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Published: June 25th 2017
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Hotel Barbarossa, Konstanz
Our first day's accomodation Whew, what a hot night! We seem to be sweating and drinking continuously and never feeling cool - shades of our Danube cycle tour.
We had a relaxing morning of breakfasting and chatting before downsizing our luggage to two smaller bags. It sure beats lugging around large suitcases and we won't need a lot of alternative clothing while biking.
In the afternoon Marc delivered us to Konstanz where we couldn't find a park or the hotel. Going by the GPS we got as close as we could and Marc returned home. We headed off in entirely the wrong direction and after a couple of people if they knew our street and young German man accompanied us back the way we came and through a chaotic market to the Munster. From there we followed a map and eventually the hotel sign to Hotel Barbarossa which is in the heart of the Old Town of Konstanz. We booked in then got instructions on where to get our bikes. We, in our wisdom decided to walk to ensure we knew how to get back. It all looked very easy on the map but we didn't bargain on the crowds. There was the
biggest market ever happening and no matter what street we walked on it was closed off for markets, strung along streets and on both side of the Rhine. The worst of it was that it all looked like junk. Old clothes, old shoes, old books and puzzles, and general paraphenalia. Everyone in Konstanz must have been there as our route was crowded with wandering, dawdling people. Not my scene at all.
Eventually we got out of the chaos, across the river and through an industrial area alongside the Rhine. How amazed we were to walk right past where we dropped off the rental car yesterday. Eventually we arrived at Rad and Reisen where we were met by a very cheerful man who was a vast improvement on our last encounter on the Danube trip. They had a great setup and after setting up the bikes and giving us all the necessary information he gave us a route back that avoided the market crowds. We wished we'd known about it on the way out. It was a well marked bike route all the way back into town where we parked our bikes and had a good look at what was in our bags - a front bag for odds and sods and a pannier with a puncture repair kit, a tool kit, a first aid kit, a Bodensee area map and a route book with the path and general information.
The Hotel Barbarossa is noted in documents back to 1430 but has been listed as a hotel and dance hall since 1874. Our room is on the 4th Floor and topped by a clock tower. It looks out over very interesting shaped roofs. Konstanz is a preserved medieval university city of 80,000 people. It could be an interesting area to explore a bit more if time permits.
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