Recently, over a long weekend we decided to travel to Lake Constance, on the Germany Switzerland border called the Bodensee or inland sea. The pictures that we had seen beforehand had us eager to visit. We wanted to travel somewhere with nicer weather as the Spring has been dreadful in Frankfurt, but for a long weekend being in the car for more than four hours seemed too much so we gambled on Lake Constance.
Hannah started walking the day before so she was less than keen on being contained in the car, but we made it there with relatively little protest. Of course, I feel like I am always packing up all of our belongings to go anywhere with "Mom's bag of tricks" which consists of anything that might hold her attention for a few moments. Bubbles are magic and I learned that from my dear mother-in-law who seems to always have a small bottle of wedding bubbles no matter where she is in the world....Clever!
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| Sweet hair! |
I must interject a bit of praise to the Europeans and their commitment to alternative energy sources. Germany has more solar panels than I imagined for such a grey landscape, but they are everywhere. I applaud the efforts and wish Americans would get on board.
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| Solar barns, houses, and buildings. |
And then there is my favorite Springtime panorama....Mustard fields! The picture (from a moving car with my phone) does not do justice. The field are all over and the most incredible color of bright yellow. As much as I wanted to stop to get a picture, we didn't. Hopefully next Spring.
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| Mustard Fields |
After about four hours of travel we arrived in
Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. The sun was shining, the cafes on the promenade were filling up, the beer was tasty and the views spectacular. A whole afternoon could easily be passed people watching and enjoying the local culinary and brewery flavors that is if you don't have a restless toddler eager to move in every direction.
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| Water, boats and mountains. |
On Sunday morning it rained, but we went down to see sailboat races in
Langenargen. Then we headed to the
Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen which was the same plan as everyone in the town it seemed. After lunch the sun began to shine and we walked all over the little town and along the lake to the Duke's estate.
Water, boats and mountains....Life doesn't get much better than that and we could have stayed there a long time.
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| Tasty Zeppelin Beer |
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| View from the Viewpoint Tower |
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| Lake Constance |
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| The Duke's Palace - at least what can be seen through the gate |
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| Sailboat & Rainbow |
