On June 8th, 2003 I drove Simone's car with my bike in the back to Horst and Claudia's apartment. I got there a little after 8:00 a.m. I got my bike out
and ready and they came down at around 8:15 and we met Simone on the way to the train station in Erbach. We purchased one weekend ticket which was good
for all 4 of us for the whole day and we took the train to Biberach. We had to wait there for about 50 minutes, then we took the train to Friedrichshafen.
We got to Friedrichshafen at around 10:25. We went out of the train station to the south, and the bike trail was right across the street. We spent a little
time getting ready, and then we started off slowly. The bike trail goes right through downtown Friedrichshafen, which was nice. Once we got out of downtown
and found the right trail, we got into a good pace. The bike trail can be a little confusing sometimes. The trail signs changed about 2 or 3 times on the way
to Lindau. According to www.bodenseeradweg.com there are 7 different signs, depending on which country, state, &
county you are in. There is one little sign that is almost the same in all of the countries, states and counties, but we didn't know that until later. We did
not really have too many problems though. If you stay pretty close to Lake Constance, you should be ok. There was one time that we went the wrong way (there
was not a sign to be seen) but we quickly realized that there were too few bikes on the trail to be the right trail (The trail was really busy with a lot of
bikes and in-liners going both ways).
We stopped a little ways into the tour at a covered bridge and took a few pictures. About half way to Lindau, we stopped in a town called Language. Simone,
Claudia and I took a look at the castle and church while Horst guarded the bikes and relaxed for a bit. Horst had a cold and allergies and that morning was
not even sure if he could go. We also went to the ice cream shop to use the restroom and we got a scoop or two of ice cream. It turned out that there was
a public restroom just behind where our bikes were, but it was too late.
We got back onto the trail again and made our way to Lindau. We got into town after 2pm and started to look for a place to eat. We went by the train station
and had to walk our bikes through the Lakeside promenade. We went down to the market square where the City Museum was, and finally found a hotel/restaurant
with a beer garden that had some shade. It was really hot at that time, around 85 degrees Fahrenheit/29 Celsius. It took a long while before our order was
taken for drinks, and then for the food. The food was ok though. We all had fish except for Horst.
After we ate we went back through town and stopped by the train station to see when the train left. We decided to stay a little longer so we went back off
the island to a shaded area right on the water. We all got our towels out and laid there and talked for a while. I actually took a short nap (I was tired
because I got up pretty early to make my way to Erbach from Senden that morning). After a while we went back into town and looked for a place to eat cake,
but there was not really a place on the waterfront that a normal person could afford, so Horst and Claudia got dessert and we went to the train station.
Right as we got onto the train it started to rain a little. That train normally was supposed to go to Ulm, but because of a mudslide somewhere, the train
was making different stops. We got really lucky, because the train stopped in Erbach and we were home at least 45 minutes earlier than we thought we would
be.
The day was a lot of fun, and we all would do it again if we could. There was a lot of traffic, but it was a holiday weekend. There were a few parts that
were not paved, so I would suggest a trekking bike or mountain bike for the trail. There are a lot of places to stay if you do the whole trail, and there
are probably a lot of places to eat that are more affordable than in the big towns or on one of the islands like Lindau.
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