Day trip: Konstanz

About a week ago, we drove just under an hour to Konstanz, Germany.  Little fact: civilization in Konstanz dates back to the Stone Age.  The city sits on Lake Constance (German: Bodensee) which is Central Europe's third largest lake.  It's beautiful and huge (220 sq miles).  It's really popular to bike all along (and around) Lake Constance.  There are tons of trails and the city is also extremely bike friendly.  We were planning on biking, but the weather wasn't so great.  It was cold, rainy, and foggy until the afternoon.  When we got there, we realized we didn't have a cell phone to use-we always use my iPhone for GPS and looking things up on the internet, but it's way too expensive to roam out of country.  Bryce has a Blackberry for work and it seems like it's only good for work emails, calls, and messaging.  I don't really know if he can or is supposed to use it out of country when it's not for work.  Anyways, we just drove through the city and then headed out on side roads toward the lake.  After winding down a small road through woods just near the city center, we arrived at a big empty park.  It seemed like a warm summer day would be hopping at this place.  There was a pool, swimming areas in the lakeWe just walked around for a little bit and then got back into the car with our muddy boots (and jeans in Maddie's case).  Although foggy, the weather didn't take away any beauty of the place.  

We got back into the car with the rest of the day left and she was already muddy and jeans soaked.   How do toddlers manage to get dirty in almost all outside areas and don't mind getting wet no matter how cold it is?  The better question is, why don't the parents just bring along an extra change of clothes for BOTH kids whenever we go somewhere?

It took an enormous amount of self control for her to stay out of the water (even in the cold).

We got back in the car and headed towards the city to search for parking.  We parked in a grocery store parking garage almost a mile away from the old town center.  I didn't mind since it allowed us to see more of the city on foot.

Aaaaand she's out.

It's a fairly large sized old town with tons of quaint shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels, and old colorful buildings.  It's also a very popular shopping area.  It was packed with people.  We didn't stop anywhere except the grocery store where we parked and grabbed lunch.  We pretty much just walked around.

We need to go back and actually rent bikes for a day to ride along the lake and visit play grounds along the lake.

For travel advice and lots of other information, we've found an incredible blog.  I go there probably once a week to get ideas of where to go, things to do, or if I have a random question just to see if she's written about it.  The reason why I mention it here is that she's written a few posts about biking along the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and how fun it's been for their family.  I think we may need to wait for warmer weather to really enjoy it.