Cycling adventure Lake Constance
In July 2015, our colleague Lisa Frank spent a few days cycling around Lake Constance and tested the most beautiful cycle tours on the Lake Constance cycle path for you. Read her travel report here and let yourself be captivated by this wonderful holiday region!
The start...
"Grüezi at Lake Constance!" This is how we were greeted on our first day at our accommodation in Uhldingen. Even though our host is not Swiss himself, the laid-back attitude to life here seems to spread beyond the borders to all corners of Lake Constance. For our 10-day holiday, we had planned some cycling tours by Lake Constance, but also a lot of relaxation and visits to various sights. Like our guests who book one of our radial cycle tours by Lake Constance, we had bought a Lake Constance Adventure Card in advance. This is valid for 4, 7 or 14 days, depending on your requirements, and usually allows free entry to many sights and attractions. This made preparing the trip a real pleasure: I had picked a couple of highlights that we could now visit individually as and when it suited us best.
... tells you about her holiday at Lake Constance
Arriving at the "Swabian Sea", our holiday destination welcomed us with fantastic weather, picturesque landscapes and the refreshingly clean Lake Constance, which invited us to take a dip. During the first few days, we explored the area around Unteruhldingen: An excursion to Meersburg and Überlingen was just as easy and convenient to plan from here by bike as a cycle tour to Friedrichshafen. Incidentally, we also "inaugurated" our Lake Constance Adventure Card here when we visited the famous Zeppelin Museum. Have you ever been in one of these airships and felt like you were about to take off in the Hindenburg? Well, we have now!
Another highlight was our boat trip to Bregenz and the cable car ride up to the Pfänder. There was a lot to see during the 3-hour boat trip (which is also included in the Lake Constance Adventure Card): Discovering Meersburg, Hagnau, Friedrichshafen, Kressborn and Lindau from the water holds many new views in store. We were also refreshed by the breeze, as the sun was getting brighter and brighter every day and gave us many hot days during our stay by Lake Constance. We reached Bregenz in Austria around midday, walked from the harbour to the nearby valley station of the Pfänderbahn cable car and soon floated up to Bregenz's local mountain, which is 1064 metres high. A unique panorama of countless Alpine peaks and Lake Constance awaited us. The huge blue water surface, decorated with the white dots of countless ships' sails, looked even more majestic than usual from up here.
Lisa Frank reports about her tour
After this relaxing day on the boat, we had a lot planned for the next two days on shore. An absolute must when exploring the Lake Constance region is definitely a visit to the Lake Dwelling Museum. The guided tour through the open-air museum provides interesting information about the way of life and craftsmanship of the people who settled here on Lake Constance in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
A fun (and fortunately more shaded) contrast to the visit to the pile-dwelling museum was our excursion to Affenberg in Salem. On the circular route through the 20-hectare forest area, we were able to observe and feed many of the more than 200 Barbary macaques living here. Although the animals are wild and you shouldn't actually get too close to them - almost none of the monkeys refused a hand filled with popcorn. I was most impressed by the caring behaviour of the male monkeys, who lovingly looked after their offspring, who were only a few weeks old, while the mothers were able to eat and have a rest. Emancipation in the animal kingdom :-)
It was ship ahoy for us again the next day, as we wanted to move to Constance. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about our luggage because we had booked our holiday with luggage transport service, so we were able to plan the day as we wished. We cruised all the way across the lake, moored in Romanshorn in Switzerland and then cycled comfortably along the Lake Constance cycle path to Kreuzlingen and Constance. Various swimming breaks made the cycle tour an adventure even on this hot day. Fortunately, most sections of the Lake Constance cycle path are really flat - you almost get the feeling that it cycles by itself. Our stay in Constance got off to a great start with a wonderful piano concert in Constance harbour.
...for our guests who are going on a cycle tour by Lake Constance
After our first (extremely rich and delicious) breakfast at the hotel in Constance, we got back on our bikes. By the way, we used the same rental bikes for this trip that our guests usually travel with and I have to say, they are really good! Our first tour from Constance took us to the lower part of Lake Constance, past the pretty town of Allensbach to Radolfzell. After a short tour of the old town and a relaxing lunch break, we travelled by boat to the island of Reichenau. On the island known as the monastery and vegetable island, after an extensive tour of the island, we enjoyed a delicious portion of Lake Constance fish with a huge, colourful salad - highly recommended!
Just a stone's throw from Constance, the flower island of Mainau was the destination of our cycle tour the following day. Flowers upon flowers, lush green meadows, giant trees, graceful butterflies and water displays glistening in the sun... We couldn't resist the charm of this small island on Lake Constance. We were amazed by the wonderful splendour of the flowers and are sure that this was not our last visit to the island of flowers!
On the last day of our holiday on Lake Constance, we actually wanted to finish it off by taking the ferry to Stein am Rhein and cycling along the Lake Constance cycle path from there. In the end, however, it was so hot that we opted for the "bad weather option" and visited Sea Life Constance and then enjoyed one last dip in Lake Constance.
Lisa Frank reports about her visit
...the end
And then, unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye to the Swabian Sea again. We had a wonderful few days and experienced an incredible number of things. I can really recommend a cycle tour on Lake Constance.
