Europe - Lindau

Lindau is another quaint little town on an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (Bodensee in German). It is the capital of the Landkreis or county Lindau, Bavaria, and located near the borders of Austria (Vorarlberg) and Switzerland (St. Gallen and Thurgau). The coat of arms of Lindau town is a linden tree, referring to the supposed origin of the town's name (Linde means linden tree in German). The historic town of Lindau is located on an 0.68-square-kilometre island, which is connected with the mainland by a road-traffic bridge and a railway dam leading to Lindau station.

Most of the roadways and streets on Lindau island are closed to vehicular traffic during the day, making for a quiet place to stroll and relax in. It has the quaint Bavarian building styles and cobblestone roadways. What truly makes it a nice town is that it is situated on the lake. There is a ferry boat leaving nearly every hour to travel somewhere within the lake. The lake is so long that you can't see end to end. Ferry travel is mostly pedestrian and is very affordable way to travel around.

This morning we spent some time exploring the area around our hotel and the waterfront before boarding the ferry over to Bregenz, Austria. The ferry ride was about 20 minutes from terminal to terminal. We decided to take a return ferry ride over with the combo ticket for a cable car ride up to the top of Bregenz. You could see the entire Bregenz bay and Lindau off in the distance. Quite amazing for only $21 Euros each. After spending some time on the hillside we headed

down for a little exploring of the old town. It is not a very big place but it had a very relaxed feeling about it. A food and beer festival was just getting set up just as we arrived to Bregenz. We had just enough time to sample a homemade flat bread with potato and ham - delicious. Back on the ferry and back to Lindau for some more exploring.

We found, actually Rick, found a wonderful ring for me at a local jeweller in town. It is a very unique stainless steel ring with a blue topaz stone - simply stunning. Something to remember our trip to Europe. We also discovered another great souvenir to bring home to add to our garden. That one we will save as a surprise for next summer.

I can truly see why Glen enjoyed Lindau so much. It has it all. Quiet streets, water, boats, quaint Bavarian architecture and a ton of

places to discover at every turn.

After a day of exploring we decided to take it easy tonight and stay in to relax. Good thing.. as it started to rain as soon as we got home and it rained all night long. It has forecasted rain since Salzburg, but we have only had one night where it only sprinkled once during the night. I'd say that we got off pretty lucky. We have been gone for 25 days and tonight is the first night that it truly rained while we have been touring.

Well we are off to Fussen tomorrow morning to take in some more adventures in the Alps. We are looking forward to our time there for the next 2 days. Stay tuned for more adventures.