Konstanz

Konstanz is located in south western Germany on the western end of a very large lake which the Germans call the Bodensee. Ever since Jeanette went there with her high school German class, I had been wanting to visit so stopping there on this trip satisfied that long-held desire.

We stayed at The Hotel Halm which is located just across the street from the train station. Not having to lug our bags onto an unfamiliar streetcar was a wonderful thing. So convenient! Also, ever since our first night at the Brussels Airport Hotel Ibis, the rooms had been getting progressively larger, and this was the largest room yet. It even had a jacuzzi!

Here is a picture of the hotel and some pictures of the train station and of the boats anchored in the lake taken from our hotel window. One side of the tracks in the train station is in Germany, and the other side is in Switzerland.

Just down the street from the hotel is a beautiful waterfront promenade. At the end of a pier, this 29-1/2 foot statue of a prostitute named Imperia rotates slowly on its pedestal. The statue commemorates the Council of Konstanz, the most important assembly of the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. It was called by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund and held between 1414 and 1418 to elect a new pope. Eventually, Pope Martin V was selected.

Honoré de Balzac wrote a novel about about corruption and seduction during the council featuring the character Imperia. The statue holds the naked figures of Sigismund and Pope Martin V in her outstretched arms to symbolize her own power over the powerful.

The statue was created by Peter Lenke, and it was erected clandestinely one night in 1993 amidst controversy. The town council and the bishop of Freiburg had strongly objected to it, but since the harbor area is owned by the German Rail Company, they were unable to stop the installation.

The statue has since become a popular symbol of the town.

Here are some other pictures of the area.

We had seen this type of duck swimming in the lake in Zurich, but we didn't realize they had such curious feet until we saw them again in Konstanz.

We could see the steeple of the Konstanz Cathedral in the distance, so we slowly wandered towards it through the pleasant streets of the town.

At the cathedral, a flea market on the church grounds was just shutting down and the moon was rising beside the steeple. We decided to return to the church the next day to explore the interior.

As the sun set and the temperature dropped, we headed back to meet Jeanette and Morgan and to find a place to eat dinner. The whole town had a relaxed, holiday, resort kind of feel to it.