Day 187 - Lindau

Take a beautiful fresh mountain water lake, surround it by snow-capped mountains and then drop an island into it on which sits a medieval city ... and voila! You have Lindau. Located on Lake Constance (or Bodensee) in Bavaria, Germany, the old town sits on Lindau island. On a pillar at the entrance to its harbour is a statue of a Bavarian Lion on one side and a stone lighthouse on the other.

We stayed on the outskirts of the town in a Best Western Plus that was only a few hundred metres from the sea, and about a 20-minute walk into the town. On our first night here, we walked in just as the sun was setting.

After Jonah's confirmation, we returned to Lindau in time to take a longer walk while the sun was still up and managed to walk our way around the island and through many of its streets. It's a lovely place to visit, with views across to the Alps that make up Austria and Switzerland. You can take boat roads and find yourself visiting three countries in one day.

The coat of arms of Lindau town is a linden tree, (Linde means linden tree in German), which happens to be Phil's favourite tree, so off to a good start. Like many cities, it started out with a Roman settlement, then a religious settlement, before growing into a city. At one point, it was an Imperial Free City, and was transferred to Austria for a time.

Today, the city is famous for hosting the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings each year, which bring together Nobel laureates and young scientists to foster scientific exchange between different generations and cultures.