Tag Archives: bodensee

Saturday 16th May 2015 – IN SWITZERLAND

ferry bodensee friedrichshafen germany romanshorn switzerland may 2015It’s taken me long enough to find a ferry on this journey, but nevertheless here I am.

This is the ferry across the Bodensee, or Lake Constance for the English-speakers amongst you and it sails from Friedrichshafen in Germany to Romanshorn in Switzerland and I am about to make my triumphal entry therein – the first time on this journey.

waterfront bodensee friedrichshafen germany may 2015The waterfront is quite modern too, and unashamedly so. and not the result of wanton vandalism on behalf of the civic authorities but wanton vandalism on behalf of RAF Bomber Command in World War II.

Not that too many people can have too many complaints about that for once (although they might protest at the lack of accuracy) because there are at least two good reasons why the town of Friedrichshafen was a legitimate military target in World War II.

modern waterfront friedrichshafen bodensee germany may 2015And indeed not to mention World War I because the first ever bombing raid in World War I took place here just a matter of a couple of weeks after the start of the war took place here and given the primitive state of the equipment and navigation, was a stunning success that matches anything that the Dambusters could come up with in World War II.

We’ll be going for an inspection of these two legitimate targets in due course.

suspension bridge river argen germany may 2015But it took me ages to arrive at the Bodensee as I was being continually interrupted.

This is a suspension bridge over the River Argen. according to a sign at the bridge, it was built in 1896/97 under Kaiser Wilhelm, and that shows you just what a really big man he must have been because the bridge really is quite impressive.

Today it’s flanked by a railway bridge and a modern pre-stressed concrete road bridge, but this one outshines them all.

covered bridge eriskirch germany may 2015The village of Eriskirch a little farther along the roa was full of surprises, and this is just one of them.

It’s one of our old friends a wooden covered bridge. We encounter dozens, if not hundreds of these on our journeys around North America, but Europe has its fair share to offer as we have seen in the past, and as we shall indeed see again before we are much older. I would have gone for a wander through here, but it was closed for repair.

ford taunus eriskirch germany may 2015And that’s not all. Eriskirck also came up with a Ford Cortina Mk V too, excet that this is a mainland European version called the Taunus.

This was parked in a yard with half a dozen other noteworthy cars. I gave it a good going-over and I reckon that a good weekend’s work would have this back on the road. There didn’t seem to be much wrong with it and it was solid in all the suspect places

zeppelin friedrchshafen germany may 2015It’s amazing the things that you encounter on your travels but seeing this flying over me as I travelled further west reminded me of what I was doing down here in the first place.

And that’s just a baby too. could you imagine something maybe five or six times as big flying over your head, because that’s what used to happen in World War I when these monsters were legendary.

zeppelin headquarters friedrichshafen germany may 2015Yes, well done that man. It is indeed a Zeppelin and here on the outskirts of the town of Friedrichshafen are the headquarters of the company.

On a Bank Holiday weekend it was expecting too much for me to be able to go for a trip around, much as I tried, but I had a nosey about instead.

And my hat went off to the intrepid pilots of November 1914 who flew here in rickety string and canvas biplanes who managed to fly here from France and hurl a bomb into a Zeppelin shed, even if they didn’t manage to accomplish very much

dornier museum friedrichshafen germany may 2015I did say that there were a couple of legitimate military targets here in Friedrichshafen. The second one was the Dornier aircraft factory here.

Dorniers were known mainly for their seaplanes and they were built and tested down on the waterfront, hence the bombing raids down there. They also made bombers, the Do-17 and Do-217 but manufacture of those was dispersed throughout Germany

dornier museum friedrichshafen germany may 2015The only aircraft here from before the war are those that have come from elsewhere, such as the flying boat which, if we are to believe the registration number on it, is that flown on the Amundsen expedition to the North Pole in 1925 but which I strongly suspect is a replica.

No Do-17 though – not even a replica and I found that very disappointing. I can understand there not being a real one, although if they made an effort they could certainly find some bits, but no replica is a shame.

ferry boat bodensee friedrichshafen germany romanshorn switzerland may 2015Back on the ferry now and I forgot to take any details of the boat upon which I was sailing, which isn’t like me at all.

Anyway, it was a boat that looks very much like this one. This is sailing in the opposite direction to us and while they might not look very big, they are ten times bigger than the Hatteras Ferry boats that sail across the Hurricane belt in the Carolinas.

diessenhofen switzerland germany may 2015I’m back in Germany again and that’s the River Rhine just there.

