To Lindau.

August 3, 2024

A day of just getting there. Despite a short, nasty and unnecessary climb just out of Meersburg, the day was pretty tame.

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We stayed at Hotel Halm last night. Our swankiest digs so far on the tour. What struck us as strange was the fact that the hotel was directly across from the train station, and in our experience travelling by bicycle in Europe for a dozen or so years now is that you usually don't find the nice hotels by train stations. Most areas near train stations in major European cities can be pretty gritty, and attract a certain crowd; and over the years we've stayed at many hotels by the train stations. So, we have no problem with gritty and vibrant neighbourhoods. These are often the best places to get a good inexpensive meal and hotel, cheap beer, and they often have more character and the depict the real life of the towns we have travelled through. But, Konstanz's train station neighbourhood seemed unusually vibrant, with cafe's, busy restaurants, outdoor patio bars, and a large upscale shopping mall surrounding it. And, that's cool too.

View from our room at Hotel Halm. The tower is part of the train station, and the Bodensee can be seen in the distance.

We poo pooed the 20 Euro breakfast at the hotel and grabbed a coffee and Egg McMuffin at MacDonalds of all places. It was the only place in town open at 7am, so it served its purpose. We sat down by the Bodensee and ate, sipped at our coffees, and watched the ducks, coots and grebes do their morning thing. The sky was interesting and grey. We said goodbye to the coots and we were soon riding the short 5 km ride to the ferry to travel across this narrow section of the lake to the north shore town of Meersburg.

Pretty nice place to eat breakfast, even though it was MacDonalds.

Riding in the morning light out of Konstanz towards our ferry.

A morning look across at our ferry route to Meersburg.

You pay on board. Efficient and pleasant ticket ferry worker.

Cruising across the short fifteen minute ferry ride to Meersburg.

Once across the lake, we followed the signs to Friedrichshafen through another wine growing region, and the route followed quiet cycle paths and roads through small towns, vineyards, croplands and lakeside parks. A very relaxing day, with a more subdued beauty.

On the north shore of Lake Bodensee the vineyards returned.

We even saw the infamous Goodyear blimp. We wondered about this odd sight, but once in the town of Friedrichshafen we realized that there was the Zeppelin museum. The era of blimp travel always fascinated me, and Trans-Atlantic flights were common during the 1930's. The quickest of Trans-Atlantic flights would take about 58 hours. These were luxury voyages, and I would have loved to have been a passenger on one of them. But, obviously not the Hindenburg.

Arriving in Lindau. Another incredible town.

Our stay for the night. When Susanna was researching this trip, Lindau turned out to be a very expensive place to stay. Turns out, that two small rooms was cheaper than a regular room, so we have our own rooms tonight.

My modest room for the night. Don't mind the mess. I just did laundry in the sink and now have clean cycling kit. Win.

We didn't take many photos today. We just enjoyed riding along to Lindau. The weather was perfect, and I think I'll just leave it at that for today and let the few photos speak for the day. A nice riding day from one point to the next, and sometimes that's all it is.

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 1,001 km (622 miles)

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Elmar KlukasVery interested to see how your route continues from here…beautiful areas nearby. The German Allgau region to the north, the Swiss Appenzell region to the south. We’ll be in the Swiss Appenzell and Graubünden areas in September!😎
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4 months ago

Patrick O'HaraTo Elmar KlukasI'm as interested as you are. We're not on flat rivers anymore. Our real first climbs of the trip.
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4 months ago

Rachael AndersonTo Patrick O'HaraI hope the climbs aren’t too bad!
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4 months ago

Suzanne GibsonI'm so glad that I was wrong with my pessitmistic warning that the bicycle route along the Bodensee would be overrun! Looks like it was a lovely day!
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4 months ago

Patrick O'HaraTo Rachael AndersonWell. Some were good and some were horrid today.
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4 months ago

Patrick O'HaraTo Suzanne GibsonHi Susan. After riding through the Allgau today, I understand your suggestion! Wow! Best day of the trip.
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4 months ago