My last Germany 2018 post includes cake, cats, sheep, goats, an abbey, ice cream, a bear cave, and a disco ball man!

My brother-in-law told me my 5th full day in Germany would be a “no travel” day.  I was hoping that meant a “relax day” but it was not.  He told me they really needed to spend some time in their 2 gardens [land they own, about a 5 minute drive from their house] harvesting vegetables & nuts, and composting the hundreds of apples and pears that had fallen from their trees. 

After spending most of the morning on the Island of Mainau, we headed back to the car and drove over the border into Switzerland! My brother-in-law Joachim wanted me to see Rheinfall, which [in my opinion] is the Niagara Falls of Switzerland. Beautiful!

After breakfast we cleared out of the apartment and headed back to Lake Konstanz. Joachim took us to the Isle of Mainau, aka “The Island of Flowers”. It was amazing! The whole island is a botanical garden, and in the center is an enclosed butterfly garden. I could have stayed there for a week.

On Tuesday of my trip to Germany we drove to Singen to visit the ruins of Hohentwiel castle. It’s the largest castle ruin in Germany. Then it was off to visit my nephew and his family on the edge of Lake Konstanz, and finally back to Singen for a comfortable stay at a rental apartment.

I arrived in Germany in the afternoon of September 8th. I was so tired that it was an early night for me. On my first full day in Germany my family took me to Ulm to see the Münster [tallest church in the world] and to eat some delicious Swabian food.

I spent all of last week in Germany visiting my German family.  It was awesome.  More about that trip in later posts.  On the way over, I had a 7 hour layover in Copenhagen. I took the metro from the airport to Kongens Nytorv and went on a one hour boat tour of the canals.