Sunday, May 4, 2008

Day at Lake Constance

My mom has been visiting us in Strasbourg for almost two weeks now, and we wanted to show her a little of Germany while she's here. So far she's seen quite a bit; her flight from Calgary landed in Frankfurt, and she's been back several times since then. We wanted to see the Black Forest, so it was an easy decision to make a day trip by train to Lake Constance.

The train ticket is a good deal -- 27 € for up to five people to travel for a day in the Baden-Württemberg area of Germany, which stretches from almost Mannheim in the north to the Swiss border in the south, and from the French border on the west to just past the city of Ulm in the east. Unfortunately we had to tack on the extra cost of a return ticket from Strasbourg to Kehl, the German border town just over the Rhine River from here, which raised the cost an extra 18 €. However, it's still a cheap way to travel!

The train trip was interesting, but most scenic in the middle when we wound our way through the mountains of the Black Forest. In many ways it reminded us of the scenery in northern BC, but in Europe the forests seem a bit more sterile when you see how carefully they log the trees and remember that very few wild creatures exist in these forests now.


Konstanz, Germany

We didn't spend much time in Konstanz, the German city at the end of our train trip. When we first arrived it was a little chilly, and after a brief trip to the tourist information centre, we made a beeline for a restaurant. When I say "beeline", I'm talking about a bee that can't actually remember where the hive is, because we did our usual zig-zagging from this café to that sandwich bar, rejecting them for the usual reasons: the kids won't eat that; it's too expensive; they only serve sandwiches.... We finally found a nice little café that served exactly the right type of food for the right price, and we had such German delicacies as pea soup with wieners, fried potatoes with vegetables and cheese sauce, and käsespäeztle, (noodles with cheese).

While we were eating we discussed alternatives for the day. This was one of the few times that we didn't have a goal in mind before we left: we had no map, no idea what attractions were in Konstanz, and no plan other than to ride the train through the Black Forest. In the end we decided that we would like to go for a boat trip on the lake, so after lunch we walked back towards the train station and lake shore. As we were looking around the boat docks, a passenger ferry rolled in which was headed to Meersburg on the other side of the lake, so we hopped on. (Of course all of this was due to Mark's good German and fine detective skills!) The brief ferry ride -- only 30 minutes -- was a lot of fun. We ordered a yummy apple strudel and ice cream treats, and the kids had a good time exploring the deck of the boat. Lake Constance is quite spectacular, and part of the charm for me was knowing that I was riding the waves in sight of three different European countries -- Germany, Austria and Switzerland.


Meersburg, Germany

Meersburg is a cheerful-looking tourist town built into a hill, so we did a lot of climbing up steep stairs and streets. The kids found a playground half way up the stairs and stopped to play for a while. When we finally made the summit, we were treated to a wonderful view down Lake Constance towards Austria.

View looking east down Lake Constance from Meersburg, Germany

Unfortunately, we couldn't stop for long; we only had about 90 minutes before we had to get back on the ferry in order to make the train back to Strasbourg. On the way down we picked up some pastries and drinks in a tiny grocery store which we promptly wolfed down as soon as we got on the train. After our 2 1/2 hour return train trip, we arrived back home in Strasbourg just before 9 p.m., pleasantly tired from our day of travel and sightseeing.

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