After the best night sleep of the trip so far, we woke up full of energy and ready to attack the day. Despite initially being confused by our request for a cheese themed day the hotel manager had managed to regain his composure and made a brilliant suggestion for us.
He recommended that we head south and take a look at Meersburg before taking the ferry over to Konstanz on the other side of Lake Constance or Bodensee as the Germans call it. The lake acts, in the main, as a border between Switzerland and Germany (and Austria too, just to give flair credit to those boys!) but Konstanz sits on the south side of the lake as a last bastion of Germany. This protected it from bombing during the war and, according to our guide, is the best-preserved medieval town in Germany…..that was all the information that we needed so off we set!
Lake Constance, by the way, is one of those places where three countries manage to share one enormous bit of water without, as far as we could tell, anyone falling out over it. Easy!
The first order of the day was petrol. Just on the outskirts of Ravensburg, just off Meersburger Strasse, there is a Shell service station where they may very well still speak of the ginger English guy that once darkened their door.
You see, I filled the car up with petrol as normal and made my way in to pay, joined by the kids who were looking for some car snacks. Skilfully avoiding them so I didn’t have to pay for said snacks, I just shuffled into the queue. When I got to the front and it was my turn to pay, I turned into Mr Bean. I dropped my card, the chip and PIN didn’t work, I couldn’t work out where the slot was to slide my card in and then, to crown my clown-like behaviour, I dropped my card on the floor.
I could feel my face burning and I thought my ears would catch fire. This would have been a social disaster in the UK, but in Germany I had no idea what the social etiquette was and the added weight of representing King and country compounded my shame. I didn’t have the words in any language to make my apologies to the ever growing queue of watch tapping Germans trying to get on with their ‘morgen’.
I eventually managed to get through the transaction and turned to face the shame of the dozen or so locals that I had held up. As I passed my son, who was waiting in line with his arms filled with snacks, he nudged the young German lad next to him, pointed me out with his thumb over his shoulder and said “Who’s THIS guy?’ and raised an eyebrow.
Every part of me wanted to kill him, or myself, I wasn’t too bothered which.
€61 for a full tank if you’re interested.
We couldn’t have been a mile down the road when we decided that we wanted pastries for breakfast as the service station offering wasn’t great and so we pulled in at the next available supermarket. Thus, we ended up in the German equivalent of Waitrose, EDEKA. The average age of the people in the was over 80 and that was the price, in Euro, of a pint of milk. The highlight of the store was a frail old lady who, even for EDEKA was old, shuffling through the store at 11am with a bottle of wine in each hand. Love it.
We gathered up the world’s most expensive picnic and made our way to the next pretty place that we could find to enjoy our brunch. We made it a decent way down the road before we found anywhere and I don’t think anyone else on the planet has sat in this orchard just outside of Ittendorf and enjoyed the breakfast in the sun the way we did that morning.
We sat among the apple and plum trees as the birds shouted at the clouds floating by ever so slowly and it was simply beautiful. On cold winter mornings, I found myself returning to this spot more than once in my mind’s eye.
We packed up and made the short trip down to Meersburg. It was incredibly pretty and very well-to-do, but having been to Lake Como the day before, we were starting to get a little bit spoiled and numbed by beautiful scenery. We walked through the narrow streets filled with gifts shops before looping back on ourselves and walking along the lakefront.
Despite Meersburg being a rather splendid and well-to-do place, daughter child somehow managed to find a gift shop that sold a shot glass in the shape of a pair of tits. Quite a remarkable effort from her to find her calling card gift, I would say, the equivalent of finding one in the Buckingham Palace gift shop.
Buoyed by the fine weather, fine scenery and finer shopping skills, we made our way for a refreshing drink at the Fährhaus bar and it was the perfect spot to take in the views of both Lake Constance and the great and the good of the region that had gathered for lunch. You could tell it was a nice place as they had no time or respect for us, and I liked that. I wouldn’t have wanted to let the likes of us in either and certainly not put us on a table where nice people could see us.
We drained every last drop out of our glasses and made our way back to the car before heading onto the ferry. I am not sure exactly how we managed it, but we paid for the car and two adult tickets (€23 by the way), seemingly forgetting the boy child in the back of the car. I was half hoping, after the incident at the petrol station earlier, that they might identify him as a stowaway and make him walk the plank but no such luck.
We drove off the ferry into Konstanz and made the short trip through town, over the Rhine and into the old town where we found a car park just off Untere Laube. It was a Main Street with a central parkway running down the middle, between the two lanes. It was brilliant fun as the street art was just crazy as you can see below!
We picked our way through the beautiful streets, looked at the lovely church and marvelled at the oldest castle in Germany, but didn’t dare ask what had happened to all of the other ones. Of course there were large shops with names you would recognise but they were separated by a vast number of independents and craft stores. We spent a long time chatting with Roy Braunwart, the owner of Glasart-Konstanz, he was so nice and clearly proud of his family and sharing their stories, I felt compelled to buy a little red glass fish that today hangs in the porch of my house and every time I walk in, I notice it and I smile.
As time ticked on, we knew we had a big drive ahead as we had picked Mannheim for our Friday night hotel spot. This was about 3 hours away so, reluctantly, we made our way back to the car and pointed it north, taking us through the Black Forest region. We made it about 3 miles before we realised that we needed both a drink and a comfort break and so popped into drive in McDonalds on Opelstraße.
It was the first time since the UK that we had been offered a full sized MUG of coffee and we were delighted. So delighted in fact that it turned out that boy child had ‘liberated’ the mug into the back of the car and took it with us so he could use it in any future hotels. That boy sure does like his coffee.
The subsequent drive was, quite frankly, quite a bore. Not much to see except trees and the only real thing of interest was the number of cars on the Autobahn carrying football fans, no doubt heading to see their teams the following day all around Germany. It was a lovely sight but did make me a tiny bit home sick.
We also happened upon this beauty, one of only 6 Zeppelins in the world, 3 of which are in Germany.
After what seemed like an eternity, we pulled up in the car park outside of the Hotel Mack just outside of the very centre of Mannheim. It was a family run hotel and the chap on reception was as warm as the glorious late summer evening. The chap told us that he was leaving later that very weekend to go to Scotland where he was going to visit Loch Ness. We warned him about the monster and wished him all the best.
The room was lovely and it, and the corridors to it, reminded me of a post war spy movie in its look and feel. Not unpleased, but it could have been used as the backdrop in a TV movie for sure! We washed and showered and made our way into town, following the bright light and the noises of busy weekend revellers hoping for some fun.
The town square did have a big-wheel but not a huge amount else going on, other than families walking around pushing prams and watching their kids run around. We found a bar, we had a few beers sitting outside and slowly getting merrier and merrier.
We eventually headed back towards the hotel with a view to finding some chips or a pizza place but, having walked around half of the city, built on a perfect grid system by the way, we found very few signs of life, never mind food.
We eventually slumped back into our rooms and went to bed, ready to face another day. Tired and happy, we slept a happy sleep. Tomorrow we were heading further north, and if you thought the journey so far had been straightforward, we were about to learn otherwise….
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