Konstanz & the Bodensee

Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen, Bodensee 

From Brodgar to the Bodensee within a few days, and I seem to be on a Neolithic trail. This time, my split-level take on the world includes much less peaty waters and the stilt houses of the Pfahlbaumuseum, reconstructed from Stone and Bronze Age remains preserved in the mud.

It is so easy to transport oneself back in time and imagine a life spent as much in and above the water as on dry land, that were it not for the need to catch a ferry and make it back to Konstanz in time for dinner, as my young companion Jane urgently reminds me, I might have lost myself in time-travel. We swam in the public bathing area next to the museum, but would have done better to find a quieter spot on the road back to Meersburg.

We swam twice more, both times at Dingelsdorf, across the lake. With a café, lawn, playground, paddling-pool, and sunbathing platforms within a demarcated swimming area, it's all very comfortable and so very much warmer than Orkney, though still chill at 16c.

Strandbad Dingelsdorf, web-photo

Since time travel is denied me, I dip in and out of parallel worlds in the company of Jane, still a few years younger than my daughter was when she died of accidental drowning at 18, but similarly vivacious, bright and endearing. I had met Jane in California some 8 years ago, just a few months before Adelina's death. She still remembers some of the anecdotes I had told her then, and I decided that this first trip alone to Europe was not the time to tell her Adelina's story. So I enjoyed her company in good cheer, and dipped into fond could-have-beens as I swam. Long live the young!