Schwarzwald and Bodensee Day Trip


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Europe » Germany » Baden-Württemberg » Lake Constance
June 18th 2008
Published: June 22nd 2008
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In my time living in Baden-Wuerttemberg, I have been lucky enough to travel around to most of the region and discover a new part of Germany. However, I had never been in the Black Forest or to the Bodensee(Lake Constance) both of which I had heard were beautiful. I was luckily enough to be offered the chance to take a day trip to both, by none other than a local Schwarzwalder, Bruno. Bruno grew up in the Black Forest and therefore was the perfect guide for my first trip to the region. (not to mention he speaks Schwaebisch - a dialect of German that is extremely difficult to understand).

Our day began in Karlsruhe around 9 am in a car with 4 German window flags attached. Yes I said 4. Bruno was quite proud of his team spirit, right now the Europe Soccer Championships are going on and everyone is very patriotic. This is something you don't see too often in Germany, at least I don't see people walking around with Germany T-Shirts or Flags on their car on a normal day. It is nice to see all the flags around town on balconies, not just for Germany, but Portugal,
FlagsFlagsFlags

Bruno and his four car flags!
Croatia, Turkey, etc. So off we were with our 4 window flags on our trip through the Black Forest to Lake Constance. I was to be the navigator, which didn't work out so well, mainly because when I look on a map in Texas, the distances are much longer. I kept getting confused when I would think it would be another 30 min until an Autobahn and it would show up 5 minutes later. I forget how much smaller and more compact it is here. We took one of the smaller roads down to the south of Karlsruhe and then up into the Schwarzwald. Bruno showed me the differences in the vegetation as we made our way up in altitude. The name Black Forest is totally appropriate, you can barely see anything between the trees they are so dense! The air cooled off very quickly and with the window down I felt like I was in the mountains again, what fresh smells! We took a couple of brief pauses, one to check out scenery, and the other to see the world's largest Cuckoo Clock. (Yes we stopped, and it was cool)

For lunch, we spotted a nice lake off
FachwerkhausFachwerkhausFachwerkhaus

This is a VERY old style of German house.
the road and found a bench for our picnic. Im always in amazement at what the Germans can do with Bread, its like there are never ending varieties and variations. At home we just have sandwich bread, hamburger and hotdog buns, or rolls. Ok maybe throw in a few more varieties, but they aren't nearly as exciting or with such interesting tastes. We enjoyed the scenery, the sandwiches and good conversation for a while, the lake itself looks like it would be a hot spot in the summer with lots of floating toys like a floating trampline. Reminded me a lot of what the rivers look like in central texas, minus the heat of course. After lunch we hopped back on the road and continued to head south. We made it a few hours later than expected to Lake Constance, and after a short drive through Rodolfzell (not intentional), it was down the coast of the lake to Uberlingen. We had intended to spend most of the day taking a boat tour and walking around the town, but were down to only a few hours, so we opted to book our boat tour and just spend a little time walking
Largest Cukoo ClockLargest Cukoo ClockLargest Cukoo Clock

IN THE WORLD :-)
around the city, and of course enjoying an ice cream. It was a beautiful lakeside town, and the weather was absolutely perfect, blue skies and the sun was shining. Our boat tour took us on a roundtrip down near Radolfzell and back to Uberlingen, we started out on deck but it eventually got a little chilly so we headed inside. Much to our surprise, well more our lack of being informed, the trip actually took 2 hours instead of 1. We enjoyed a tea and coffee upstairs and watch the view on our way back to Uberlingen, and saw each boat stop once again. Near one town is an old fishing village made out of straw houses on stilts. It reminded me a lot of the resort in Roatan, Honduras that was little huts out on the water.

After our roundabout on Lake Constance, and taking a few more pictures, we were back in the car and headed back towards the Black Forest. Unfortunately, the car flags are illegal on the autobahn, so we had to remove them from the windows. And it was off down the no-speed limit Autobahn towards Karlsruhe. Of course we had to stop and
LakeLakeLake

This is where we stopped and had our picnic lunch
eat, i mean, watch the Germany Soccer Match, so we made a detour in a town in the Schwarzwald for some food and game watching. Germany was ahead 2-0 in the 2nd half so we figured it was safe to get in the car and head back to Karlsruhe.

Overall, it was a fabulous day. I got to see an entirely new part of Germany, the variety in scenery and cultures here never ceases to impress me. It was wonderful company and beautiful scenery and I am thankful to Bruno for taking me for the day.

I am winding down here in Karlsruhe, only a few more days of work left, then packing. I will hopefully get one more blog to wrap up everything out before I head off on my big trip in a week. 😊


Additional photos below
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BodenseeBodensee
Bodensee

Our first glimpses of Lake Constance
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Me

Me with Lake Constance
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Sailboat

Beautiful Water Colors
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Ugly Animal

Not quite sure what it is...
Fishing VillageFishing Village
Fishing Village

This is an old wooden fishing village on the lake.


22nd June 2008

Black Forrest
The Black Forrest (sp? Forest?) sounds scary. I hope that you aren't going to be watching entire soccer games back here in the States. (I can say that because I used to play soccer). I want to drive on the Autobahn!

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