roadtrip: bodensee
I faced the beginning of this month with slight dread, wondering how I was going to occupy two restless children for four weeks straight. But the time somehow flew right by, filled with heatwaves, playdates, a lot of reading, a roadtrip, popsicles, parks and various bodies of water, and now we're in the final week of July. I was going to put The Bun in soccer camp this week but it turns out we simply don't have the time. His birthday is tomorrow so today was busy filled with shopping for goodie bag stuff (I'm so last-minute) and baking. Then for the rest of the week there are doctor appointments and vaccinations for the kids, another playdate for The Bun, cleaning the apartment and prepping it for our return (with the in-laws), and of course packing for Singapore. We leave on Saturday. How did the month fly by?
I can never seem to keep up with chronicling our travels, but try I must, because otherwise I may never remember it all properly. Our most recent roadtrip was a short one but remarkably relaxing. For once on holiday with the kids I didn't feel stressed or rushed; perhaps because most of the places we visited were laid-back ones with nothing much to do except walk around enjoying the scenery. The kids traveled remarkably well together on this trip, playing with each other nicely and not getting in each other's faces too much. I think it was because of how relaxed the trip was, and how much outdoor time they had. There's really too much to cover if I wrote everything down so I won't, I'll just condense it to the places we visited and the memories that stood out.
We made our base in Amriswil, a small town in the canton of Thurgau in the north-eastern end of Switzerland. I picked it because it was nicely-located between all the places that we had planned to visit - Konstanz, the Bodensee (Lake Constance), Liechtenstein, etc. Again, it was an Airbnb place, a very modern loft apartment that contained more sofa sets than I have ever seen in a residence before. A couple of them were sofa beds so I guess that made sense, but even so there were sofas in every conceivable corner of the apartment.
Our Airbnb apartment in Amriswil.
Turns out the owner is a psychiatrist, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised, eh. The kids enjoyed having lots of space to play in but I must confess that I spent the first twenty-four hours alternately holding my breath and yelling at them to not chase each other around because I didn't want them to break anything in the apartment. Thankfully after a while the novelty of the new place wore off so all of us calmed down.
__________________
En route to Amriswil, we stopped at Solothurn for lunch. It's a small town that can be traversed in less than thirty minutes on foot, but a pretty one, nonetheless, and we walked around a bit before lunch admiring the old town and the St. Ursen Cathedral. I'd planned to stop at a Thai restaurant for lunch because it had received good reviews online, but when we got there it seemed to have moved and was nowhere to be found, and calling the number only brought up a message in Swiss German, of which I understand none. In the end J found a little place called Thai Shop which was serving lunch, cooked by three friendly Thai women who were quite curious about our Asian family turning up out of nowhere. The meal resembled what we call in Singapore 'cai png' (economy rice), where you serve yourself a variety of cooked dishes to be eaten with rice, and although the food was nothing to shout about, the whole ambiance of the place made me feel quite warm and nostalgic.
The pretty town of Solothurn.
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Since we were close to the eastern border of Switzerland, J and I decided to pop into Liechtenstein for half a day just for curiosity's sake and since it was such a short drive away. We drove into Vaduz, the capital, and walked around a bit at the top of the hill where Vaduz Castle stands, before returning into the town area to wander around for a bit more.
View from the top, near Vaduz Castle
We had lunch at the friendly Lett Restaurant, and then visited the Hofkellerei winery for J to pick up some wine, before leaving and driving back to Switzerland. Overall it felt very much like we never left Switzerland because there are so many similarities (e.g. same supermarket chains, and they also use the Swiss Franc currency), but I'm sure there is much more to this tiny country. Perhaps one day we will be able to explore it more closely.
__________________
Also just across the border was the town of Bregenz in Austria. We also spent the better part of a day there, first on a cruise on the eastern end of the Bodensee, and later on up the small mountain of Pfänder, which looks out over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Lunch was up at one of the lodges at the top of the mountain, a typical lunch with potatoes, sausages, dumplings, schnitzel, etc.
Bregenz - down on the lake, up in the mountains.
After lunch the kids played in the outdoor playground while J and I checked out the scenery - apparently from the top of Pfänder on a clear day you can see up to 240 mountain peaks. We then decided to check out the Alpine Wildlife Park nearby, which turned out to be quite boring because there were no animals about, and the trek through the park was very steep and exhausting, with nothing to look at, so after we were done we just took the cable-car back down and left Bregenz.
