Instead of driving to the island and taking the bridge,
we opted for the cool ferry ride out there. By the dock,
there were DUCKS! (awesome!)
Ducks are teh awesome!
The lake was freaky still at this time of day, and the temperature
was already nearly 30C (85F).
The wind was dead, giving the lake this super cool creepy
feel about it.
Here's the ferry that would take us around the lake.
Comfortable and pretty quick too.
Plenty of room to sit around and relax in the hot sun.
All sorts of ferries zipping around the lake this morning.
Probably not the best weather for sailing, though.
There are a lot of vineyards and small towns on the lake. Quite
surprisingly (and pleasantly), no huge resorts either. It has a
very well maintained feel about it.
We made a number of stops along the way to pick up more people,
most of whom were going the same place as us.
The next stop was Meersburg, a cute little wine town with
an old castle (okay, okay, EVERY town as an old castle around
here ...)
Our first glimpses of the island.
Whoa, the boat has a pretty big bell on it.
We arrived at the island, and the hordes of people on the boat
all filed off.
Including this naked chubby dude with the video camera.
Here's the line-up to get OFF the island.
As you wander around, you realise there are two important things
here: gardens, and places to eat.
The colours are quite spectacular and you can literally wander
for hours seeing different things.
Or you can just eat and drink a lot. It's a favourite activity
here in Bavaria.
You can buy gifts for people too!
That's the post office, amusingly enough.
Our first view of the freaky huge plant with all sorts of different
colours.
On an island with beautiful gardens and Biergartens and feel
the sudden urge to pray? We've got that.
Holy crap! It's not a freaky huge plant, it's a freaky huge
Dwarf plant !!
Inside the church, it's very southern German in feeling.
MmmMmMmm ... fruit trees.
Next stop: the rose garden.
It's pretty insane how elabourate the thing is too.
The colours and attention to breeding are insane.
Samantha thinks this is Apollo, but it's hard to tell. It's old
and greek-y and Roman-y.
This is a Sequoia tree from California, actually.
Rose gardeners.
Inside here is the palm tree enclosure. They actually managed to
make it hotter and more humid than it already was outside !!!
The sun finally broke through the haze. Gorgeous!
Funky German art!
There are nice vistas of the lake all around the island.
The stepped-falls fountain thingie.
Inside the palm tree enclsoure.
Samantha couldn't resist poking the his belly button.
Lounging feels pretty good in this sun.
And beer.
Cool map of the island.
Back to the flowers.
Cute birdie!
Girl!
This is a huge peacock plant. Very well done.
It's definitely not as cool as the cute plant duckies!!
Samantha wanted to pet one of the duckies.
This is definitely the happiest plant in the park.
Cool lillies.
The Japanese gardens portion of the park.
The butterfly house.
It doesn't disappoint. There are zillions of butterflies in
here!!
Turtle party!!!
Girl alert!!!
Ducks!!111!!!!!!
Heading back, we passed the same towns again, such as Meersburg.
Samantha does not.
I'm just a dork spaz.
We ended up being treated to a wicked thunderstorm after we got
to our hotel in Meersburg, where we would spend the next night.
Not sure where he's going. With nasty thunderstorms afoot, can't
be good flying weather ...
The view from our hotel room.
Awesome shots as the thunderstorm arrives.