12 April 2015 - Lindau in perfect spring weather

Today marked 4 months since we left our house in Blackburn and spent the night at a hotel near to Tullamarine airport before flying to Thailand.  It seems so long ago!  We are one third of the way through our year away.  We have had many amazing experiences and have family memories and stories to tell.  We have changed and that is part of travelling.  We hope we have opened our children's eyes to the many challenges and perspectives and that these will influence them to appreciate the world and its citizens.  Although there have been so many great times, there have also been times when we feel like we would like to give up!  Luke's behaviour has been a constant challenge and distance education is a really hard slog for me a supervisor.  It is a full time role which we take seriously and also fit in our exploring.  We go to bed, tired, and with a sigh of relief at the end of each day.  As we have always said, it is not a holiday but an experience on a budget and so different from a short stint away with meals out and coffee shops!

As it was Sunday and as the kids had all finally finished and submitted their Term 1 school work, I was keen to have an outing.  The weather was so enticing and I had heard about Lindau, an island near to the Austrian border on the shores on the beautiful Bodensee.  

The Bodensee

One of many ferries

After a bit of research about parking places in Lindau and picnic packing, we set off.  Oh, the freedom of having a car!  We are pretty much used to the right hand side of the road and our Tom tom gives us additional confidence.

Looking over to Lindau

What a spot for morning tea!

We walked to the side of the lake and sat down admiring the panorama for morning tea.  Tim and Annika decided to jump down, as you do, to the lakeside and before we knew it, Annika had slipped in!  Kids will be kids!

Guess who slipped in the lake?!

They just have to do it...!

There is a short bridge connecting Lindau to the mainland.  Once again, there were fabulous well maintained old buildings, a few with very ornate frescoes, typical of Bavaria.

The Lindau Harbour

Lindau was established 882 - so very old!!  Most of the buildings now were built in 1500's.  The town itself reminds you of something from a fairy tale with its narrow streets full of tightly packed gable houses, all painted different pastel colours which against the blue sky looked magnificent. 

Sun seats

Another set of seats

Town square

The town square, opposite the museum, had wonderfully comfortable seats for us to enjoy our picnic lunch on!  It was reasonably busy being a beautiful Sunday afternoon with people, bikes and dogs.

The museum with its Bavarian frescoes

A protestant church by the look of things, much less ornate than other churches we have seen

The harbour mouth is guarded by a lion and a lighthouse, built in 1853, the most southern lighthouse in Germany.  There seems to be no agreement as to what the symbol of the lion means in Bavaria.  From my research, most concur that the lion symbolised power.

Harbour mouth

Love the grapevine growing up the side of the cafe!

Town hall

Typical street

How about this little blue bookshop?!

More Bavarian art work.

We saw a pair of white swans on their nest at the foot of the stairs.  As the female got up to eat some bread from a well-wisher, we saw six eggs in her straw and eider nest.  The male had scooted off chasing away "threatening" ducks.  Luke said that the male swan was like a: "wild security camera keeping the area safe"!

Mother swan and her 6 eggs

Back at our house, I had promised Luke that we would make some damper for his last school project, so we did.  The local raspberry jam and goldsaft (syrup from sugar beets) on damper made a delicious afternoon tea.

Damper for afternoon tea!