Würzburg

The pass for public transportation - Job Ticket - allows free travel on the weekend for the owner and four more people and we use it quite often. The furthest we can go west is almost to the Saarland and also into France and to the East we can go to Würzburg which is about two hours by train. On a cloudy Saturday we decided to make a little trip there.
First we checked out the city center and the market square

On a stand about the environment one could race model cars with electricity from a bike. Mia really liked it.

At the stand of the forestry department she could decorate a little wooden cutting board with a soldering iron

Then we walked to the old bridge across the river Main to get to he old fortress

The bridge is a popular gathering spot to drink a glass of local wine - or in this case to five an choir performance

Then we walked up the hill

Luckily there was a nice beer garden close by the main castle gate

Mia had brought some of her stuffed animals that always come along on vacation

Luckily the sun came out a bit

The way down was easier

An old fountain helps to freshen up a bit

Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen

On our last day at Lake Constance we went to see a museum dedicated to the zeppelin in Friedrichshafen - where it was developed a bit more than 100 years ago by count Zeppelin.
In the mid 1930'ies one could travel to the US or Brazil in the large air ships

They were bigger than an ocean liner and a modern Airbus A380 looks small in comparison

 In the museum the passenger cabin had been recreated

The Bauhaus style furniture looks still modern

The walls were metal frames covered with cloth

 Outside it had gotten really cold and windy

On the drive back to Heidelberg it was even snowing

The sudden cold weather with frost at night was really bad news for the fruit orchards and wine yards - some farmers got big losses

Adeventure Park Immenstaad

With the weather not so great and traffic really bad we walked to an adventure park just outside Immenstaad. It had climbing courses up in the trees one could explore while secured along a steel cable.
The walk there took us through fruit orchards

With some light rain on and off there were not many people

After some introduction it was tine for the first course

Mia did pretty well

In the afternoon we drove to castle Salem - a famous boarding school - using tiny backroads

Überlingen

On Saturday we met our friend Antje in Überlingen which was about 20 minutes away by car from where we stayed. Since we were supposed to meet for coffee and cake in the afternoon we checked out an animal park nearby first.
At the Affenberg in Salem one could see and feed monkeys from North Africa that live outside in a fenced in area. Visitors are allowed them with popcorn

The animal park also had many storks that get some extra food in a public feeding

When we met Antje in the afternoon she took us to the lake after the coffee and cake. Mia wanted to be the photographer

 We also saw the town

Mia is as good as the ladies in the window display

 After lots of rain and wind the sun came out for a few minutes

By Ship along the North Shore

On out first full day at Lake Constance we decided to take the ship and visit two places on the north shore of the Bodensee.
The ship left from a pier at the center for Immenstaad

 It has started it's tour from the Austrian part of the lake and was called Austria

The clouds turned darker and darker during our hone hour trip

When we got of at Unteruhlding to see the famous buildings on stilts that were reconstructed from the ones in the area as far as 6000 years earlier it started to rain

Part of the visit was a nice multi media show and a guided tour

In a special area for kids they could explore the late stone age

An info about herbs that were used in old times - and now

Drilling holes the stone age way

Mia didn't like the food from the stone age times that some museum people had recreated

On the way back we stopped in Mersburg to see the old town and the castle - and have some ice cream

There were also some nice spring flowers

There was a nice view from the castle down to the lake

We tool the last ship back to  Immenstaad