But, it was time to leave Switzerland and see but a few more places before our time in Europe came to an end. We traveled along the shore of the Rhine to where it exits Lake Constance at Kreuzlingen. Here we crossed the border into the German town of Konstanz (Constance). After a brief drive through town, we found the ferry landing.

A short ferry ride across the western arm of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) brings us to the town of Meersburg. This is another one of our favorite places. The town is set on the shore of the lake, has a picturesque wall and castle, and is very tourist friendly. We parked on the outskirts and walked into town. After lunch and some sightseeing, we retrieved the car and drove on. If you liked the virtual tour of Chillon, you might want to take a Virtual Tour of Meersburg. You have to download and install another plugin, one which I found more difficult to use than the earlier one.

Traveling east along the shore of Lake Constance brought us to Lindau, another tourist-friendly town. We parked near the harbor and took a stroll onto the breakwater. We saw a few interesting docking jobs before it was time to leave.

Finally, we returned to Munich. We "saved" 10 DM by not buying a map, and tried to navigate using the freebie that the auto rental place had given us. Fortunately, the Germans have good road signs and we found our way into the city and out the north side, towards the airport. We exited at Oberschleißheim and found the Gasthof Blauer Karpfen. Once settled in, we walked about ½ KM to the S-Bahn station (S stands for schnell: fast). We purchased our tickets, validated them, and soon boarded the train for downtown Munich.

Debarking at Marienplatz, we wended our way to the place in Munich: Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. Here, the beer is served in liter mugs, the Bavarian Band plays, and you're likely to sit with people from all over the world. At our table were a couple from Brazil, two guys from Vienna, a mother and son from Germany, and a couple from California. At regular intervals, we all sang "In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus."[click to hear the song] A few liters and a würst and sauerkraut dinner later, we retraced our route to the Blauer Karpfen.