For Easter, Saori and I hopped a bus to the HBF and bought a Baden-Württenburg day ticket. It's a pretty good deal- €23 for an all-day rail and bus ticket valid anywhere in the state of B-W, and only €4 extra for additional people on the ticket. Which means Saori and I can jump on any train but an ICE and just go.
Today, we headed for the border, the Bodensee, lake Constance on the Swiss border. It was about three hours of regional trains through woodlands and forested hill country to Konstanz town, at the tip of a peninsula jutting into the sprawling lake.
Konstanz is a pretty town, we walked through the cobblestone streets to the Münsterplatz, the old church square where we ate in the sunny square at Münsterhof, a guidebook recommendation. The crowd was a mix of tourists and presumable locals in knee high stockings, lederhosen, and cool felt hats with brushes.
Service was a bit frazzled, probably shorthanded for Easter, but soon enough they brought out half liters of weisen_ beer and our entrées. Saori ordered a roasted lamb and scalloped potato dish, and I got the house spätzle and Schweinenschnitzle. Spätzle is a kind of Schwaben speciality, pasta noodles made with potatoes I think. The main dish was a pork chop, breaded and fried. Everything was delicious, and we used the last of the bread to mop the leftover sauce of our plate.
After lunch we drifted through the picturesque medieval city center (small, but very dense, mostly traversed by alleys) up to the point where the Rhine leaves (or feeds?) Lake Constance. We joined the crowds and strolled along the tree-lined lake shore promenade, stopping to pick up some ice cream and coffee. We sat there for perhaps an hour, simply enjoying the sunshine, the view, the lake, the coffee and ice cream, and it was just a lovely way to pass some time.
Later, we walked to the end of the pier to see the statue of Imperia. Imperia, improbably enough, is a 9 meter tall likeness of a striking hooker from the town from the old days, immortalized in a Henri de Balzac novel. Impossibility busty, she stands exposing a full leg, while basically popping out of the gown. In each hand, she holds old, withered and (flaccid) nude statuettes of the pope and the German emperor. She also rotates in order to give everyone a view.
Anyway, Constance is a lakeshore town, a good place to spend an hour of so exploring on foot, but mostly enjoyed as a place to stroll, drink, and hop off to other parts of the lake or surrounding countryside. It's hard to make a day out of it, so we hopped on a departing train to take the scenic route back to Stuttgart via the Black Forest. It was really lovely, but such a tease, as the route takes us through steep mountains, dense forests, and tiny villages. We ended up getting back to Stuttgart around 11 pm, fried from all of train travel.
Today, we headed for the border, the Bodensee, lake Constance on the Swiss border. It was about three hours of regional trains through woodlands and forested hill country to Konstanz town, at the tip of a peninsula jutting into the sprawling lake.
Konstanz is a pretty town, we walked through the cobblestone streets to the Münsterplatz, the old church square where we ate in the sunny square at Münsterhof, a guidebook recommendation. The crowd was a mix of tourists and presumable locals in knee high stockings, lederhosen, and cool felt hats with brushes.
Service was a bit frazzled, probably shorthanded for Easter, but soon enough they brought out half liters of weisen_ beer and our entrées. Saori ordered a roasted lamb and scalloped potato dish, and I got the house spätzle and Schweinenschnitzle. Spätzle is a kind of Schwaben speciality, pasta noodles made with potatoes I think. The main dish was a pork chop, breaded and fried. Everything was delicious, and we used the last of the bread to mop the leftover sauce of our plate.
After lunch we drifted through the picturesque medieval city center (small, but very dense, mostly traversed by alleys) up to the point where the Rhine leaves (or feeds?) Lake Constance. We joined the crowds and strolled along the tree-lined lake shore promenade, stopping to pick up some ice cream and coffee. We sat there for perhaps an hour, simply enjoying the sunshine, the view, the lake, the coffee and ice cream, and it was just a lovely way to pass some time.
Later, we walked to the end of the pier to see the statue of Imperia. Imperia, improbably enough, is a 9 meter tall likeness of a striking hooker from the town from the old days, immortalized in a Henri de Balzac novel. Impossibility busty, she stands exposing a full leg, while basically popping out of the gown. In each hand, she holds old, withered and (flaccid) nude statuettes of the pope and the German emperor. She also rotates in order to give everyone a view.
Anyway, Constance is a lakeshore town, a good place to spend an hour of so exploring on foot, but mostly enjoyed as a place to stroll, drink, and hop off to other parts of the lake or surrounding countryside. It's hard to make a day out of it, so we hopped on a departing train to take the scenic route back to Stuttgart via the Black Forest. It was really lovely, but such a tease, as the route takes us through steep mountains, dense forests, and tiny villages. We ended up getting back to Stuttgart around 11 pm, fried from all of train travel.
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