A Great Body

Before you disconnect in haste let me just assure you it is not my intention in this post to laud or even describe HRH's fine physique, fond of it as I am. No, that's not the body I was intending to celebrate. Neither was it my own* although it never ceases to amaze me how I can wake up feeling like I've been sat on by an elephant (the previous day's exersions), all aches and pains, and yet once I get moving, have a hot shower and a good breakfast I find they have all receded and that I'm (surprisingly) fit for another day in the saddle. It's a wonderful thing, the human body. 

No, the "great body" it was my intention to write about is the lake itself. Konstanz, the town after which it is named, sits at a point on the Rhine (the Seerhein) where only a bridge separates Germany (north) from Switzerland (south). Either side of that narrow stretch of the river can be found the Untersee (West) and the Obersee (East and South) of which the latter is by far the largest. Until now we have been exploring only the Untersee but today we took on The Lake proper! As a whole, Lake Constance is 39miles long and, at its furthest points, nearly 8.7 miles wide. It stands 395m above sea level and provides drinking water for a significant part of southwestern Germany! From a layman travellers point of view (rather than that of Wikipedia) it is clean and clear, is home to a great many fish and is surrounded by delightful small towns and fishing villages. We stopped at one such place this morning for coffee. It was unremarkable in many ways but charming and unspoiled in so many others.

(Steckbron)

Having left Stein am Rhine early this morning we were back in Konstanz by lunchtime but agreed to press on through the town in favour of stopping later to explore the Insel Mainau. This small peninsular houses the equivalent of Cornwall's Eden Project, a horticultural and tropical thing of beauty. The afternoon coffee and cake were pretty good too!

The vast amount of water in the lake was somewhat added to this afternoon when the heavens opened for a brief but undeniable downpour. This meant that we were a little soggy as we boarded our final ferry crossing at Wallhausen shortly after 5.00pm, destination Uberlingen. 

(Our bikes wearing their rain hats whilst we await the ferry under cover. "Beer?", "Oh go on then. Silly not to").

And here we are, at the Rotes Haus, a fully functioning adequately equipped hotel with satisfactory levels of comfort (and a drying room!) but with the unfortunate distinction of looking from the outside like a big, red prison http://www.hotel-rotes-haus.de/en/ It does however have great wifi, albeit only in the lobby so as I'm there and HRH is not, I'm heading off for bed. 

Oh, but before I forget, there was another occasion recently when I was thinking about bodies. Those who choose to cycle round the Bodensee really do come in all shapes and sizes and this was beautifully illustrated when the hotel breakfast room was overtaken by a group all wearing matching pink t-shirts. Now I can reassure you that this was no hen or stag do, not when the average age was probably 65 and the attire that accompanied said t-shirts was most definitely of the cycling variety. It soon became apparent that each had on their backs a list of previous cycling tours this group had done. We were suitably impressed, and by one lady in particular. I would have put her at somewhere around 75 and despite not having the figure of a nymph was clearly still fighting fit and loving life. 

*not that it's a competition or anything but evidently my body is more attractive than that of HRH, if only to the Mosquitos  and to misplaced pedals. His tally of bites is 2 and bruises 0: mine is 20 and 12!