Last week, Noah and I packed up the car and the dogs and
headed west for my birthday vacation. While
the destination wasn’t as ‘cool’ as an Amazonian jungle (how Noah spent his 29th
birthday last month), it was still an amazing vacation spot: Lake Constance. The lake lies on the border of Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland. We decided to stick
to the German side of the lake – mainly because it was the closest spot to
Munich / the shortest drive for us. Plus
as Switzerland is not on the Euro/ I hear it is rather expensive, we passed on
that country. So even though I could look
across the lake to the Swiss side only 15 kilometers away, I still have yet to
set foot in Switzerland. Future trip
here? Ok, I digress….
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| Switzerland across the way (and a Swiss boat to boot!) |
We stayed at the beautiful historic Hotel Bad Schachen near
the island of Lindau. The history of this hotel began over 250 years ago when a mineral spring was transformed into a
spa. The current hotel that we stayed in
was built in the early 1900s. In fact after
WWII, the French occupational troops used Hotel Bad Schachen as a holiday location
until 1949, when the hotel began to welcome guests once again. Of course I just did all this research
writing this blog, so we had no idea of all of that when we were actually there
last week.
But what we could easily see was that our choice of hotels
was perfect. For starters, we had a
wonderful corner balcony with a beautiful view of Lake Constance.
The next great perk of the hotel: a lakeside swimming pool
with a huge lawn of lounge chairs and direct access to the lake. My first birthday activity (after unpacking
of course) was a given. It was time to
lather up in my SPF 100+ sunscreen and do some swimming. After dipping one foot in the lake, I bailed and
dragged Noah to the swimming pool which was supposedly 2 whole degrees warmer. Once I had my fill of swimming, I was ready
to lay in a lounge chair and enjoy my book.
Noah, who can never get enough of the water, grabbed his snorkeling gear
and jumped into the lake. Crazy
boy.
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| The only picture I took of the pool area... and you can't see the pool |
Soon it was evening and time for my birthday dinner. Noah had found a BBQ restaurant nearby –
Stadthaus – known for high quality BBQ.
As we are always looking for alternatives to a traditional
Bavarian-German meal, this sounded fantastic.
And we both knew that we shouldn’t have our expectations too high, what
with coming from Texas and all. My official review on this place is if you go in expecting a unique style of smoked
meats, and not Texas BBQ, then this place is great. But even though my mind knew that the pork in
my pulled-pork sandwich was truly fantastic, I couldn't help but wish it
had some amazing BBQ sauce in it to truly make it perfect. Damn you Texan BBQ and the high standards you
have instilled in me!!!
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| Ready to head out for my birthday dinner |
The next day we decided to check out the island of Lindau –
about 3 kilometers away. Since the morning weather
was so perfect, we skipped on figuring out a train route and instead leashed up
the dogs for a wonderful walk through Schachen and then along the lake. We passed some truly amazing homes
mansions, and I spent some time dreaming about a life where we could live at
one of these places. Though I will
happily take a 5 day visit and count myself lucky.
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| The dogs waiting at the train crossing; Beautiful photo of the park path Noah took |
40 minutes later we were in the heart of the island. We stopped for an amazing lunch at Cafe/Bar/Restaurant
Großstadt, a lunch so great Noah claimed this was his favorite restaurant ever
and began outlining a plan for us to open a similar place ourselves. Our food was simple – a pepper soup and a Mediterranean
wrap – but it was done so perfectly and with such a freshness that gave it an
edge that other wrap/soup cafés just don’t seem to have. Though you should pass on the chocolate
milkshake – it was a room-temperature protein shake. I don’t know when I will finally learn my
lesson and stop trying to find a good chocolate shake in Germany.
As we walked back to the hotel, we could feel that the
temperature had definitely risen since our morning stroll. So what better way to cool off? Back to the pool/lake – where this time I
toughened up and skipped the pool and went straight for the lake.
We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and reading and relaxing. That night after dinner, we watched The Shining. I had mentioned to Noah that the hotel
reminded me a bit of the hotel in the movie and was shocked to learn he had never seen
it! Now he is all up to speed on the famous ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene, and next time will not be shocked to learn what
Redrum means.
Our only set plan for Friday was to rent a paddle boat in
front of the hotel, but when we woke up to choppy water and lots of wind we
decided to move that plan to later in the afternoon. Instead we took a short drive down to Austria’s
Pfänder Mountain where you can take the award winning cable car up the
mountain. Seriously – it earned the title
of "Ausgezeichnete Österreichische Sommerbahn", or “Excellent Austrian
Cable Car”. At the top there is a small ‘Wild
Park’ with a walkway through a few zoo-like pens. We accidently started at the back and wound
are way to the front, where only after we exited the entrance did we see the
sign that the dogs weren’t allowed.
Oops!
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| The trip down |
Back at the hotel that afternoon, we saw the water had finally
calmed down. Paddle boat time! We Noah paddled us around to check out
the beautiful mansions that neighbor the hotel.
And of course I had my floatie with me, so I was prepared for our swim
in the lake.
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| I'll take either one of these - I won't be picky |
Saturday brought the rain with it. And it was nonstop rain – beginning at 10am Saturday
and then following us back to Munich the next day. I had expected the weather to turn, so we had
made sure to fill our prior three days with all the outdoor activities that
were a ‘must’ for us. Because of that, we had no problem with the idea of staying inside all day. We spent the
morning reading on the balcony, and then had a nice lunch of cake down in the
hotel lobby. In the afternoon we checked
out the hotel’s spa / indoor pool area (have I mentioned how amazing this hotel was?). I
am finally learning to use vacation time to simply relax, and this was definitely
the place to do it. The rest of the day
was spent watching movies, reading, and playing minesweeper on the iPad (we are
both obsessed). The dogs were also happy
to have a respite from such ‘busy’ days so they could work on catching up on
all that missed daytime sleep.
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| A well-rounded, healthy lunch |
When Sunday morning arrived, it was time to make our way
back to Munich. Of course the dogs were extremely
alert to our packing - working hard to ensure they didn’t get left behind. By the time we made it back home, we had left
the rainstorms behind and returned to blue skies. And since I have extra vacation days from
working while Noah was in Brazil, I was able to take Monday off too. It was nice having one more day of sleeping
in before returning to reality (sorry Noah!).
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| Sadie watching our every move while we packed up |
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