3 days Lake Constance

Constance

The largest city on Lake Constance welcomed us in glorious sunshine, unfortunately, our only sunny day in southern Germany. Our first stop was the 9-meter-high sculpture Imperia. Designed and built by sculptor Peter Lenk, the oversized, scantily clad woman weighs 18 tons and greets arriving ships in the harbor. The base also houses a water level measuring station.

Afterwards, we walked along the harbor and were pleasantly surprised by how clean and clear the water of Lake Constance is. When you look into a harbor basin, you rarely see the bottom. Many small sailing ships were anchored here. There are also several restaurants and cafés here. There's certainly plenty going on here in the summer. Also at the harbor is "Sea Life," a Germany-wide chain of underwater aquariums. We didn't go in ourselves, but it's definitely worth a trip with children.

Continuing directly along the shore of Lake Constance, we crossed the Swiss border and arrived in Kreuzlingen, the Swiss equivalent of Konstanz. We didn't go into the city center; it was a bit too far for us. Instead, we were drawn to a nearby park, right on the shore. We wanted to find a geocache on Swiss soil. Unfortunately, we didn't find one! So we walked back toward the border and, once back in Konstanz, stopped by the shopping center. Here, the sky was full of people and people were out and about. That was too much for us, so we decided to stroll through the beautiful city center instead.

We were particularly impressed by Konstanz's town hall. The inner courtyard is very idyllic and quiet. However, keep in mind that it is only accessible during the opening hours of the town hall's office.

Now, a tip for getting to Konstanz. We recommend using one of the Park & Ride parking lots outside the city center and then taking the bus directly into the city center. Parking is relatively difficult there, and the parking costs are exorbitant. We were lucky enough to receive a guest card from our hotel, "Mein Inselglück," including a free bus ticket for the three days we were on Lake Constance. This would have allowed us to take the bus directly from the island of Reichenau to Konstanz, but it would have taken too long. We therefore opted for the Park & Ride option.

Pile dwellings in Unteruhldingen

In rather drizzly weather, we set off for Unteruhldingen, to the Pile Dwelling Museum on Lake Constance. Our sat nav took us right to the "front door," but we couldn't find any parking spaces there. We remembered that there was a parking lot signposted for the museum at the town entrance. So we drove back there and were a bit disappointed that we had to pay a fee. Unfortunately, this is also the museum's official parking lot, and there's no getting around paying. The walk to the museum itself is a 10-minute walk through the small town, making it easy even for children. A school class arrived with us. Luckily, the teacher let us go ahead of the ticket office; who knows how long the whole thing would have taken otherwise. ;) Nine euros per person (adult) is a reasonable price for what you get. The entrance fee includes a guided tour, which you can follow, but you don't have to. We were put with another school class, who turned out to be quite "nerds." No matter what the lady who was showing us around asked us, we always got an answer right away, like a shot!

The tour begins at a reconstructed station for exploring the pile dwellings. Then we go on a "dive" to the bottom of Lake Constance. It looked very realistic, even though nothing is real. Really well done! At the end of the short presentation, there is a 360° panoramic cinema showing what it looked like back then. Then we go outside to the replicas of the pile dwellings from the Bronze and Stone Ages. Luckily, it had stopped raining, and we were able to enjoy the open-air museum in the dry. The guided tour also allows you to enter buildings that are normally closed. About halfway through the tour, we separated from the group and explored the area on our own. A real effort has been made to portray and explain the conditions of the time: How and why were the houses built on piles? What did people do for work back then, and how did they live?

We highly recommend the museum. You should definitely support this beautiful piece of cultural history with your admission!

Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen

A small highlight for aviation enthusiast Christian was the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen. The new building, shaped like a hangar, houses the exhibition rooms as well as aircraft both indoors and outdoors. The admission price of €9 per person is absolutely justified. The presentation of Dornier's individual creative phases and achievements is truly fantastic. With state-of-the-art technology and great ideas, the pioneering work of the aviation industry is vividly illustrated here. This is how tourist air travel began! I was most impressed by the Do X. What a huge flying boat. Wow! I kept thinking of "Captain Baloo and his daring crew," who also flew in seaplanes like these. ;)

Outside, the Brequet/Dornier BR-1150 was opened at lunchtime. So, you could go inside and see everything up close. Of course, we couldn't miss that opportunity. The BR-1150 was a reconnaissance aircraft of the German Armed Forces. We climbed the narrow ladder at the rear of the aircraft and were able to walk through the entire aircraft. Past the galley and toilet, the control and radar systems, and up to the cockpit. In our opinion, the best seat was at the front, in the "nose" of the aircraft. This is where a dome with a panoramic view is located!

The aircraft exhibition in the hangar is also really great. The "Whale N 25," for example, is a transport aircraft that even Roald Amundsen used for his North Pole expedition. A small section of the exhibition is also dedicated to space travel and the military.

All in all, the museum is truly beautifully designed, and the history of Dornier and its aircraft are presented in a first-class manner! I was impressed by the simple architecture of the museum building, and Christian, of course, was fascinated by the aircraft and space travel. We would recommend it to anyone interested in technology and flying.

Reichenau Island in Lake Constance

On our last day, we took a short tour of the island of Reichenau. We'd been here for three days and hadn't really seen anything of our immediate surroundings yet. We had to change that!

At 4.3 km², Reichenau is the largest island in Lake Constance and is located in the Untersee (western part of Lake Constance). It is connected to the mainland by the 1.3 km long Reichenau Dam, lined with a poplar avenue. This makes for a beautiful approach! The highest elevation is the Hochwart, formerly known as Friedrichshöhe, and lies about 43 m above lake level. When we arrived there, we spotted a small house that reminded us a bit of a lighthouse. Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out if it was actually one. The surrounding slopes were lined with vineyards. Truly idyllic!

Due to Lake Constance's favorable climate, the island is home to a large number of farms. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce from the island of Reichenau, in particular, are protected geographical indications by the EU. Naturally, we had to stop at a farm shop. Everything was directly from here, though not always organic, but that didn't bother us. We bought cucumbers, carrots, a small basil stem, and apple juice directly from the producer. The day before, we had also stocked up on apples from Lake Constance. We highly recommend it. Everything tastes better and is cheaper when bought directly from the producer than fruit from New Zealand! Unfortunately, the island bid us farewell in a light drizzle, but that didn't diminish its beauty. Of course, everything here would look even more beautiful in bright sunshine, but it was wonderful even without it. The peace and quiet, the serenity of the islanders, only small villages and nothing more than fields and vineyards. Wonderful!

Are you still looking for a suitable hotel on Lake Constance?

You can find a hotel to suit your budget via various online travel agencies such as Agoda, Booking.com, ebookers.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, lastminute.com, opodo, otel.com or Venere.com.