#2 - Biking around Lake Contance

We originally planned this trip for September of 2020, but it was put on hold (as were all of our lives) by the pandemic. The idea for the trip was simple: 1) Do an approximately one-week bike trip -- the kind where they take your bags each day to the next hotel. 2) After that, rent a car for a couple of weeks and wander in and around the Alps. So on April 17, we finally did the trip — 26 days in all.

The next series of posts will be about the bike trip.

Lake Constance forms part of the border of 3 countries -- Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The Rhine River flows through the lake on its way from the Alps to the North Sea. This bike route proved to be a great introduction to this type of bike touring. It was a mostly flat, 169-mile loop over 5 days through rolling farmland and orchards, with overnight stays in beautiful towns. And did I mention some stunning views of snow-covered mountains in the distance?

We arrived in the city of Konstanz, Germany, on April 19, after a 1:15 bus ride (Flixbus - $15 each, about half the train cost) from Zurich, where we had flown to the day before. Konstanz was an unexpectedly interesting city that I would love to visit again. Several locals told us this area is not on the usual itinerary of American travelers — which was music to our ears! Its history goes back not only to the Romans, but to the Stone Age. Because of its location on the Swiss border, it became an interesting and important place durning WWII.

There's a lot of water surrounding this town, and an unusual variety of types of sculptures and statues along the edge of the water, or in some cases have water flowing through them.

Watch this short video (starring Karen Date) of a rotating statue called “Imperia”, which is quite an oddity, to say the least. “Imperia was created by Peter Lenk and clandestinely erected in 1993. The statue refers to a short story by Balzac, "La Belle Impéria". The story is a harsh satire of the Catholic clergy's morals, where Imperia seduces cardinals and princes at the Council of Constance and has power over them all. The erection of the statue caused controversy, but it was on the private property of a rail company that did not object. Eventually, it became a widely-known landmark of Konstanz.” (Wikipedia)

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Not sure who Karl Steuer was, but this woman was only seeing one side of him and did not appear as impressed as I was.

Not sure who this guy was either, but all I can say is that I found his statue extremely offensive. Shame on you, Konstanz! There are families with children walking past this pornography.

There are many bike tour companies operating in Europe, but we chose a German company called Radweg-Reisen (literally "Bikepath Travel"). They are smaller than most of the other bike outfitters and they specialize in the Lake Constance area. Overall, we were very pleased with the bikes, the staff, the hotels they booked for us, the service, and the overall vibe of the company. Their headquarters was about 2 miles from our hotel in the center of Konstanz. You can take a city bus, but we decided to walk it and pick up our bikes the evening before we started our 5-day ride around the lake.

We were greeted by Teddy ("like the bear", he says), a friendly young man who grew up in Croatia. He talked with us for quite a while about Croatia, about living in Germany, and of course, about biking around the lake. His offer of free coffee, free high-quality ice cream bars, and words of encouragement about our trip added to our already optimistic anticipation of our first day on the trail the next morning.

After a short ride in the drizzle on our new red bikes, we arrived back at our hotel. The Hotel Halm is a lovely old place (1878) that still has much of the charm of days gone by.

Tomorrow would prove to be a different story (see next post). But for the next 12 hours, we were warm, dry and comfortable — with visions of bikepaths dancing in our heads.

See you on the Radweg!

The Hotel Halm (look closely to see Karen in front of the door)

70 Fun Things #1: Owamni - The best lunch we've ever had.

A few days ago I passed that "big birthday" milestone at which NO ONE can continue to deny being old. Karen is close behind, but somehow she has maintained a more youthful air about her as she savors her own dwindling days of 60-somethingness.

Many of my friends are older than I am. Most of them have figured out how to embrace (or at least accept) aging in ways that help me feel pretty good about all of this. Some of their secrets include getting off their butts and moving regularly, eating better, laughing, doing new things, valuing relationships with family and friends, actively seeking happiness, and finding a way every day to employ that oh so important concept of being grateful. Let me count the ways . . .

All of this brings me to the idea for this blog. Karen and I kicked around the idea of doing a "60 Fun Things at 60" blog but never got it going.

Teaching the grandkids the concept of multiplying the number of candles by 10.

Obviously, 70 is a much bigger number than 60, so waiting 10 years has not made it easier to come up with so many fun things. But we're going to give it a shot. And since our birthdays are only 9 days apart, we're going through this "being 70" year together and the "fun things" will mostly be shared experiences. We're in this together, and I can't imagine being on this adventure without her. So off we go!

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Fun thing #1: Lunch at Owamni Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis

We finally made it to Owamni a couple of days ago after a much-too-long wait. Sean Sherman, long known around Minnesota as "The Sioux Chef" opened this James Beard Award winning "Best New Restaurant" in the summer of 2021. His cookbook had already won the 2018 James Beard award for "Best American Cookbook". Read more about Sean Sherman and Owamni in these links to an article in The New Yorker and also a piece by Minnesota Public Radio.

(Update on 4/15/23: Yet another national award, this one from TIME Magazine -- Owamni founder Sean Sherman among TIME's 100 Most Influential People !!!)

So, how was it? We both loved the place -- everything about it. The space, the view (overlooking the Mississippi River), the ambience, and the staff were all wonderful. The core philosophy behind Owamni it is to serve healthy, natural foods that would have been found in this part of the world prior to colonialism . . . and just as importantly, to prepare these foods in new ways and serve them with love and respect to indigenous people and to the Earth.

(Diagonally from lower left) Wild Rice, Bison Stew, Corn-fried Tepary Beans, Elk & Sweet Potato Corn Sandwich

(L) Corn Fried Terpary Beans, (R) Elk & Sweet Potato Corn Sandwich

The menu selections we tried were all fantastic. It was fun to see so many things on the menu that were unknown to us, and we asked our server to explain several of them to us. Who would have thought thattruly American cuisine could seem so foreign? Even then, you can't really picture many of the dishes until they arrive. My advice is to trust your server and trust this wonderful restaurant to serve you beautiful, healthy and delicious food. (See current menu here.)

Toward the end of the meal we we were looking for our server to come by so we could ask her to take our picture. We were both thinking the same thing, but Karen said it out loud, "This is the best meal I've ever had in a restaurant."

We will go back again and again. Sean Sherman, Dana Thompson and everyone who works here are doing everything right and deserve all the success and praise that has come to them.

Okay, so we have our first "fun thing at 70" in the books. Happy birthday to us!