Germany

Friday we flew to Stuttgart, Germany and the flight there provided great views of the French and Swiss Alps.

We picked up our rental car at the airport and headed to Ulm in a brand new BMW with on-board navigation. This has got to be the best invention ever for tourist!! We just entered our destination address and this kind female voice directed us right to the door of our B&B.
We stayed at a wonderful little B&B in Ulm called Das Schmale Haus located in the old Fishermen's quarter of town.

The View from our room.

We checked in and then went out to explore the area around the B&B and stopped for dinner at an outdoor café/bar. We split a huge (the size of a large pizza) thin pancake topped with chicken, veggies and gravy which was really good and beer (also very good). We then walked to the main shopping area and the incredible Ulmer Muenster. Later we went to another café/bar for another beer before calling it a night.
Saturday morning there was a lovely hot and cold breakfast available. We both had another thin pancake this time filled with ham and cheese (yummy!!).
After breakfast we headed to Ravensburg which was having a “Spielt” which is a family festival.There where lots of people and it was great walking around looking at all the activities.
Then we headed to our next B&B in Meersburg called The Hotel Baren.

What a lovely old hotel! The only complaint I had was the bed - it was so HARD!!
Meersburg is a wonderful old town.

We walked around and went on a tour of the old castle in town.

This is a view of our B&B from the castle.

When I asked the guide if the tours where offered in English he replied “Certainly Not” with a big smile and then provided us with a mini version of the tour in English.
The weather in Germany is nothing like what we had been having and while we where eating dinner (we had the pasta for 2 which included salad and 3 different pastas with 3 different sauces – excellent!!) at a great outdoor café/bar it started to rain (glad there was a canopy over where we were sitting). We got soaked walking back to the B&B so I had a soak in the HUGE tub to warm up.
Sunday morning we headed to Friedrichshafen for “Euro Bike 2008” which is a huge bicycle show. (One of the reasons we came to Germany) Our plan was for us both to go in the morning and then Wayne would take me back to the B&B at lunch and he would go back to the show alone. Well, the show was so busy and traffic was so bad I decided just to stay.
We were there until 2ish and then we decided to drive around Lake Constance to Bregenz, Austria!! We stopped at a MacDonald’s for a bite to eat and then decided we would head to Zurich, Switzerland!! This is one thing I love about Europe – countries are so close together you can visit a few different ones in one day.

In Zurich we walked along the river but since it was Sunday nothing was open. We returned to Meersburg and went out for dinner to another outdoor café/bar and had Wiener Schnitzel and for desert warm Apple Strudel (with a beer of course).
Monday morning we left Meersburg and headed for Tübingen which is a lovely town on the Neckar River.

We walked around and stopped for coffee and cake at a café.
We then headed to Bad Urach which has castle ruins high on a hill outside town.

The town itself was one of my favorites. We stopped at a little bakery and bought cheese buns and a Danish and sat in the town square and ate them, This was a great ending to our short visit to Germany.
It was now time to head to the airport to return the rental car. Our flight to London did not leave for a few hours. We finally arrived in London at Stansted airport and then had to take a long bus ride to Heathrow. We then had to take the hotel shuttle bus to our hotel. We finally arrived at our hotel at 11:30pm (Travelodge Lodge at terminal 5 – great price, basic hotel).
Next morning we took the hotel shuttle back to Terminal 5 and then the express train to terminal 3 for our flight home. The flight to Halifax was a bit bumpy thanks to the remains of tropical storm Hanna but we arrived home safe and sound.
We had an incredible trip and now I have to plan our next one!!!!!