam, which is full of such devices, explained it: back in the day, these poles would hold ropes and pulleys used for hoisting large pieces of furniture to the top floors of the buildings.
There sure is a lot to do and see in Meersburg; too bad we just didn't have time for any of it. Not only are there two historic castles--the top two signs on the left--but I later found out there's a Zeppelin museum. The Vineum is apparently a museum based around an ancient winery. (Useless trivia: the now-obsolete "Schloß" spelling indicates this sign is at least a couple decades old)
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