Okay, so stay tuned for a bunch of these "travel flashback" posts. In addition to keeping a log of Vaiosina's growth, this blog was supposed to catalog all of our traveling adventures, which I've obviously failed. I mean, I'll have flashbacks dating back to Martin Luther King weekend in January. Sad, but true.
In any case, over the 4th of July weekend, we decided to ditch the fireworks display on post and head out to the lake with some friends of ours. I'm pretty sure that on a number of occasions, I've mentioned how much I love the fact that we don't have to travel far over here to find something fun and interesting to do. Sky's the limit! Well, just under two hours away is Lake Constance (in German, the Bodensee)--a ginormous and beautiful lake that I'd heard tons of people rave about for months and was dying to see. Plus, during that week, we'd had a string of hot, sunny days and we just wanted to be near water and enjoy it. The lake is huge, which is not surprising since it borders three countries--Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The view driving in was pretty breathtaking...as was the view of the lake from our hotel restaurant terrace.
After lunch and getting settled into our rooms, we decided to rent some bikes and head down to the lake. The hotel had a variety of bikes, including some that were electric. I never knew there were electric bikes, which is completely absurd since we have motorized bikes and all. This bike, however, looks like a completely normal bike, but when you need some help (i.e. navigating steep hills), the motor kicks into gear and off you go!
Here we are! It was actually Vaiosina's very first bike ride! Since then, we got our own bikes out of storage, installed a bike seat and go riding all the time. She loves it!
Okay, so the ride down to the lake was all downhill. No big deal. My friend, Jeremy, had gotten an electric bike for his wife. Malu? Yeah, not so much. He insisted that I didn't need one and would be okay. Let's just say I wanted to kill him on the 12% grade hill and every other hill we hit on the way back. I. was. not. happy. Our friends' dog also got quite the workout. I felt so bad for her!
We found a little park just off the lake that had nice grass, benches and quick access to the water. Not sure about you guys, but I think lake water is nice to look at--from afar. I don't necessarily like swimming in water that isn't bluish-green and/or clear. I'm just not. Call me a lake snob. Malu...he doesn't care. Neither does Vaiosina. They had a blast!
We probably stayed at that area for almost three hours. We enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant just down the road and biked that miserable trek back to the hotel. We closed out the night at the hotel pool. Fun times!
The next day, we drove about 10 minutes away to the Affenberg Zoo in Salem. After I'd posted pictures about this on Facebook, a friend asked me if the place we'd visited was Monkey Mountain. I didn't realize it, but that's what Affenberg translates into. Anyway, the place was amazing. It's a small zoo where they have monkeys roaming out in the open. You're given handfuls of popcorn to feed them along a pathway where they're just out and about, waiting to be fed. Well, not all of them...some looked like they were just plain sick and tired of popcorn. However, most of them happily accepted. Both Vaiosina and I were scared at first, but we eventually warmed up to our hairy friends and had a fun time.
This was Vaiosina showing us a monkey up in a tree at the start of the tour. She's really got a good eye, I'll tell ya!
Look at these old, chubby fellas. I tell you, it was so nice to bring all of the monkeys Vaiosina has seen on television and in books to life!
This guy clearly didn't want to be bothered by anyone!
Malu and Vaiosina getting an up-close-and-personal look. They can be so goofy sometimes.
One of my favorite family photos--even if Vaiosina has her finger in her mouth!
I still get a good laugh out of this photo. It was all Malu's idea.
Another ten minutes away from Affenberg Zoo lands you in the coastal town of Meersburg at which there is a dock that you can board ferries and ride to one of three islands on the lake. We didn't take a ferry, but we did enjoy ourselves in Meersburg. What a cute little town!
When we got there, I was just blown away by the place. Malu immediately said, "wow, it looks like every other German town," which is true, for the most part. However, I swear, every town's got its own charm. This one had a row of restaurants at the water's edge, tons of little shops, and an old castle to boot. An old castle dating back to the year 630!
Beautiful, huh? We had lunch at one of the restaurants along this road. About two hours spent over drinks, delicious Italian food, and great conversation.
This is a store called the Wine Cellar.
Apparently, rose wine is a specialty in Meersburg.
We totally lucked out on weather the entire time we were there. The weather forecast called for rain both days. It was so beautiful out!
That's the castle in the background.
It was so hot, I think this was our second stop at the ice cream shop. Yum!
We drove back home that same day. I'm proud to say that I'm actually the one that drove us home. I'm getting better about being back on the roads!
Anyway, sorry for the barrage of photos and this long post, but hope you enjoyed it! I think this will be one of those destinations that we'll bring visitors to just because it's such an easy drive and a grand old time. Who wants to come visit?
