Stage 12 - Friedrichshafen - Stein am Rein - 97 km

Man, yesterday was a pain trying to find a place to stay. I knew I didn.t want to stay in Lindau, too many tourists, but it wasn.t until about 6:00 before I found a place. I didn.t go to the Zeppelin museum, I guess leaving off all of these tourist things to do gives me a reason to come back! That has been one of the good things about this trip, I get to see the towns in a more "raw" sense and it helps me know where I will come back to and where I won.t! I got out of the main touristy area on the north (German) side of the lake, and now I am on the NW Swiss side. Very cute little town here, I think it.s worth a stop so far. I usually tour the town a little before and after dinner. I saw one of many "public" beaches along the path before I got into town so I went back there for a few hours. It.s a public beach, as long as you pay the 2.50 Euro! Fortunately it wasn.t a nude beach, I don.t believe I saw anything that I would have wanted to see without a bikini, banana hammock, one-piece, SOMETHING! But the water was very cool and it was good to get a dip in the Bodensee then catch some rays, read my book, listen to some tunes and just chill. I wish the Nautique were here, I really miss skiing and wakeboarding! Hopefully Dave and Toby are getting enough sets in for me. I haven.t seen too many ski boats on the lake, mostly sail boats and a few cabin cruisers. Tomorrow I plan to head back towards Lindau then toward Chur, we.ll see how far I get. Til next time, ciao, adios, tschuss!

All of the buildings are true timber construction, with age to show for it.

Many buildings had these murals painted on the sides, similar to Garmisch.

I wonder if the original Builder would warranty the sagging roof and timbers, only a couple of hundred years later!