The town in the background is called Diessenhofen, a beautiful little walled town that is first recorded in 757, although there are considerable remains from much earlier than this, even as far back as the Stone Age, and a substantial Roman hoard was discovered here.

covered bridge river rhine germany diessenhofen switzerland may 2015To cross the Rhine is a substantial covered bridge, and this was part of the secret of the wealth of the town – the tolls that were generated by people wishing to cross the river.

Today though, there are no tolls, and not even a border post, despite Switzerland not being in the EU. I simply wandered across unchallenged.

border crossing germany ramsen switzerland may 2015But why I crossed over back there was so that I could cross back here. That’s the border and the Rhine is behind me. Theres a little finger of Switzerland that is north of the Rhine, near the village of Ramsen and this was the favourite spot for escaping prisoners of war to cross the border from Germany, where they didn’t have to contend with the Rhine.

On the German side of the border here, the guard was asleep and in the Swiss hut, the place was deserted. And the border was so unguarded (well, relatively, anyway) during the war that one escapee passed through and out the other side where he was recaptured, without even realising that he had been in Switzerland.

rhine falls schaffhausen switzerland germany may 2015Ive come here to see the Rhine falls at Schaffhausen. This was somewhere else where I came on my honeymoon with Nerina and with it being mid October, the river was fairly low.

This time of year is the peak time to see the falls as the last of the snow melt roars through and it certainly was impressive from up here.

rhine falls schaffhausen switzerland germany may 2015From close to, while they may not be as impressive as the Niagara Falls, they are certainly as good as anything else that Europe has to offer and it’s well worth the trip to come to see them, even if you do have to fight your way through the participants of a bus trip from the local mosque.

But be warned – it’s quite a hike back to the top again so I was glad that it was late evening when I passed by here.

old renault van 1920s Switzerland germany may 2015I now try to find some accommodation for the night and I’m not very successful. I forgot about the Bank Holiday weekend and everywhere is either full or closed.

I do manage to find an old Renault van from the 1920s, in a very sorry state, so it isn’t all doom and gloom, despite the fast-approaching night.

In the end, I give up and head for the autoroute. There will be a rest area there and I’ll sleep in Ccaliburn tonight.


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Friday 15th May 2015 – I’M BACK ON THE ROAD …

… but I didn’t get too far. And when I sort myself out a little better, I’ll show you why.

But those of you who follow this rubbish on a regular basis will recall that I have been having kitchen and bathroom worktop issues. I mentioned this to Hans because Germany is the place to be if you want high-quality but affordable products, and so he had taken me on Wednesday evening to several furniture and DiY places.

So to cut a long story short, for which you will all be grateful, on my way out of eching I went and picked up 5 planks of 28mm light-oak, 60cms by 240cms. Cost? Just €375 – for the lot, not just for one. If that’s not going to do the job that I want, then nothing will.

donauwurth germany may 2015From here I went to a town called Donauwurth, situated on the banks of the River Danube at its confluence with another river, the name of which I have forgotten.

It’s yet another walled city, of which there is an enormous number in Germany, and if you look very hard, you’ll see a pedestrian gate down there at the end of the path. That’s the way in. We are actually looking at the old moat right now.

centre of donauwurth germany may 2015It’s quite a beautiful little town, calm, quiet and peaceful with some beautiful buildings that look quite old.

But don’t allow yourself to be misled by appearances because it isn’t all what it seems. These buildings may indeed look old but you will be hard-pressed to find anything in the centre dating from before 1945. That’s because despite it being calm, quiet and peaceful, it was selected for the target of the British Bomber Command in April 1945, when the war was all but over and when whatever there was that went on (or didn’t go on, whichever is the case) here had long-since ceased to be of any military significance.

entrance gate donauwurth germany may 2015Not that that had ever bothered anyone in Bomber Command. Lord Cherwell’s infamous “de-housing” report had made it quite clear that the German civilian population was to be the target of the bombers, and Bomber Command carried out these perverse attacks to the extreme degree, long after they had ceased to have any point (if they ever had any point in the first place).

As the American Strategic Bombing Survey, that visited Bombed-out Germany so succinctly put it in its report, all it did was to divert post-war Allied resources to repair the damage and to house and feed the destitute when these resources could have been better-used elsewhere.

plaque for sudeten germans donauwurth germany may 2015I’ve talked in a few previous posts about the problem of the Sudeten Germans, and this was something that took me quite by surprise.

