Meersburg & Reichenau, Germany
I’m not sure who’s paying the weather bill but these mid-April days couldn’t be more pleasant in southern Germany. Good Friday is officially a Feiertag (holiday) here. Many shops, schools and offices were closed.
With folks off work and kids out of school, the auto ferry between Konstanz and the town of Meersburg on the north shore of the Bodensee was doing a booming business. This had to be one of the best deals on the lake at just $6 for a pedestrian round-trip ticket.
I boarded the ferry along with a swarm of bikers and families packed into their Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and Volkswagens. I counted four ferries in the fleet plowing back and forth across the lake.
Meersburg literally means “castle on the sea” in German and the town is indeed home to Burg Meersburg. Parts of the castle are open to visitors but it’s actually still occupied (which kind of blows my mind).
The town itself consists of a lower part on the lake and an upper area. It was all well-preserved and pedestrian-only. After my ferry docked, I hiked up a steep, cobbled street from the lower to the upper town surrounded by fachwerk (timber) houses.
With Easter on Sunday (Ostersonntag), the town was full of decorated eggs, blooming flowers and bread in the shape of lambs.
I explored the inside of the castle with its open windows looking out over the lake and south to the Alps. The haze was burning off and I could make out the snow-capped peaks of Austria and Switzerland.
I was a bit tired after all the hiking so I followed the example of the Germans around me and took a seat at one of the many outdoor cafes. There don’t seem to be any flies in this country which seems like a minor miracle to me.
My beer was served in a tall, curved glass suggesting the shape of a sail. Clever marketing for Seeweisse.
Properly re-fueled, I set off for my next destination: the island of Reichenau (pronounced rye-shuh-now). Famous for its monastery, the Abbey of Reichenau, the island is also home to a nature preserve and covered in vegetable farms.
I passed a school crossing sign on my hike and instantly thought how different it was from the sulking kids on the school crossing signs in Ireland. Here, the giddy German children seem to be frolicking their way to class.
The island was full of families biking together, taking advantage of the sunny weather and their Friday holiday. The Germans seem to be crazy for bio-anything and the all-natural produce stands were buzzing.
I sampled this on the island and it’s my favorite beer so far. The Waldhaus bottle stated it was the finest selection from the Black Forest. The beer was sweet but not overpowering and left a pleasant aftertaste. I’ll have to look for some more Waldhaus.
I also spotted one of my favorite German car designs from the late 1980s. The 5-Series E34 was instantly recognizable as a BMW with the L-shaped tail lamps, deep creases running along the sides and the “Hofmeister Kink”. That’s the bend of the back pillar you find in all BMWs. It was named after their chief designer who standardized the styling cue back in the early-60s.
I caught a late bus back to Reichenau station. While waiting for my train to Konstanz, I took a photo to show you a typical small Bahnhof here in Germany. There always seems to be advertising around the stations. On a nearby billboard McDonald’s was touting its “Grand Big Mac”.
I got some sun today on several good hikes. I think I’ll do a little trip planning for tomorrow and then crash early.
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