__________________
While we were planning this trip, J did some reading and said that we definitely had to visit the Swiss town of St Gallen and its famous Abbey Library. Total library porn, apparently. I truly can not imagine an existence without books and a library, so I looked forward to it. The library dates back to the 9th century and is a wonder to behold. It is not very big, but its presence is enormous. Visitors have to wear padded slippers to enter, and of course none of the books can be touched or even photographed because of their fragility and rarity. It was amazing and humbling to see the pages of the books that were displayed, hand-calligraphed books over a thousand years old. J and I took turns sitting with Bao outside because there was no way she could go in without being disruptive to other visitors; the atmosphere inside was reverent and hushed, as though the spirits of the authors long dead and gone were still around. It was a privilege to be able to behold a place like this. Now I feel like I should somehow make it a mission to see some of the other beautiful libraries across the world. Photographs were not allowed inside, but a quick google search will show how gorgeous this place is.
St Gallen - quite charming, really.
________________
Another place we spent some time at was Insel Mainau, a small island just across the German border, somewhere around the mid-point of the Bodensee. Devoted to all manner of flora and landscape architecture, the summer flowers were blooming everywhere.
We checked out the Butterfly Pavilion, had some lunch at one of the cafes (more sausages and potatoes and beer!), walked through several of the ornamental gardens, and eventually ended up in the kids' section where there was a petting zoo and pony rides. The rides were supposedly for kids aged between 4 - 12, but the man in charge took one look at Bao's earnest, eager face and agreed to let her on. I'm glad he did because I don't want to think about the tantrum that she would have had if her brother got a ride and she didn't! In the end I believe she enjoyed it way more than he did because she kept talking about it afterwards.
________________
Although we hadn't planned on visiting (yet) another aquarium, The Bun found a brochure lying around in the apartment, and began nagging at us to go. The aquarium is located in Konstanz, the largest German town along the lake, and we visited it in the afternoon after leaving Insel Mainau. The aquarium is quite small and not terribly interesting, but the kids seemed to like it and I appreciated the fact that it was indoors and provided us with respite from the blazing heat. In fact, just past the gift shop was a small play corner with a climbing frame and a ball-pit, and with nothing much else to do J and I just released the kids in it and spent nearly forty-five minutes there. It was actually okay - they got some excess energy out, and J and I got a chance to sit down on a bench and catch our breaths. Later on we had dinner at a nearby beer garden called Hafenhalle, which was also very relaxed. We sat outdoors and ate our food and drank our beer while the kids were occupied in a large sandpit nearby. Always good for a relaxing holiday! And of course, being in Germany meant that shops were open till 830pm, so I even got to squeeze in a bit of shopping after dinner was over. (Being in Germany also meant we could eat dinner at least an hour earlier than in the French part of Switzerland, which is a boon when you have young children.)
_______________
Since we were in the area, J and I decided one afternoon to take a drive to the Appenzeller region, which is best known for its distinctive cheese and scenic countryside. It was quite a long drive but it paid off when the mountains came into view. Every time I'm in the mountains I forget all my grouses about Switzerland being a boring country with no decent shopping, because frankly, with views like these who needs to shop? Save the shopping for other countries, declares Switzerland, and come for a walk. And so we did, despite the fact that we didn't have hiking footwear.
The path we took was an easy one, though, flat and perfect for little legs. We came across a small herd of cows grazing right alongside the path, and later on stopped at a stream for a barefoot paddle and for The Bun to collect some rocks. I think if we had been better prepared we would have followed the path an hour or so into the mountains where apparently there is a lovely lake hidden away, but it was late in the afternoon and I didn't think the kids would stand up to a two hour long hike with inadequate preparation. So we turned back and went to the inn at the mouth of the trail, and had drinks while the kids played in the playground outside.
He could have spent all day in there if we'd let him.
_______________
On our drive home we stopped at the Rhine Falls, on the western end of the Bodensee, along the Rhine river. It is Europe's largest plain waterfall and really dramatic-looking, although I guess not as dramatic as the Niagara Falls. However, compared to Niagara, it doesn't have an entire tourist town built up around it, which I like. You just park your car, buy your ticket, go through the gates and then walk down the many flights of stairs towards the river, getting different views of the falls each way. It is a popular tourist destination, but the Swiss have largely left it alone, and there isn't an entire town's worth of rubbish tourist traps to spoil the experience.
We took the little boat to the rock in the middle of the falls and then gingerly climbed up - a bit tricky, especially with Bao, because the steps were very steep and narrow and you had to jostle with people trying to climb down as you were going up. It was fun when we were finally at the top with all the water rushing by so loudly you could barely hear other people talk. After taking the boat back to dry land we had a quick lunch on the terrace and then embarked on the long drive home.
