Lake Constance

Lake Constance was a mere curiosity but kept creeping into to my conversations with people I met or stayed with so it was a no brainer to add this place to my itinerary
It is only 70km south west or so from my stay in Ottobeuren in southern Bavaria and conveniently on my way north to the Black Forest (yes the home of the Black Forest cake).

It was raining the day I left Ottobeuren and my host graciously offered to extend my stay at least for another day as the weather may improve but I had to keep moving. Despite Europe being a compressed group of nations there is so much to see but as a cyclist you have to be more strategic with your agenda and time.

Great signage

The route to Lake Constance was a zig zag of off-road dedicated cycle routes and you can find yourself doing a world discovery tour of every village on the way but to avoid adding unwanted kms to the journey I kept as straight a route as possible.

It is a pleasant journey through range height country and broken with the sound of tractors. In fact these machines tend to rule the road as these villages are really farming homesteads that have grown over the centuries. The local traffic has to deal with them just as I do and they even park in the local supermarkets - bizarre!
I had a wonderful descent down into Lindau on a sunny afternoon at the southern end of Lake Constance and my camping destination for the night. this region has the reputation of being one of the consistently warmer and sunniest parts of Germany. Camper vans are everywhere and there are several camping places on offer.

Lake Constance is a very popular summer holiday destination for tourists and locals and you can see the peaks of Switzerland to the south

There are some places that only accept vans and not tents (called pitching in parts of Europe) so check first. I think eight euros is very cheap, especially in a Gold Coast style environment. But the Gold Coast does not have the common borders of three countries in the region and stunning views of the Swiss Alps to the south.

The ride north east during the next two days skirted the shore with many choices for cafe stops if I needed. Be mindful of the hundreds of senior citizens in their bike groups too.

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