I WILL PLAN ONLY 2 THINGS FOR A DAY.  WE WILL JUST STOP MORE OFTEN.

Highlights. Morning in Switzerland and the Meersburg Therme in the evening.

 I keep saying that but still haven’t learned. I had planned a trip around half of Lake Constance/Bodensee and that we did, but I had tried to put in too many stops where the unplanned ones were the best. 

We took the car ferry over to Konstanz (that we avoided yesterday) and headed for the planned first stop of Rorschach, which is by the Lake. This took us into Switzerland. On the way, we both decided the main road was too far inland so opted for 2 side steps. The first turned out to be the best stop of the day. We pulled into a very small place and walked out to a Mole in the Lake. It was easy to park, there were only a few people there, the views were very good, and it was peaceful. We watched some people fishing – well they had rods and lines and were somewhere nearby. I checked, and there was a cache there, so we now have found a cache in Switzerland.

 Our next sidestep was an interesting looking town and we got close to the shore when we stopped at the large church nearby. Rorschach was a little disappointing, perhaps because the first spot was really more us. We paid for a park that gave us more time than we needed but the spot accepted euro and we didn’t have any Swiss francs with us. We walked near the shore and stopped for an early lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water. They had Lake fish on the menu so that was a given. I liked mine but did agree with John that the flavours were a bit confused and sort of Asian. As the place was named ‘Buddah’ it was something we possibly should have expected. It was in Switzerland so it was VERY expensive, but it was our main meal for the day.

 I was aiming to get a Swiss cache here and we decided to still walk to see if we could get it as it was named Lindenplaza and I come from Linden. The plaza would have been a nice place for a meal as there was music and people sitting outside, but we were not sorry we had eaten by the lake as it was much warmer here and John’s cap was left with Katherine in Basel. 

The next part of the trip went WRONG!!. We went into Austria hoping to find a cache there in another shore side place. I should have guessed the spot we had chosen would be big and we had bypassed a smaller, prettier place earlier. After the carpark was full and the streets crowded, and the driving chaotic, we headed for Lindau Island, in Germany, instead. In the process we drove down some very narrow Austrian country roads, but this did not save the locals driving flat out. It was nerve wracking says John. 

I had heard a lot about how pretty the island at Lindau was and had asked Monika about parking there this morning. Sadly, her advice that there would be parks by the station was wrong. By the time we worked that out we had driven around the island anyway. On a quieter day we would have enjoyed a wander, but it was far too hot and crowded for John who could not find a park anywhere except a parking building. It was lovely to drive through though.

We did try to find another ‘pearl’ like our first stop of the day while heading back to Bermatingen, but even the smaller places were busy as it was warm and sunny (and the weekend). We decided all the locals had concluded it is summer at last and went out for the day.

Back in Bermatingen, John ‘destressed’ with a cup of tea and a snooze. Usually caching takes us to nice places, but in the afternoon it was more of a hindrance, but it had worked nicely in the morning. Parking is ‘soooo’ much harder here than at home, and is rarely free.

The break back at ‘home’ gave me a chance to find out a bit more about this town.

It seems that farmers settled in the region in the 5th-7th Centuries. The first mention of Bermatingen is in 779 and a family of knights of Bermatingen are mentioned beginning in 1166, and they constructed a castle at Burg Bermatingen to the northeast of the town. In 1525 during the German Peasants' War, one of the peasant commanders, took Bermatingen and used it as a base to attack towns, castles and monasteries in the surrounding region as far as modern Friedrichshafen. The peasant made peace agreeing to end the insurrection and returning property to its feudal owners in exchange for improved conditions and right to arbitration in disputes. Bermatingen was devastated by a fire in 1590 and the Salem abbot directed the effort to reconstruct the town. Salem is a town near here and We are in an historic house, but I have no idea how old it is. The first use of the bear as the symbol of the town dates from a private contract between two villagers in 1506. It is hypothesised the bear (German: bär) is a canting of the prefix Per, from the ancient name of the town (Permodingas) and explains why there is a bear sculpture over the road and another more normal one in a nearby park. There is a plaque with them but in German and without a translation. The Rathus also has a bear on it.

After we had a light tea, we went to the Therme. On a previous trip I didn’t understand the system which cost us for a lost token. So we were careful to get clear instructions. The token gets you through the turnstyle into the pool area and then releases a key for a locker. You wear the key on a wrist band and then use the token in reverse to get out of the area.

The pool was relatively empty which is always nice. The jets turn on in different areas a different times and the lightening keeps changing. The best part is the pool has an outside area that is like an infinity pool. So you can go to the edge of the pool and look over the Lake. There were a few people in the lake swimming, but that would have been far too cold for us.

The main pools were a comfortable warm temperature and there was also a whirlpool that was a few degrees hotter. I did wonder if going back from the whirlpool to the main pool we would feel cold, but the temperature difference was fine. We were here for 2 hours and watched the sky begin to darken.

After we left, we went further along to the public beach where there were a number of people sitting enjoying the sunset. We took some photos and tried to get a cache, but one group of people were just too close. We drove back in the dark and settled in for our last night.