Day Trip To St. Gallen, including a ferry ride 8/11/2011

Today we went on a day trip to St. Gallen. We also had wanted to ride the ferry across the Bodensee but hadn't made the trip yet. We drove to Lindau, Germany and then rode the ferry across to Bregenz, Austria. Then we rode the train back. (A train ride that Spencer took a lot on his mission.) Then we drove to St. Gallen for the rest of the day.

Lindau- The old part of the city is out on an island.

I love this. This is really a street in the city. We might have a hard time calling this anything but an alley.

The statue you can see is a boy and girl with doing the Mai Baum (May tree) dance or celebration.

The city square and other pictures of the city.

We have seen this a few times but today it was finally close enough to see what it was for. It at least has the name of  a newspaper on it but it would be interesting to know completely what it is used for.

The harbor that we caught our ferry in. There is a lion statue and a lighthouse tower and the mouth of the harbor.

From the top of the tower looking out over Lindau.

My cute family! For some reason Elise was determined that her cheek needed to be squished up against daddies. Soooo cute.

Same thing here only she must have thought I was trying to run away.

The stairs inside the tower.

Ferry Ride

Our ferry.

Leaving the harbor.

There was a cold wind to begin with and it was early but then Elise got more into the ride and loved being on the ferry. Here we are finishing our breakfast. Spencer had told me how good pretzels were cut open with butter inside but I had never had one until this morning. I meant to by pretzels so that Elise would have something to eat until we got across to Bregenz. We got a pleasant surprise, they had butter in them. They were so good. When we came back we were going to buy one more but they were now only the plain ones. The buttered ones must be a common breakfast choice. I can see why too.

Coming to towards Bregenz, Austria.

This is a theater that is out over the lake. The preforming area is completely over the water.

Bregenz

Swans and their babies.

Looking back over the Bodensee to Lindau, Germany.

Walking around Bregenz. Not as pretty as Lindau. At least the parts we saw. Then we took the train back to Lindau and drove to St. Gallen.

St. Gallen

Pictures of our walk around St. Gallen. We also "had" to go to a Migros to get some chocolate and dessert yogurts that you can only find at a Migros. We had meant to come sooner, Spencer raved at how good some of the things were but we never made it. Probably better that we only made it once or we may have traveled there too often.

Pictures from driving.

Day Trip to the Blackforest 8/10/2011

Today we went on a day trip to the Blackforest. Spencer visited some parts in this area when he was on his mission and loved it so he wanted to take us back. I really enjoyed all of the trips that we took but this one was definitely one of my favorites. Everywhere we went was so pretty and there was amazing views to see.

Titisee was a perfect place to stop for breakfast before we started driving up the mountain in the Blackforest to Feldberg (the highest point in the Blackforest). We had a little trouble finding a place that wasn't private by the waterfront so we could eat our breakfast. But finally we found a pretty little spot and there was even some ducks swimming around for Elise to watch.

View of the main part of town as we drove by. Everything was still pretty quiet when we were in Titisee. It was still kind of early but we wanted to go hiking in Feldberg before it got too hot.

Spencer taking pictures of the lake.

On our way back to the car we did find this park area but you weren't supposed to have food in the park, imagine that. So even though it was pretty our spot was still better for breakfast.


Next we went to Feldberg, the highest point in the Blackforest. There are many hiking trails around this area but we just hiked up to the highest lookout point. Spencer had also hiked this on his mission but we wanted to go back again.

Elise found the optimal place to ride and the bookbag gave her a sort of chair.

The views as we hiked. Well kind of hiked. It was steep in some places but it was on a wide, paved road so it wasn't really like the hiking I am used to but it was still beautiful.

There was a ski lift that would bring you to the top if you didn't want to hike. But it really wasn't a long hike. We took our time and Elise thought she had to walk some of the time and I'm pretty sure it still only took us about an hour.

This is the tower at the top that you can pay to climb. We didn't because you already have a really good view in all directions so I am not quite sure what else that would have showed you. We at least didn't think it was worth it.

The views off the front. Just before we headed down a different trail down the front.

Spencer was disappointed because this was a view he has a picture of from his mission with the lake in the background. He wanted to take a picture of us in front of it but as you can see you can't see the lake. Since he was here they decided that they needed to put this fence up about 10-15 feet from the edge so you can't really get the lake in a picture anymore. It isn't even a sharp drop off at the edge but they must have had problems with it anyway.

Elise walking around with her hands in her pockets because she thinks she can do everything by herself.

Just as we started down we were able to find this view of the lake so even though it isn't quite the same it is as close and we came to the view that Spencer has in his picture.

The path at the bottom of the trail. This is actually the way we went up. As you can see it is a nice, paved hiking trail.

Rheinfalls is supposed to be the largest waterfall in Europe. It is 150 m wide and 23 m high. It was very pretty to see and I love waterfalls but I guess I was expecting something more like Shoshone Falls or the Twin Falls but it was still well worth seeing. Elise loved watching it but I think she loves anything to do with water. Luckily she is cautious too.

Along the walking path they had all of the 26 cantons (states) flags of Switzerland. They call them the 26 cantons or states of Switzerland but for us it is probably more like counties.

Of course there was fish and ducks that Elise would have voted to watch all day. We decided that one thing we wanted to do was take a boat ride at to the base of the falls. This is when we first got on the boat. The next pictures are from the boat ride. They took us right to the bottom of the falls and let the water push us back out then they did it from the other side of the boat and then we road around the lake area and back to the docks.

One of the boat rides took you to this staircase and look out point. From here you could walk up to the old part of the city and then back and the boat would bring you back. There were other ways to that part of the city but we didn't make it that far.

This is close to where they started letting the water push us back out. The other boat you see is another ride that takes you to the look out point on the piece of land that sticks up between the falls.

Elise loved the boat ride.

The cafe and gift shop where you get on the boats.

These are some of our favorite pictures from driving.
This one looked like an overpass but then the closer we got I am really curious what really went through the middle of the trees if anything. Maybe it was just an overpass of trees. On both sides all you could see was really thick trees.

The Basilica in Meersburg, right next to the Bodensee.

The orchards by the Bodensee.

The Bodensee. There was a lot of sail boats out today.

They use this netting over a lot of their orchards. It seemed to stay there the whole season. I thought it made a lot of sense but you don't see much of this at home but maybe there is in bigger fruit crop areas.