I didn’t expect to see anything like this here a memorial plaque in honour of the Germans of the Sudetenland, and in particular the first batch of 12,000 who arived here in February 1946 and dumped out of the goods wagons in which they were travelling.

They were of course the lucky ones. Most of them arrrived much later, having undertaken the journey on foot, through the savage Central-European winter and having faced all kinds of horrors on the way, death being the least of them.

old city walls germany may 2015There are still some old structures remaining here in Donauwurth despite the devastation of 1945.

These are the old city walls and if my Latin is up to much after all of these years, the plaque tells me that they were built in 1091 and destroyed in 1818, with a few bits added on and knocked down in between.

low energy fridge media markt donauwurth germany may 2015Donauwurth hadn’t finished with me yet.

At the local branch of Media Markt was this nice under-the-counter fridge with small freezer compartment. What was interesting about this was not the price (a mere €199) but the energy consumption – just a claimed 89kW per annum.

If it really does all of that then it’s the most economical of its type that I have ever seen. 89000 watts is about 250 watts per day and I could run that quite happily all year without worrying. You’ve no idea just how much I was tempted.

June wasn’t at home so I pushed on to the Bodensee. My aim of spending a night in Austria came to naught as everywhere in Bregenz was either closed or full. Not only that, at one place I had a most unusual experience anyway, in that someone actually asked “what do you want?” when I rang the bell. Of course I couldn’t contain myself and relied “what do you think that people usually want when they call at a hotel?” and I was impressed that I could say that right off the cuff in German.

guest house lindau germany may 2015Lindau was full too and parking in the old town had passed beyond the expensive into the absurd. I headed out, looking for a quiet layby to lay my weary head when, having taken a wrong turn somewhere, I encountered a guest house, at just €38:00, miles from anywhere.

Primitive and very 1950s it might have been, but I wasn’t arguing at €38 for the night.

medieval buildings lindau germany may 2015I’ve been to Lindau a few times in the past, but it’s been a good few years since I’ve been here. The last time was on my honeymoon with Nerina back in 1988, and I was itching to return as it really is a beautiful city and I cared not a jot about the driving rain.

Very medieval as you can see, and a favourite spot of the Royal house of Bavaria who had a chalet nearby for the summer.

medieval houses lindau germany may 2015And in news that will startle just about everyone reading this, I had a Chinese takeaway for tea.

Its well-known that I don’t like Chinese food all that much but I didn’t have much choice here as the takeaway food outlets are not exactly thick on the ground here – I don’t suppose that Mad King Ludwig would have approved.

But €4.50 for a huge plate of tofu, vegetables and rice to eat in the comfort and privacy of my own bedroom is not to be sniffed at.

At least, something has gone right for me today.

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Friday 27th June 2014 – IT DIDN’T TAKE ME LONG, DID IT?

overnight parking place bodensee meersburg germanyThere I was this morning after another excellent night’s sleep in this comfy little spec at Meersburg (and I’ll stop here again, no problem), having breakfast of coffee and half a baguette smeared with strawberry jam, when I began to notice a regular stream of small ships sailing back and to across the lake.

That can only mean one thing – that there’s a ferry connection from somewhere over here to somewhere over there and so Yours Truly set out to investigate.

But did I say a good night’s sleep? I certainly did. And not only that I was on my travels again. I was watching some British World War I cavalry charge up this steep hill to attack a German post there and while they were all almost swept away and almost everyone was unhorsed, they carried the position whilst a few of their number tried to round up the loose horses. I remember saying to myself is that had the cavalry been followed up by a regiment of infantry they could have swept on right behind the lines and caused chaos.

Nothing new in this though – at the Battle of the Somme a detachment of infantry did succeed in breaking the lines in one place on the first day and had the cavalry, standing by in the vicinity, been sent in to exploit the breakthrough, they could have cleared up too. But that was a lost opportunity.

From there, Cecile and I went off to look at the animals at the shelter and an old black-and-white collie fell for me and so I took it home and we lived happily ever after. And there is nothing more unlikely than this, as you all know.

bodensee ferry meersburg konstanz germanyI found the ferry terminal, just a couple of kms down the road and €11:50 later, Strawberry Moose, Caliburn and I were sailing to Konstanz on the other side of the lake. Never a good idea, as you know, for me to find a ferry . After all, it makes me cross.

