Last week was our last week of summer break and it was HOT. It has been between 95 and 100F and over 70% humidity, which is insane for Germany. Our air conditioners struggled to keep up!
The biggest news of the week is that Matt took his CompTia Security+ exam and passed with an extra hour to spare!
Brooklyn and I had two more tennis lessons and we sweated buckets! Brooklyn also went to tennis conditioning every afternoon with the school team. Ryan took a trip up to Ramstein with his summer camp to do some school shopping.
Friday, after Matt‘s exam and Brooklyn’s tennis practice was over, we dropped off the dogs with their friends, Tobi and Paisley, and then got on the road for our weekend trip to Dornbirn, Austria.
We had booked a random weekend at the Marriott in Dornbirn, even though there wasn’t really anything we wanted to do there. I needed to earn some Marriott nights though and we were able to get a really cheap room with our friends and family discount. After we got checked in, the kids asked to go down to the pool and we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was an indoor pool in addition to the outdoor and it was heated to the temperature of a hot tub! There were several massage jets throughout as well. Turns out this hotel in the middle of nowhere was a “wellness hotel!”
Saturday, we headed back into Germany for the day and visited Lindau. I’ve wanted to visit Lindau since we moved so was super happy to finally get there. Lindau is located on it’s own island in Lake Constance and is the “Annapolis of Germany.”
We started with a walk around the old town and then headed down to the harbor. It definitely reminded us of Annapolis with the huge number of sailboats.
We walked out to the Lion statue and then around to the harbor to the Lighthouse on the other side.
Lindau has turned its old city wall into a park and we walked the ramparts and then stopped in a biergarten for lunch and drinks
After our walk around Lindau, we drove about ten minutes north to a “beach club” called The Lindi where we could go swimming in the lake. It was a typical German set up with a lawn instead of sandy beach and a railing to help people wade out into the water. The water was chilly but not too bad considering the heat. We all enjoyed alternating swimming and relaxing on the grass. We had dinner back in Dornbirn and then enjoyed another evening at the hotel spa.
Sunday, we drove into Bregenz, Austria. We had planned to do a little sightseeing and check out the opera house that was featured in the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. However, we didn’t realize that this was the actual weekend of the Bregenz International Film Festival so no parking was to be found. After we drove around for awhile, we decided to head home and try Bregenz another time.
We got back home in time to go grocery shopping and finish getting ready for the first day of school!
Gilcrests Abroad 