Get Away

Ben and I just celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on July 18th.  

We recently discovered that there is a newly wed couple in our ward who LOVE to babysit.   Well, maybe "LOVE" is a bit of an exaggeration.  They are WILLING to babysit to make some extra moo-lah.  SCORE!!!  I was all over this newfound knowledge.  I think the last time Ben and I went somewhere overnight without the children was over two years ago.  So, I was ready for a break!!  Ben was also on board as he has had a very stressful/demanding workload as of late.

So, it was off to the Bodensee… aka Lake Constance in the south of Germany.  It's just a two hour drive from here! I love that you don't have to go very far to reach some very cool destinations around here.   We loaded the bikes and took off on Friday afternoon.    

Lake Constance is awesome because it borders three countries… Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Can you see the Austrian Alps in the bottom left hand corner?  We stuck to the German side and stayed near a very picturesque town called Meersburg.  The beauty of this place is accentuated by the rows and rows of vineyards… wine country.  

This is Meersburg:

And this is the place we stayed:  

(Also, we forgot the nice camera, and my iPhone ran out of juice.  So, our pics are not the best quality, but ah well)

Only a REAL man totes around his wife's pink suitcase.  Also, it's amazing how little luggage you need when you are traveling without children.  Packing is a cinch.  

This was a family owned hotel/wine distillery.  The folks that ran this place were super nice.  And we had a free bottle of wine in our fridge!  Too bad we don't drink!

Enjoying some much needed relaxation

We rode our bikes into Meersburg and had a lovely evening exploring and eating out:

I'm pretty sure this town is older than 1986.  

The downside of traveling without kids is that you have to be in all the photos

 The next day we took the ferry across the lake to Konstanz.  In my opinion, not a very nice town.  It was crowded and kind of rowdy and there were a lot of teenagers.  So, per the advice of the tourist info lady, we decided to bike about 10 km over to an island called Reichenau.  It's an island attached to the mainland by a causeway and it has been declared a world heritage site since 2000 because of its very old monasteries that are still standing and date back to the 10th century!  We saw some murals in these churches that are over 1000 years old!!  Also, it's a very nice community with lots of farmland… we saw greenhouses, tomato plants, cabbage, leeks, and other crops.  Oh, and TONS of flowers.  

Boarding the ferry.  Yes, a palm tree in Germany!!  Who knew?

Entering Konstanz

Ben was especially taken with this statue… go figure.

Biking to the island: 

One of the old churches

The thousand year old murals:

Oh, and in one of the churches we happened to be there just as a wedding was taking place.  We got to hear the organist crank out Mendelssohn's wedding march.  How cool is that?

More views of the pretty island

And since it was a very hot day we had to go for a swim in the lake!  A trip to a German beach means lots of naked kids, large men in tight speedos, and women of all shapes, sizes, and ages sporting bikinis.  The Germans are very comfortable in their own skin!  Wish I could be more like that!

And then it was time to head home… sigh… All good things must come to an end. We packed as much as we could in a day and a half.  

So, let's hear it for vacationing without children!  No offense kids.