The day began with a plan to make a big counter-clockwise circuit to see this corner of Germany, going east to the eastern end of Lake Constance, then north on the autobahn to Ulm and Stuttgart, west to Karlsruhe and then south to Freiburg and Hinterzarten. The plan fell apart as soon as we saw the beauty of the small towns and countryside in the Black Forest and near the lake. Southwest Germany is travel-brochure pretty. The roads are picturesque with absolutely nothing out of place -- not a single piece of misplaced paper. The population takes evident pride in the region’s appearance, and despite a 10-percent national unemployment rate, there was no obvious evidence of hardship in this region.
Virtually every highway we traveled had at least one and often two bicycle/pedestrian paths running next to it, usually paved, and the Germans were out and about, hiking and riding. The roads were heavily traveled in perfect sightseeing weather, and families were enjoying the views and stopped to photograph the lake, just as we did. Lake Constance – or Bodensee – is huge and had what seemed to be hundreds of vessels on it as far we could see, from sailboats to runabouts and car ferries.
It wasn’t until early afternoon that we stopped for lunch near Immenstaad at a lakeside restaurant with an outdoor terrace. We found a shaded table not far from the walking path, where hundreds of pedestrians must have passed us during our two-hour lunch. Lennie loved the spaetzle and said it was the one dish she had looked forward to in Germany.
Immenstaad was as far east as we got. We backtracked a few miles to Meersburg and took the ferry across to Konstanz, which is at the end of a peninsula of German territory that juts into the lake; the lake’s southern shore is Swiss territory. The rest of the late afternoon drive was spent plotting a back-road path to Hinterzarten through tiny, picturesque villages. With clear skies and no nearby fire burning, Hinterzarten showed itself off at its best in the evening sunshine. We’ve come to appreciate how big a winter-sport center the village is; there’s a ski jump quite near our timeshare in Erlenbruck, not much more than a collection of a half-dozen homes and vacation retreats up the hill from Hinterzarten.
The contrast with Paris defies description, and we’re enjoying it immensely. Paris’s excitement and nightlife seems and is a long ways off. Hinterzarten is where people come to recharge their batteries, and we’re recharging ours for our side trip to Berlin.
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