Cruise Down the Rhine to Amsterdam

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Cruise down the Rhine to Amsterdam
Saturday 28th September - Saturday, 5th October 2024.

Summary: 

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Arriving on Bodensee in Lindau. (Wednesday, 18th September)

We arrived

Circling, if not cycling, around Bodensee (Lake Constance)

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Circling, if not Cycling, around Bodensee (Lake Constance)
Monday 23rd - Friday 27th September 2024.

Summary: 

Back y. 

Arriving on Bodensee in Lindau. (Monday, 23rd September)

We arrived at Lindau-Reutin, one of two stations in town and not the one I was planning for. 

I'd booked a room in a hostel right next to the other station, Lindau-Insel. And I thought I'd been so clever.

No problem. Two bus rides and we were there. 

No-one was at reception but Leb spotted a board with the words "self check in" written above and an envelope with my name on it. Too easy!

With that all settled the next question was bike hire. There was a good bike hire store just around the corner - another thing I'd researched before hand but, hold on... what about the weather? Now I love bike riding and the whole point of this Bodensee leg of the tour was to do a bit of a cycling holiday, but... I'm the first to admit I'm a fair weather cyclist. No way I'm biking in the rain. And, of course, what did the forecast say for the next four days? 

Rain. Fair. Rain. Rain.

Damn! It's a good job I didn't hire the bikes in advance. So much for that idea.

Change of plan. 

Instead of cycling full circle around the lake we'll get a train up one side to Friedrichshaven, get a ferry over to the other side, staying at three places I'd already booked assuming we'd be cycling, and then get the tram to Konstanz rather than biking back to Bregenz. 

So that was a result at least. It also saved some time and money.

With that settled we spent the evening strolling around the old town of Lindau nestled on a little island connected to the mainland by two little isthmuses. It made me imagine a tiny Crimea or a massive Sveti Stefan.

We had a nice meal (Turkey schnitzel and kartoffl salad for me, salad for Leb) and a beer. 

We swooned at the beatifully painted facade of the old rathaus and then bought some provisions  at a local store before heading back in the ever increasing drizzle.

Around the Bodensee coast to Friedrichshafen. (Tuesday, 24th September)

Day 200 (42 to go) .

Our cheap hostel in Lindau, like every place we've stayed, had its good points and bad. This one had a kettle but only two shower rooms for 17 bedrooms causing some awkward semi naked queuing. It had decent WiFi but we had to sleep in separate beds. Anyway it was OK but we weren't sad to leave.

We packed and walked around the corner to the Lindau-Insel train station. We're getting pretty good at this sort of thing now. Leb headed to the supermarket to get rolls for brekkie whilst I went to the station to buy tickets and suss out the platform etc.

The train journey was short (half hour only) and very pleasant.

We've found the Germans to be really friendly and funny people and today was no exception. A couple that got on were happy to sit opposite us when we moved my coat and Leb's jumper off the seat. The guy joked "and can't we also sit in your seats so we can face the direction of the train?" (At least that's what I THINK he said!)

We got off one stop before the main station in Friedrichshafen so I was able to say "Yes! Now please have our seats too!"

The idea was that getting off a stop before the one in the town center would be closer to our 82nd accommodation (I reckon, making an average of 2.4 nights per stay) but perhaps we should have stayed on the train as I misread the map sending us the wrong way for a few minutes.

Anyway we arrived here at around 11am, three hours early. After a bit of confusion as to how to get in touch with the owner (we missed having a local SIMM in our phones today, perhaps for the third time in three months) a Russian speaking lady helped us by calling him and soon we were dropping our bags off before heading to town.

Perhaps she was Ukrainian because three of the rooms here are labelled "Ukraine 1, 2 and 3" occupied by maybe eleven women altogether, and we were later told that they are all refugees from war areas. I said "Spasibo" to her, and then "Dakuyoo" - she didn't seem to have a preference, so I assumed she was Russian.

