Eurovelo 6: Lake Constance

Lake Constance with Alps

 There are three countries bordering that lake - Germany, Switzerland and Austria. And before the river Rhine forms the border between Germany and Switzerland, so I was border crossing at least 20 times. The weather got better and on Sunday the sun came out and it got really warm. But I can tell you: A nice sunday at Lake Constance leads to traffic jams on the bike pathes. Everybody and their mother (and their kitchen sink) was out for a stroll, bike trip or car trip. The views of the Alps compensated for everything: Due to Foehn you could see endlessly - the snow covered Alps as a background for blue Lake Constance were phenomenal!

Stilt houses in Unter-Uhldingen

There is a lot to see, too and I visited the Zeppelin Museum and the Pfahlbautenmuseum. And of course there are a lot of churches and castles and so on...although churches are now all baroque instead of Gothic. It took me a long time to figure out what Pfahlbauten are in English and I guess stilt houses or lake dwellings is the best translation. Within one day I saw the remnants of a luxurious Zeppelin and Stone Age stilt houses which are not luxurious at all. The museum showed a documentary soap about some volunteer modern age families who had agreed to live in a Stone Age hut for a summer. Within days they called their TV team for help on their emergency cell phone because the roof was leaking and their rescuers had to come and help them out with a plastic sheet. Although those families survived until the end of summer and the end of the TV documentary in real life they would have died in the following winter: They had not been able to collect enough provisions to last them through a winter.

Birnau

But unfortunately, my weather luck didn't last. Today the weather turned bad again: It is cold, completely overcast (it will surely soon rain again) and miserable. And I start to get worried about my fingers: My legs and my butt don't hurt at all from cycling, but my fingers have been numb for a couple of days. Apparantly my position on my bike cuts blood circulation to my hands off. I tried to change the position but so far it has not gotten better. Anyway, I am in a nice internet cafe in Tuttlingen now, where I join the river Danube. Reputedly the bike path along the Danube is excellently signposted and that is just what I need now. Now if just the weather was better....