Bodensee, with Company

Number of kilometers: 381

A few days before AniMOVE summer school ended, my partner Melissa showed up on my German doorstep, all the way from Seattle (not unannounced, of course). She planned a trip to be here for a week, with enough time to explore Germany by bike with me for a few days, and to do some of her own sight-seeing. At least, that's how it should've worked. Instead, Melissa was promptly floored by a nasty virus (no doubt introduced from the plane ride), and spent her first few days here feverish and bed-ridden. I was happy that I could provide her a bed in which to convalesce, but I did not feel optimistic about us climbing on our bicycles and riding 50 miles a day.

In the meantime, I finished up my classes. On Friday, I was one of six lucky students who were randomly chosen to go up for a ride in the Institute's research Cessna. We strapped a pair of antennae to the outside of the plane to radio-track some UHF-tagged ducks, and went up in the air to "gather some data", which basically amounted to a scenic tour of the area.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

On Saturday, we had a morning of presentations on our individual projects, followed by a relaxed day of frisbee, card-playing, and napping. By evening time, Melissa was feeling just well enough to make it out of bed for the goodbye barbecue, which lasted far too late into the evening for my own good. I woke up Sunday morning bleary-eyed and hung over, and not too enthusiastic about starting a long bike ride. Nonetheless, the Kazakh vodka that contributed to my suffering was probably the very same vodka that delivered the final kick in the rear to Melissa's sickness, so who was I to complain? After nearly 60 hours on death's door, she woke up spry and fresh, and ready to hit the road. 

We headed down to Konstanz (her by bus, me by bike) to rent a bicycle for Melissa. A simple enough task in it's own right, but due to a cancelled train (her) and getting a wee bit lost (me), we both got into town about fifteen minutes after the bike rental shop closed. We instead spent a few hours sleuthing around for any other place in town from which we could acquire a bicycle, which was no small feat, given that it was a Sunday, and, once again, nobody does ANYTHING on a Sunday. We ended up finding an underground bike shop in what must have once been a subway station, run by a couple of guys rocking out to what can only be described as porn metal. Point is, we got a bike, and we were off! Several hours later than we wanted, but off, nonetheless.

Lake Constance from 1000 feet.

We planned ourselves a ride around Lake Constance (known in German as Bodensee), comprising a pleasant, flat, and well-traveled 140-mile loop. Bodensee is situated in the northern foothills of the Alps, defining parts of the borders of northern Switzerland, western Austria, and southern Germany. Bodensee also provides the beginning of Germany's portion of the Rhine River. It is far removed from the bustle of city life, instead buried deep in quiet, serene farm country. Our nights were mostly spent camped on the edge of a field between orchards and forest. 

A typical portion of bicycle trail around Lake Constance.

Tourist attractions abounded: the scenic island town of Lindau, Germany, exemplifies Bavarian architecture and culture. The opera house in Bregenz, Austria, is located quite literally on the water, and builds an unbelievably sophisticated new stage for every performance. (I'm also told it was featured in a scene in one of the newish James Bond movies, Quantum of Solace.) The spires of the Münster St. Nikolaus and Konstanz Minster churches dominate the landscape for miles.

The Bregenzer Festspiele's production of Bizet's Carmen.

Mishaps also abounded: during the middle of our very first night out, an unidentified bug crawled its way into my ear while I was sleeping. It woke me up immediately, but instead of panicking, I tried to just lie still until it decided to come back out. That never happened, so after about an hour of lying in the dark listening to its little legs scraping against my eardrum, I decided to wake Melissa for help. Fortunately, the simple act of me talking seemed to scare it out, and it made a hasty departure before she could even grab her flashlight. Ew.

Tuesday afternoon proved to be a wet one, with rainclouds rolling in unleashing their contents at unpredictable intervals. We dodged the major downpours throughout the day by ducking under awnings or into a restaurant, but just as we were picking out our camping spot for the evening, we got hit by a torrent. In the five minutes it took to ride from our field back into town, every little bit of us was soaked, right through our rain gear. The bike paths quickly turned into creeks, and it was not a difficult decision to hightail it to the nearest hotel. We spent a luxurious evening drying out our shoes with a hair dryer and sleeping warmly.

We got back into Konstanz earlier today, where I said goodbye to Melissa. She headed back to Zurich to catch a plane tomorrow, and I headed back up to Radolfzell to stay one more night in an inviting bed before hitting the road in earnest. I've spent two and a half weeks in Southern Germany now, and it's time to start making my way toward Amsterdam. The real biking starts tomorrow. Next up: the Black Forest!