With bags safely dropped off we walked to the harbour and checked the ferry times and prices for our next trip tomorrow. Then we walked up the 114 steps of a tower that rises up above the harbour giving a great view of the city and the lake. Lake Constance is huge (> 500 km2) and Friedrichshafen has a coastline that is reminiscent of the seaside except the waves are far tamer and the water is fresh not salty (I did taste it to check!)

As the weather forecast for tomorrow is pretty good we thought we might try to hire bikes just for one day and do a bit of a cycle along the part of the coastline nearest to us. At least then we'll have achieved part of our goal for this leg of the trip. So we tried to find a bike hire place and somewhere to store our bags while we went. No luck finding lockers at the harbour or the nearby bus or train stations, though. And the bike hire place we went to was also frustrating as the manager was out for the day. We said maybe we'd check back tomorrow.

You don't have to stay near Lake Constance, or Friedrichshafen in particular, for long before you encounter Zeppelins. We saw one yesterday over Lindau. Ferdinand Von Zeppelin the inventor, was born just across the lake in Konstanz, and as an adult he worked on them in the town we were staying, Friedrichshafen. The first one flew from here in 1900 and later a big business was soon set up to make them. Why here? The lake provided a huge, safe testing area. Anyway, we strolled passed the Zeppelin Museum, Zeppelin House and a statue to the great man before heading back to our abode to check in.

The guy, Manuel, was super efficient and went through the codes to get in, our welcome card again (free local bus pass and discounts on museums etc.) and then he told us that there were a number of students coming to stay tonight, so would it be OK if he moved us to another room upstairs? An upgrade, actually. An apartment.

Naturlich!

So he took us up to the top floor where we then had our own swish flat with a kitchen, living room and a very nice shower. How lucky was that!?

As he walked us up the stairs I told him we were hoping to hire bikes. Could he recommend anywhere?

"We can do that. We just need some notice."

What!? No brainer. So we also hired two eBikes to be picked up the next day after we check out and what's more, we could leave our bags there for the day too.

What a result!

After a bit of a snooze, we went out to a local fish restaurant for some battered fish and mixed salad all washed down with a nice big glass of white wine.

So, everything was set for a nice lakeside bike ride, followed by a ferry crossing over the Bodensee to Switzerland tomorrow.

Too blady easy!

Cycling around, and then ferrying across, Bodensee. (Wednesday, 25th September)

Day 201 (41 to go) -

Thanks to our wonderful hosts in Friedrichshafen, the Krolls, we were able to wake up in our swish apartment, have a nice cup of tea and coffee, get packed, drop our bags off in the office downstairs, check out and then walk 50m from son to father and collect our eBikes that were already waiting for us.

I'd never ridden one before and after a bit a scary warning about not starting it off at maximum power (one of his friends died doing that, he said) we were off.

Two minutes down the road I realised that nothing had been said about helmets - obligatory in WA but apparently not in Germany - we decided to continue.

It was a lovely day for cycling. Warm but not hot and not windy. The physical conditions around Lake Constance are perfect too, it being really flat.

I must say the only disappointment for me was that very little of the cycle path was actually by the lake or even within sight of it,

We'd cycled about 8km before the path went within sight of the water at Langenargen and we stopped there to try to get a coffee and brekkie but it was far too expensive so we carried on.

It was another 7km before we were by the lake again at Nonnenhorn. This time there were a couple of well priced food stalls. I had the most delicious cheeseburger and leb had a waffle. We walked along to the jetty where the Bodensee ferry picks up passengers taking them up the coast.

Then, it was back on the bikes for another 2km or so to our final destination Wasserberg am Bodensee.

The reason I wanted to go there? Max Westenhöfer, the German anatomist, apparently wrote most of his book, "Der Eigenweg des Menschen" here during the war years. The book contains a chapter pertaining to the so-called "aquatic ape hypothesis." It discusses various human features as potential adaptations to a more aquatic (or 'aquatile' or 'paludine' as he termed it) lifestyle for the first time. Sir Alister Hardy, the man most usually attributed the idea, who "came out" about it in 1960 was not aware of Westenhöfer and neither was Elaine Morgan (at least at first).