_______________
And that's it - well done if you've actually read this far. I'm not sure when I'll find the time to post more amidst all the birthday excitement and mad packing, but updates will be on Instagram as usual.
I can never seem to keep up with chronicling our travels, but try I must, because otherwise I may never remember it all properly. Our most recent roadtrip was a short one but remarkably relaxing. For once on holiday with the kids I didn't feel stressed or rushed; perhaps because most of the places we visited were laid-back ones with nothing much to do except walk around enjoying the scenery. The kids traveled remarkably well together on this trip, playing with each other nicely and not getting in each other's faces too much. I think it was because of how relaxed the trip was, and how much outdoor time they had. There's really too much to cover if I wrote everything down so I won't, I'll just condense it to the places we visited and the memories that stood out.
We made our base in Amriswil, a small town in the canton of Thurgau in the north-eastern end of Switzerland. I picked it because it was nicely-located between all the places that we had planned to visit - Konstanz, the Bodensee (Lake Constance), Liechtenstein, etc. Again, it was an Airbnb place, a very modern loft apartment that contained more sofa sets than I have ever seen in a residence before. A couple of them were sofa beds so I guess that made sense, but even so there were sofas in every conceivable corner of the apartment.
Our Airbnb apartment in Amriswil.
Turns out the owner is a psychiatrist, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised, eh. The kids enjoyed having lots of space to play in but I must confess that I spent the first twenty-four hours alternately holding my breath and yelling at them to not chase each other around because I didn't want them to break anything in the apartment. Thankfully after a while the novelty of the new place wore off so all of us calmed down.
__________________
En route to Amriswil, we stopped at Solothurn for lunch. It's a small town that can be traversed in less than thirty minutes on foot, but a pretty one, nonetheless, and we walked around a bit before lunch admiring the old town and the St. Ursen Cathedral. I'd planned to stop at a Thai restaurant for lunch because it had received good reviews online, but when we got there it seemed to have moved and was nowhere to be found, and calling the number only brought up a message in Swiss German, of which I understand none. In the end J found a little place called Thai Shop which was serving lunch, cooked by three friendly Thai women who were quite curious about our Asian family turning up out of nowhere. The meal resembled what we call in Singapore 'cai png' (economy rice), where you serve yourself a variety of cooked dishes to be eaten with rice, and although the food was nothing to shout about, the whole ambiance of the place made me feel quite warm and nostalgic.
The pretty town of Solothurn.
__________________
Since we were close to the eastern border of Switzerland, J and I decided to pop into Liechtenstein for half a day just for curiosity's sake and since it was such a short drive away. We drove into Vaduz, the capital, and walked around a bit at the top of the hill where Vaduz Castle stands, before returning into the town area to wander around for a bit more.
View from the top, near Vaduz Castle
We had lunch at the friendly Lett Restaurant, and then visited the Hofkellerei winery for J to pick up some wine, before leaving and driving back to Switzerland. Overall it felt very much like we never left Switzerland because there are so many similarities (e.g. same supermarket chains, and they also use the Swiss Franc currency), but I'm sure there is much more to this tiny country. Perhaps one day we will be able to explore it more closely.
__________________
Also just across the border was the town of Bregenz in Austria. We also spent the better part of a day there, first on a cruise on the eastern end of the Bodensee, and later on up the small mountain of Pfänder, which looks out over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Lunch was up at one of the lodges at the top of the mountain, a typical lunch with potatoes, sausages, dumplings, schnitzel, etc.
Bregenz - down on the lake, up in the mountains.
After lunch the kids played in the outdoor playground while J and I checked out the scenery - apparently from the top of Pfänder on a clear day you can see up to 240 mountain peaks. We then decided to check out the Alpine Wildlife Park nearby, which turned out to be quite boring because there were no animals about, and the trek through the park was very steep and exhausting, with nothing to look at, so after we were done we just took the cable-car back down and left Bregenz.
