Thursday, May 27, 2010

Meersburg/Mainau Island

On Sunday the weather was so nice again it was perfect to go to Meersburg and Mainau (Flower Island). Took the train to Friedrichschafen and then the bus to Meersburg. It is about 3 Euro to ride the bus up (one way). Then we headed down to the port to book the ferry to the Island. The day was packed with tourists and it cost 2x as much to go to the Island at 2p then it did at 4p (roundtrip 13Euro). Liam and I decided to wait until 4p and then return to catch the sunset on the way back.


Meersburg is again surrouned by vineyards and orchards like Hagnau. Upper Town is very narrow with baroque buildings and half-timbered houses. Packs of people here.


Very different atmosphere than any other port at Lake Constance.
The Altes Schloss (Old Castle), built in the 7th Century.

Route up to Neues Schloss, it is a pink castle
The Neues Schloss was built in 1710 after the Prince Bishop thought that the Altes Schloss was no longer suitable as a residence. Beautiful courtyard.
It was getting really hot and the places to buy ice cream were packed with people. But it was worth the wait in the end. All the shops were very expensive and seemed like cheap material. This is by far the most tourist town.



Also they had shops that catered to the medival vibe. I didn't like this so much. There were many restaurants and great places to get some desserts.

Mainau Island!


Our ferry was delayed 45 mins. We were uncertain what the problem was and while waiting we were surrounded by old fisherman singing songs to pass the time. There were about 30 of them total. Was really awesome listening to them. The reason for the later ferry...




Really that is just way to many people coming to the island on this particular day.



Very beautiful open courtyard to just relax and read a book on a bench.








Messing around with the shadows...





 

We were getting scared that there were not very many flowers on Flower Island.




After the path down from the courtyard there was really stunning flowers and landscaping. This was enough to prove us wrong.


so many flowers...




The Island was constructed to have different layouts here is a little rainforest atmosphere.

I thought they were very romantic.







I saw these ducks in a broucher and freaked out, made me want to come to the Island. Kait you gave me a pink rubber ducky for my bday one year!!


The trees grow so odd.


Our ferry was 45 mins delayed now on the way back (I think cuz of the swarm of people when we arrived).











Meersburg!


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Langenargen Match Race and Hagnau

There was a sail boat match race from May 19-23 in Langenargen. Brought in some nice tourists and filled the streets with people. I took Johnny to town a couple of times as he loves boats.


He was a little tired on the way and took a nap.








 











We were riding the horse and making animal noises. People stared at us as they passed.


On the pier eating Eis (Ice Cream) and Brot (bread), weird combo




Hagnau is 3 stops by ferry (1 hour) from Langenargen and I took the ferry up to meet Liam and a couple of his friends from Australia. 



The guys made us dinner, I should have taken some photos of it. Really delicious and some great hosts. He lives at the top of the hill, so I had a quick tour of the town before meeting them.
Pretty cool restaurant, table under a tree.

The Rathaus and a winery. Hagnau has vineyards surrounding it.
They paint their fire hydrants