It must be pointed out that Westernhöfer was a senior scientist in Nazi Germany and so held various very unsavoury positions including being deputy chairman of Berlin's branch of “Gesellschaft für Rassenhygiene” (The German Society of Racial Hygiene). The fact that Westenhöfer promoted eugenics is not a good look for those of us who support waterside hypotheses of human evolution but it can also be argued that Charles Darwin was a racist and sexist. Everyone is a product of the culture and times they live in.

Anyway, needless to say, we could find no trace of Max Westenhöfer in the short time we were there. I asked a few people, but no-one had even heard of him. The tourist office was closed so we headed back.

I must say, I really appreciated being able to turn up the powered cycling assistance to level 2 which made riding back an absolute breeze. I can't help feeling guilty about doing this though. Surely the whole point of doing exercise is that it shouldn't be effortless.

We returned the bikes to Herr Kroll, picked up our bags and walked down to Friedrichshafen harbor to catch the next ferry across the Bodensee, seamlessly, to Romanshorn and Switzerland, the 25th country we've visited on this tour. The smooth and easy journey continued when we walked 200m to the platform to catch the next train along the Swiss coast to our 83rd accommodation, a room in a Pizza restaurant in the tiny village of Seedorf.

Once checked in we went for a quick walk down to the shore where there were a million gnats in the air and one huge zeppelin.

Then, back to the restaurant for a ridiculously expensive pizza and beer.

The room is ok (at least we don't have to share a bathroom) but I cannot connect my mobile to the WiFi so have not yet been able to upload my photos and videos.

Tomorrow we make the short trip up to Konstanz.

Constant rain in Konstanz. (Thursday, 26th September)

Day 202 (40 to go. 84th Accomodation.)

We woke up in our quite decent bedroom in the Rotes Haus Pizza Restaurant to notice the blue skies had turned grey. We dropped the key off and headed for the bus stop to catch the 905 to Konstanz. It was drizzling, but not too badly. The bus was waiting and we got on.

"Zwei nach Konstanz, Bitte." I said to the driver. He saw my credit card and said "No card. Sorry. Euros?" We only had a few coins left so we had to get off and trundle back to the train station. There, I bought a ticket from the machine which does take credit cards but then we realised it was actually for the next bus, so we had to trundle back to the bus stop again.

Fun, eh?

Anyway the bus journey was fine and crossing from Switzerland back into Germany was... you've guessed it... completely seamless. However, when we arrived in town (population around 86,000) about 40 minutes later the drizzle had got worse. We traipsed across to our hotel... an Irish pub called Bilger Eck. The Vietnamese receptionist girl was so nice and friendly but had to tell us our room would not be ready until 2pm. We could drop our bags off in there though - something I've never been allowed to do before.

Anyway having caught up on WiFi deprivation in the empty bar, we set off in the downpour to try to see something of Konstanz old town. The "Notre Damme" (Münster Unserer) cathedral was pretty big, with plenty of the usual lavish and slavish, over the top, artistic dedications to the great mystical being in the sky.

We then got out of the rain and into a nice warm dry restaurant and had big dinners. I had goulash, Leb had Käserknodle. We both shared a lovely German cake that was a little spicy like a Christmas Cake and washed it all down with a nice Pale Ale.

We then walked past the beatifully painted Hohes Haus and then down to the foreshore of the massive lake where Konstanz has its own version of the Statue of Liberty... the Imperia.

We needed to do a bit of shopping so went into the EDEKA supermarket closest to our hotel with its vast selection of products including some liebküchen we didnt get to have in Nürnberg. If only Perth CBD had something like this.

Walking along the streets of Konstanz I couldn't help notice the number of horse chestnut trees and a plethora of lovely shiny conkers just left to rot on the streets. You'd never have seen that when I were a lad!

Then, back to "By Eck" as a Lancastrian might call it, where our room was ready.