__________________
While we were planning this trip, J did some reading and said that we definitely had to visit the Swiss town of St Gallen and its famous Abbey Library. Total library porn, apparently. I truly can not imagine an existence without books and a library, so I looked forward to it. The library dates back to the 9th century and is a wonder to behold. It is not very big, but its presence is enormous. Visitors have to wear padded slippers to enter, and of course none of the books can be touched or even photographed because of their fragility and rarity. It was amazing and humbling to see the pages of the books that were displayed, hand-calligraphed books over a thousand years old. J and I took turns sitting with Bao outside because there was no way she could go in without being disruptive to other visitors; the atmosphere inside was reverent and hushed, as though the spirits of the authors long dead and gone were still around. It was a privilege to be able to behold a place like this. Now I feel like I should somehow make it a mission to see some of the other beautiful libraries across the world. Photographs were not allowed inside, but a quick google search will show how gorgeous this place is.
St Gallen - quite charming, really.
________________
Another place we spent some time at was Insel Mainau, a small island just across the German border, somewhere around the mid-point of the Bodensee. Devoted to all manner of flora and landscape architecture, the summer flowers were blooming everywhere.
We checked out the Butterfly Pavilion, had some lunch at one of the cafes (more sausages and potatoes and beer!), walked through several of the ornamental gardens, and eventually ended up in the kids' section where there was a petting zoo and pony rides. The rides were supposedly for kids aged between 4 - 12, but the man in charge took one look at Bao's earnest, eager face and agreed to let her on. I'm glad he did because I don't want to think about the tantrum that she would have had if her brother got a ride and she didn't! In the end I believe she enjoyed it way more than he did because she kept talking about it afterwards.
________________
Although we hadn't planned on visiting (yet) another aquarium, The Bun found a brochure lying around in the apartment, and began nagging at us to go. The aquarium is located in Konstanz, the largest German town along the lake, and we visited it in the afternoon after leaving Insel Mainau. The aquarium is quite small and not terribly interesting, but the kids seemed to like it and I appreciated the fact that it was indoors and provided us with respite from the blazing heat. In fact, just past the gift shop was a small play corner with a climbing frame and a ball-pit, and with nothing much else to do J and I just released the kids in it and spent nearly forty-five minutes there. It was actually okay - they got some excess energy out, and J and I got a chance to sit down on a bench and catch our breaths. Later on we had dinner at a nearby beer garden called Hafenhalle, which was also very relaxed. We sat outdoors and ate our food and drank our beer while the kids were occupied in a large sandpit nearby. Always good for a relaxing holiday! And of course, being in Germany meant that shops were open till 830pm, so I even got to squeeze in a bit of shopping after dinner was over. (Being in Germany also meant we could eat dinner at least an hour earlier than in the French part of Switzerland, which is a boon when you have young children.)
_______________
Since we were in the area, J and I decided one afternoon to take a drive to the Appenzeller region, which is best known for its distinctive cheese and scenic countryside. It was quite a long drive but it paid off when the mountains came into view. Every time I'm in the mountains I forget all my grouses about Switzerland being a boring country with no decent shopping, because frankly, with views like these who needs to shop? Save the shopping for other countries, declares Switzerland, and come for a walk. And so we did, despite the fact that we didn't have hiking footwear.
The path we took was an easy one, though, flat and perfect for little legs. We came across a small herd of cows grazing right alongside the path, and later on stopped at a stream for a barefoot paddle and for The Bun to collect some rocks. I think if we had been better prepared we would have followed the path an hour or so into the mountains where apparently there is a lovely lake hidden away, but it was late in the afternoon and I didn't think the kids would stand up to a two hour long hike with inadequate preparation. So we turned back and went to the inn at the mouth of the trail, and had drinks while the kids played in the playground outside.
He could have spent all day in there if we'd let him.
_______________
On our drive home we stopped at the Rhine Falls, on the western end of the Bodensee, along the Rhine river. It is Europe's largest plain waterfall and really dramatic-looking, although I guess not as dramatic as the Niagara Falls. However, compared to Niagara, it doesn't have an entire tourist town built up around it, which I like. You just park your car, buy your ticket, go through the gates and then walk down the many flights of stairs towards the river, getting different views of the falls each way. It is a popular tourist destination, but the Swiss have largely left it alone, and there isn't an entire town's worth of rubbish tourist traps to spoil the experience.
We took the little boat to the rock in the middle of the falls and then gingerly climbed up - a bit tricky, especially with Bao, because the steps were very steep and narrow and you had to jostle with people trying to climb down as you were going up. It was fun when we were finally at the top with all the water rushing by so loudly you could barely hear other people talk. After taking the boat back to dry land we had a quick lunch on the terrace and then embarked on the long drive home.
_______________
And that's it - well done if you've actually read this far. I'm not sure when I'll find the time to post more amidst all the birthday excitement and mad packing, but updates will be on Instagram as usual.