Kreuzlingen, Konstanz (Constance)

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Mountains, hills or streets were our choices for today. The weather looked a little dicey and since we had not been to Konstanz on the Bodensee we opted for that choice. A train journey is often better than taking a car and finding a park so the car was parked a little out of St Gallen and we used the train from there to Kreuzlingen and walked along the lake front, over the border to Germany and into Konstanz. There is no physical definition other than a sign. The Swiss people like to go there because German goods are much cheaper than in their own country. The lake is quite nice and would even be nicer on a sunny day with leaves on the big trees all around.

Konstanz had a Christmas Market happening by the lakeside. It was a bit of a zoo, jammed with people no doubt shopping for Christmas.

We walked out on a jetty to a huge statue at the end to see what it was about. It had a very curvaceous woman, partially dressed, a somewhat haughty/smirk look on her face and holding aloft a Pope in one hand and a king in the other. This was because her sexual favours controlled both men. During the time around 1491 (I think) they had a meeting of 3 Popes, 1 King and 400? monks to choose just one Pope. It took 4 years to finally make a decision and we were told that there were 200 prostitutes there to service them!! So much for celibacy. How ironical when you consider that the priests today have to be celibate and there is so much paedophilia and sexual abuse committed by them. So, that in a nutshell was what the statue was about. (Must look up the history on the internet).

We then had a wander through the old town of Konstanz which had many buildings dating to the 11^th and 12^th centuries and still standing proud with ornate outer walls and interesting little features. There is just so much interesting history around here.

We visited a traditional German beer restaurant with the brewing equipment still operating. Here, we had an interesting late lunch. No wonder Germans are fat. The meal sizes were huge! I had duck. Not just a portion of duck but a half a duck!! The others’ meals were huge too. Needless to say eating dinner that evening didn’t look so attractive.

The rest of the evening was spent chatting about European history, a subject which Bruno is full of knowledge on, discussing where to go in Czech Republic and trying the Czech type of schnapps with an unusual flavour. So ends our quick visit to St Gallen. It was a most enjoyable visit.

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Photos

The rather large Hussy
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