Bodensee, 6 June 2010

Today was another early and busy day. Frau Brause didn't come with us to Bodensee, because she's sick, and is still today. Some sort of cold and nasty cough. But Frau Reinl drove and so she, Herr Brause and I went.
The drive was nice, of course, but much flatter, even though we were technically headed towards the Alps. Frau Reinl also had her GPS in the car, a TomTom. I'm not sure how useful he really was.
Our first stop was Ueberlingen. Here we walked around by the lakeside and I took some pictures, since my camera was charged. Its definitely a waterfront, with palm trees and that kind of housing (think Florida or Greece), though the lake itself is rather neutral smelling. We also had ice cream here, though it wasn't even lunchtime. There was no chocolate (which I don't understand), so I had a "Queen Mary" which was chocolate and raspberry. But I think the raspberry, was more of a liqueur, but it didn't feel warm going down, so it was just the taste, I think. It was nice to eat ice cream in a cone again, I hadn't in a long time. Herr Brause also got ice cream in his beard and let me take a funny picture of him licking the ice cream.
After Ueberlingen, we drove on to a church at Birnau, which was in Baroque style. It was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen, and its hard to even describe it. Luckily I took some pictures and bought some postcards. Its a very pink church with a lot of frescoes and detail. Really quite the fairytale.
Now it was lunchtime, but I wasn't hungry. The heat kills my appetite, I guess. But I drank some hot chocolate (with milk)while Frau Reinl and Herr Brause ate lunch. I did try Frau Reinl's soup, it was some sort of French fish soup. I didn't like it, but I tried it.
From lunchtime, we drove to a small town and were transported back the the STEINZEIT!!! Or the Stone Age. There was a village and lots of found artifacts in the area. It was pretty cool, since the people built their houses on the lake, and the lady who gave the tour demonstrated how the people made their tools. There were also some cool ducks hanging around.
Our last stop of the day was Meersburg. We walked around, had some Kaffee and Kuchen and watched some old people dance at their tea party dance. The cafe provided live music and two dance floors. It was cool, and everyone was mostly still very graceful. Most of the shops in Meersburg were also open, and so we visited a couple. There were also some swans in the lake, which I captured on camera.
After all that, we were pretty tired. I can't remember if I did fall asleep for a bit on the way home; I might have. But it took much longer getting home because we ran into a giant construction traffic jam. So then I had the joy of explaining how in StL highway 40 was closed for more than a year.
The other two highlights of the day, were eating a radish and watching tv. It was interesting and I think I could eat more of them in the future. The tv program was a drama, which involved shots of horses and a little girl who couldn't talk after her father died. But there was a happy ending, so it was quite predictable. But it was nice to have the relaxation time. I went to bed early.