Honeymoon - Part 2

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The train ride from Paris to Zurich took us through a number of small French towns. The landscape across France was rolling hills and farmland. We saw the occasional highway from the train. But for the most part, we saw open country. There seemed to be an abundance of grain farms.

We've not encountered a single English speaking person on the train ride. We entered Switzerland in Basel. No passport checks. Just a simple verification of tickets. Then onward to Zurich.

The landscape changed from France into Switzerland. The hills got taller and bigger. We began to cross and spot rivers and more water. As we entered Zurich, we could see Mountains in the distance. Upon arriving in Zurich, we had a 2-3 block walk to pick up our rental car at a EuropeCar office. A Garmin equipped with Europe maps was a necessity for us to borrow and bring along for the trip.

We made the drive to Bregenz, Austria which was approximately 80 miles from Zurich. We went through many tunnels. We actually thought it might be cool to pull over in some unknown town in Switzerland and have lunch. However, the few people that we stopped to ask for a restaurant recommendation spoke no English. Not a peep. Not wanting to trust lunch to a Garmin recommendation, we decided to venture into Bregenz to check into our hotel and get a recommendation for lunch from the hotel staff.

Bregenz and he entire area is very bicycle friendly. The literature boasts 280km of bike trails. Essentially, every road has a bike lane or a wide bike paved trail on the side. People of all ages are on the bike trails.

We quickly unloaded luggage and hopped on the bikes for a quick spin downtown. The ride downtown was truly a ride down as we raced down a couple of hilly streets to the downtown area. Our ride took us through very classic German neighborhoods just as you would imagine. The downtown had a small 2 block walking mall area (not the mall as we know it in the USA sense).

We ate a salad at a very nice cafe in downtown. We had bread with the salad of course. As expected, the bread is amazing here.

We strolled the stores stopping to do some shopping. We managed to purchase a beer stein along with some other items.

We rode the bikes to the lake area from downtown. It is absolutely gorgeous. We began to make our way back to the hotel without our Garmin when we happened upon two elder ladies on the bikes stopped and chatting. We asked for English and were surprised to have one of the ladies speak English. She suggested we follow her and she would lead us back up the hill toward our hotel. We rode up a very steep hill that required us to get off and walk the bikes up for a ways.

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Photos

Famous stage over the water in Bregenz
On Lake Constance.

Downtown Meersburg, Germany.
Like a scene from the Renaissance!

Castle at Meersburg, Germany
Oldest castle still standing in Germany.

Cafe in Meersburg
Great food. Wonderful location.