Day 24

Today I got up early (pain.. to many late nights..) but it wasnt too bad. I had a shower and breakfast and at 8.45ish me and Mr and Mrs Kirste headed off on a trip to Lake Konstanz (the Bodensee). First up was a 200kmish drive, so I took the opportunity and had a bit of a snooze. Before i knew it we were there, and i was awake. First off we walked through the inner city a bit. We went into a few cool churches, and went into the courtyard to the city hall, another beautiful building with pai9ntings on the outside. There were so many beautiful buildings and towers it was hard know what to photograph, but i took a few and then we kept on walking. We went past a massive cathedral, but there was a service on inside so we couldnt head in and take pics etc..

After this we started walking around towards the water. We got to a little river with some ducks nesting here and there (beautiful) then we were looking at the big lake. It was beautiful, and the weather was stunning! Breathtaking! the Rhein river ends up down here which is interesting i guess :). Anyways, we walked along the waterfront a bit, It was gorgeous. By now we were a bit hungry anyway, so we went to this lovely beer garden (lots of the round here, and they are often very big!) with some live jazz playing, and the big umbrellas for a little shade. I had a big pork hock with crout and some big meatball thingy (forgotten what its called ay) which was nice! There were flies coming in trying to land on the food which was a bit annoying, but it was great. Nice atmosphere and good music and weather and view.. awesome!!

After finishing our food we walked around a bit more (saw a cool statue thingy at the main harbour thingy that was cool.. I never looked for long enough but I coulda sworn it must rotate.. coz it always seemed to be on a differynt angle.. but then again I was moving around.. who knows.. It was cool tho!). There are a bunch of ships going back and forward and they fly the flag of what country they are from. We had a look around some more cool places then back to the car.

we now drove over to the Ferry that took you across the lake to a settlement on the other side called Birnau. The ferry ride over was cool! It went pretty fast, and you got a great view of the lake and surrounding areas while it traveleed. If you stood at the front you got spriknled with sea spray as it motored forwards, and there was also a zepplin (a real one this time) flying around on the horizon! Cool! First up a we went up a hill to the church of a monestry that was here in Birnau. This was another one of those pilgrims churches I think.. Inside was STUNNING!! but they had a notice up saying no photography.. which was a bummer coz it was another Baroque style church.. but this one was my favourite so far by miles.. It was awesome! And the lighting was good.. Ahh it was a pity.. But anyways. From up at the church you had a spectacular view of the lake aswell.. it was gorgeous.. oh and the weather.. It was all around just totally great!!

After having a good look around and admiring the view we bundled back into the car and drove back down the hill and went to a nice beach next to some old wooden pontoon houses that have been there since who knows when (Im pretty sure the whole of the lake konstanz is an archeological treasure trove). These were cool, but you had to pay a bunch to get in and walk around them.. I wasnt that keen so we gave it a miss.. Seeing them from the side was enough for me. I took a pic too.

After this we went to an AWESOME cafe right on the waterfront.. It was seriously awesome ay! I coulda stayed there forever. The water and weather was so picture perfect. The cafe was great and served great stuff, and yeah.. it was just all round perfect! Reminded me of pictures ive seen of holidays in Europe on the meditteranean and on beaches and stuff.. it was so awesome. I ordered some crepes with vanilla icecream and cherrys and cherry sauce which was divine. Man.. I dunno how to describe this place.. but it was really nice.. and the weather being so great just played into it all and it was fantastic.

After sitting here for a while it was hometime. This time I was awake for the home journey (200ish km in like an hour 20 ha ha!). Autobahns rule :D!! ha ha we never went faster than 180.. I was hanging out for the 200 mark to take a photo.. but ahh well.. It was cool ay! Its amazing how quick you get used to travelling this fast tho ay.. (maybe Helen Clark had a point :) ). Once home I noticed Id been mildly sunburnt (prob not helped by having the sun roof open there and back). But its not bad so its all good!

At (5ish) home Björn and Arnulf were in the pool playing a game, and were soon back upstairs and we played some poker. I got off to an AWFUL start, but clawed back and Arnulf was first out again unfortunately. By about 7 I had double Björns chips and we called it a day, and me and Mrs Kirste went to an evening service at the church. This was a thing they hold every 2 months or so and is just singing and prayer. There werent many people there, but it was great ay! The music team was great too! And the songs were easy enough to pick up even tho in german. There were a couple of songs that were sung in english then german or vice versa that I already knew, plus a few songs i knew, just translated into German, so it was quite cool singing along to these actually! The girl who was singing last time was singing again which was cool, shes a great singer ay!!! The service lasted an hour, and after having a short chat to the guy playing piano we headed back home.

At home I finally had some dinner (8.30), and then got to catching up on my blog (almost there!) and around 10.30 headed off to bed, where I listened to one of the new sermons I downloaded (by the same guy as the 70ish others on my ipod that Sym gave me). Then off to sleep!

Cya!