I left Leb to relax while I went off to do another big clothes wash as there was a laundromat just around the corner. I literally wore only my hot weather shorts and my "posh" shirt... everything else was in the wash bag.

I was out of coins and as the machine didn't take a €50 note I had to buy a beer next door to break it. (No... I HAD to!)

After that it was a case of load up the machines and wait. I had a conversation with a couple from San Diego who were here to do what we'd originally come for: a cycling tour around the lake. They hope to fit in enough cycling when the weather is fine and stay indoors when it isn't. Good luck with that! Also doing their laundry were a young couple from Hillaries, Perth. They had a cute two year old that reminded me of what my two lovely grandchildren might be like when we finally get back home. The guy had just run in a long distance race in Slovenia. Imagine it. 20 hours running up and down mountains sounds like torture to me but he clearly loves it. He said his twin brother has managed 24 hours. He reminded me about AFL. Apparently the Grand Final is this weekend. What!? A whole footy season has slipped me by completely. Dockers missed out yet again. Maybe tomorrow or the morning after in Basel I'll get to watch some of the final. As the Californians left I blurted something about hoping they get Trump locked up after the election. (Sorry. Can't resist!) The silence was a bit awkward and perhaps telling. My embarrassement increased seconds later when they came back in from the rain again as they'd missed their bus. Oops! Soon they really did leave, followed by the West Australians who were then replaced by another nice English couple from Devon. I was pleased to be able to help them operate the machines like the Persian guy who ran the laundromat had helped me earlier.

Anyway, now I have a full set of clean clothes again. Luxury.

Being swizzed in Switzerland. (Friday, 27th September)

Day 203 (39 to go, Accomodation 85, 2.39 days per stay.)

The Bilger Eck, in Konstanz, will be remembered as one of the better places we've stayed at. Nice comfy bed. Kettle and fridge in the room so you can make a flask of tea. Good dependable WiFi. We even had a decent eggy breakfast with two nice cups of coffee to wash it down.

Every time we stay in a nice place like that I feel quite sad leaving, especially as blue had replaced grey as the colour of the sky.

But anyway, it was time to leave the "cycling around Lake Constance" phase of the holiday and get ready for the Rhine River cruise phase. To do that we had the small matter of getting from Konstanz to Basel. Google maps gives you several options and they all seemed pretty straightforward. Yeah. Right!

The walk to the bus stop was easy enough, as was the bus to the main station. That's where the trouble started, although we didn't realise it at the time.

We're getting pretty experienced in navigating the German rail system and buying tickets. Go up to the machine. Change language to English. Type in destination. Accept all defaults about 2nd class, next train etc. Pay. Collect tickets. Go to platform. Done.

The destination city this time was... Basel. The fee €45. Not bad for two of us. The clue, that I didn't pick up on at the moment of purchase, was the only specific destination station was Basel Bad with no option to choose Basel Hbf the station next to which I'd booked our next hotel (so for me, that should be Basel 'Good').

We had 40 minutes to wait so we had a nice coffee and time to bitch about Booking.com, the mega online booking company I've used pretty exclusively on this trip.

Why bitch? See, whilst we were staying in Friedrichshaven I got a very legitimate-looking email from the Ibis Budget Hotel we're now staying at in Basel via Booking.com. I've had loads of similar emails from forthcoming hotels and other places we'd booked. Basically they give some simple info about check in times etc. Some of them give key information about how to get in the place if there'll be no-one on reception - that kind of thing. You start looking out for them and... you start to trust them.

This one looked pretty boring and standard but at the end it had an additional note requesting that I register my payment within 24 hours otherwise I would lose the booking. Yes. I know. The scammer alarm bells should have been going at this point and not the "panic! I don't want to lose my booking" ones. I just thought this is a legitimate email from the hotel via Booking.com. It came about the right time I would expect and most of it *was* authentic. For example, it contained the correct booking id and clicking on it linked correctly to the correct booking page on Booking.com. Anyway, it would appear that several Ibis customers had got stung by this too because the hotel sent out another message this morning, again through Booking.com (and again it looked identical to the other one) but warning people NOT to click on any links and pay any money like muggins here did. No such message has yet been sent from Booking.com.

