Road Trip, Day 4, Bodensee

On Thursday morning, we headed out to Lake Constance, also known as the Bodensee. It was a lovely drive through the Bavarian Alps, and took us about two hours to reach Lindau, which is at the southern end of the lake. The lake is formed by the Rhine River and is bordered to the north and west by Germany, and to the south and east by Austria and Switzerland. 

Here is the very end of the Bodensee, as seen from Lindau. 

The marktplatz in Lindau, which dates from the end of the 9th century. It has some really lovely gardens and we wandered along the shore and through some of the streets, enjoying the scenery (and happy to be stretching our legs).

We bought a sandwich in from a bakerei in the marktplatz and enjoyed lunch, along with a glass of wine, on the shores of the Bodensee. Haute cuisine in spectacular surroundings...

Then, we set off for Konstanz, which is located in about the middle of the Bodensee. We drove along the southern edge of the lake, through Austria and Switzerland, and the traffic was horrendous. The whole area is completely built up and not particularly scenic. Konstanz was first settled by the Romans and is now, as well as then,  the tourist capital of the Bodensee. We somehow made our way into the altstadt (old city) and found our hotel, the Barbarossa, seen here. 

There are many buildings in Konstanz decorated with lovely murals; this was the most notable one. 

We got a kick out of this pretty tacky, revolving, sculpture of Imperia.  Imperia was thought to be a prostitute and Honore de Balzac wrote about her in one of his books. 

The Bodensee was full of all kinds of boats and we enjoyed watching the sailboats and motorboats on the lake. 

These are lovely old Art Nouveau villas along the lake shore. 

The Zeppelin monument, which recognizes the birth of Ferdinand von Zeppelin on the island of Insel.

The island of Insel is now home to this luxury hotel.  It occupies almost the entire small island. 

The Niederburg is the oldest quarter of Konstanz, site of the original Roman settlement. It now houses some wonderful small shops containing local crafts, antiques, and wine bars. 

Of course, Konstanz has a magnificent church, the Munster, which was built and rebuilt during the 12th and 15th centuries (on the site of the original church from the 9th century). Below are two views of the magnificent interior of the church. 

After spending the afternoon sightseeing, we had a lovely meal of grilled fish on the terrace of a cafe bordering the lake.