Getting to Knostanz was one thing – finding the correct border crossing into Switzerland (well, I am here!) was quite something else entirely and I actually crossed the frontier three times before I could find the correct road out of the town. A leisurely amble then took me along the southern shore of the Bodensee and eventually across into Austria at Bregenz.

Bregenz had the first (of many) traffic jams and so I didn’t get to see too much of the town but then a drive over the mountains, into southern Germany and a stop for lunch did the business.

On the way over the mountains between Austria and Germany, I encountered these two vehicles. Single-seater machines and equipped like proper little cars, with steering wheels and pedals. But judging by the wiring that I could see inside the vehicles, they may well be electric cars. However there was no-one around to ask.

Mind you, judging by the names of the vehicles – the red one being a City-El and the white one being a Mini-El-City, electricity is a good guess.

Onto the Autoroute after that, and wasn’t that a big mistake? Say what you like about Germans, when they organise something, they organise it in spades and the traffic jam on the autoroute was a belter. We must have sat for 2 hours without turning a wheel at one point. Stop-start all of the 113 kms to Munich and then fighting the rush hour traffic out of the city to Hans’ place.

So now I’m here, eventually, and after a decent meal and some live music in a pub nearby, I’m off to bed. A shakedown on the sofa. I wonder if it will be as comfortable as my last couple of nights in Caliburn?

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Thursday 26th June 2014 – IN WHICH OUR HERO FINDS A BEACH

No idea where I was last night. It was a big town somewhere in the UK and it seems that Esther who formerly ran a motel near where I live had separated from her husband and she started making up to me. I was playing right along because of course my real interest lay elsewhere. Nevertheless we were becoming really close and Esther, doing the holiday rota for this shop where she worked (and which my brother had some kind of connection) put me down for the last two weeks in July – the same holiday period as hers – and that cocked up all of my plans to go to Canada as usual in September.

overnight parking place dole franceSo here I am, awake in my spec near Dole last night and, like most of my specs at the side of the main road, by the time that I wake up at 08:30 it’s totally deserted, despite the fact that when I came here last night it was heaving with lorries.

And as for this foam-rubber chair bed thing, I’ve slept on many worse things than this, that I’ll tell you. And while I’m sitting up here typing some notes, a roach coach pulls up. It’s just like in the UK.


so back on the road and as you might expect, about 5 minutes further on from where I parked, there’s a beautiful kind of lake with a parking area around it. That would have made a lovely place to have spent the night, if only I had pressed on a little.

Half a mile further on down the road I cross over into the département of the Jura, in the region of the Franche Comté. First village that I come to is called Chemin and this is well worth a stop, and for two reasons too.

hidden speed camera chemin jura franceI was going to say that there were two things to see here, but you will have to look hard to see them and I wonder how many people have missed them.

If you notice the grey pole just there underneath that tree, that is in fact the pole for a speed camera, would you believe, and the camera itself is well-hidden in the trees so that you can’t actually see it.


hidden speed camera warning sign chemin jura france“Never you mind” I hear you say. “There is bound to be a warning sign somewhere in the vicinity”. And there is too, but you would never have guessed it because that too is hidden in the trees as you can (or can’t) see.

Quite frankly, I reckon that this is totally dishonest. There’s no point in having them if they are going to hide them in the trees like this if you ask me.


I’ve also been eating a little humble pie too today. I stopped to do some shopping at the LeClerc at Belfort and found to my dismay that when I was going on several weeks ago about the cost of a gas bottle for my camping stove being over €50, I … errr … was clearly not quite on the ball. That’s the cost for the bottle too, and an exchange refill is just €18:00. D’ohhhh. Anyway now I have some camping gas and I can cook.

I’ve also bought a new toy. I mentioned to Rob a couple of days ago that I was looking for a portable air compressor. In the old days you could buy compressors where you could detatch the tank and take it down the fields with the air line and inflate the wheel of your tractor. I haven’t seen one for years, but here in the LeClerc at Belfort they had a portable air compressor with a 6-litre tank and it’s all portable – you can carry the lot off down the field if you need to. And it runs off just 270 watts too so I can even charge it up on the inverter in Caliburn.

bodensee meersburg germanyIt took me ages to drive through Freiburg in Germany – there were enormous queues all over the motorway and the city was covered in roadworks too. Still, I made it through the town and over the mountains. Now I’m sitting here at Meersburg on the shores of the Bodensee looking across to Switzerland.

Tomorrow I’ll make my way on to Munich.

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