On their web site they tell you to report any such scammy experiences. I'd been trying to do that for 24 hours but when you *do* try you are sent around a never ending loop of Web pages with a very limited number of menu options and nowhere where you can actually *report* anything. Like our Sykes Holidays experience earlier, they make it impossible to actually write to a human being as the whole company hides behind its Web site. We predicted the hotel would deny any responsibility and ask for payment for the room anyway.

So, with that bitch off my chest it was time for the second leg of our journey to the Ibis in question: a train ride to Zurich. We got on and we'd soon passed seamlessly from Germany back into Switzerland. Woohoo! This was a breeze. Even the weather had turned warm and I had to take my jumper and shirt off. Jeans and a bloody T-shirt.

About half an hour into the journey a very young looking ticket collector came round the carriage. We showed him ours and the puzzled look on his face immediately indicated there was "ein Problem". He asked his colleague but she wasn't sure either. Twenty minutes later their boss appeared (how many ticket collectors are there on German/Swiss trains?) and we knew the news could not be good.

He explained to us, in perfect English of course, how our ticket was invalid. It only allows travel from Konstanz to Basel through Germany, not Switzerland.

"How much would it cost to travel to Basel through Switzerland?"

"Hold onto your hat" he joked "it would be €120 each!"

What? Why is Swiss travel so much more expensive than German? It made no sense. It's about the same distance either way.

After a bit of tapping on his handy he said "the cheapest option for you is get off at the next station and buy a ticket back to Konstanz and then do the journey from there through Germany as you should have done."

So we did. As we stepped off onto Weinfelden station I thanked the inspector (!) but suggested this could have been made clear at the ticket machine. He shrugged an uncomfortable, squirmy shrug. To be fair to him, he *could* have charged us for the wasted journey we'd made to that point.

As we bought tickets back to Konstanz (€12.50 each) the weather had ominously turned colder and the skies had gone grey again. Bizarrely, right by platform 1, there was a fun fair with the air filled with the squeals of delighted children. It felt like the Swiss were having a joke at our expense.

Of course no ticket inspector checked our tickets on the way back. Murphy's Law!

Quite gloomy with the time approaching 2pm and with us still at our starting point, things did start to brighten when the lady at the information desk told us the next correct train was actually standing at platform 3a and would leave in 10 minutes. She printed off a sheet with all the times, platforms and train numbers.

Danke veilen mal!!

Within moments we were heading in the right direction... to the German town of Singen.

When we arrived the change of train couldn't be easier. Platform 6 was right next to the one we'd got off and the train to Basel was already there waiting. Even though it was now raining and the skies were dark, our mood had lifted.

"We're Singen in the rain!" Of course, was the only tune that came to mind.

The final leg went smoothly with the train racing along the German-Swiss border next to the Rhine for almost all of the rest of the way. A slice of Germany pokes right into Switzerland right up to Basel, so that by the time we had almost arrived at the station north of the Rhine, Basel Bad, we were still in Germany.

Once off the train we caught the #1 tram into the city center and then the #11 to the *other* station Basel Hbf, where I'd assumed we'd be coming into, hence our hotel booking.

Upon arrival I told my sob story to the young man at reception and he tried to be sympathetic (probably thinking "stupid old man!") but as expected he took our money anyway.

After settling in we went for a walk into the city center. My plan was to go to an old traditional beer/wine house/restaurant recommended by the interweb: Brasserie Zum Braunen Mutz. It looks lovely from the outside and inside but the prices on the menu were outrageous. What is it with the Swiss? It seems everything is at least twice as expensive as anywhere else. They didn't even have the traditional vegetable soup with bone marrow I'd been promised.

So, we upped and left and popped in next door for a maccers. Even here it was 8.50 CH ($17 AUD) for a burger. No chips. No drink.

After a quick look at the Rhine... our home for the next week, we returned here on the #11 tram feeling just a bit ripped off.