Last weekend my family and I made a one-day trip to Lake Constance so I thought this beautiful region is worth a blog post.

Lake Constance is situated in the very south of Germany and its shore adjoins also the borders of Schweiz (Switzerland) and Österreich (Austria). With 536 km² it is the biggest See (lake) in Germany.

If you are in Konstanz (Constance), which lies on the western Ufer (shore), and try to look over the lake to Bregenz, eastern shore, you cannot see it due to Erdkrümmung (earth curvature). That´s why it´s also called “das schwäbische Meer” (the swabian sea). But also the warm climate and the cities with their beautiful water fronts give it a maritime touch. The most famous cities around the Lake are Lindau, Konstanz, Friedrichshafen, Bregenz (Austria, famous for its Bregenz Festival), Meersburg and Überlingen. The most famous islands on the lake are called Insel Mainau and Insel Reichenau. Mainau is famous for its outstanding vegetation and Reichenau´s Kloster (abbey) is a world heritage site.

For being situated in the alpine upland, the Landschaft (scenery) is always picturesque. In springtime you can see the snow covered mountains in the background. Even now there´s still snow on the mountains because in May we had horrible weather in Germany. The geographical position and the climate are ideal terms for Obstbau (fruit growing) and Weinbau (vine culture). But beside of this,  Lake Constance is a touristic attraction for thousands of people.

There are a lot of activities such as diving, sailing, swimming, hiking, mountaineering and biking to do in, on or around the lake. Especially the biking track around the lake is very popular. So in the summer months there might be more people biking than driving by car.

What we did at the Wochenende (weekend) was going from Lindau to Friedrichshafen by bike and return to Lindau by a ship. This made the trip very abwechslungsreich (diversified) and as you can see there are plenty of possibilities how to discover the region.

But also people who don´t like sporting activities will find a lot of cultural sites such as castles, churches or other historical places. And also food in this region is worth visiting it!

By the way, the quality of the water of the lake is so good, that it´s even extracted as Trinkwasser (drinking water) for about 4.5 million people. Even the water in Stuttgart comes from Lake Constance.

So after all, the one-day trip was beautiful but definitely too short for us. It would have been better to stay a whole week!