Our travel through Germany is long over, yet I still have many many more places to share with you guys. I hope you all enjoyed all the different attractions and places we have seen so far and I have many more planned in the coming weeks. Looking back at all the pictures and creating these posts brought me back to Germany in my dreams. Oh how I miss it, but the memories are priceless and will never go away. This time we are visiting the beautiful Island called “Mainau”. It is also called the Flower Island.
You will quickly find out why they call it the flower Island, for one there are flowers and plants all over from all across the world. It was stunning and the other thing we had to take a fairy to bring us to the island. It was a lot of fun, we never drove on a fairy before so taking our car and everything onto that big fairy was a bit scary. luckily my friends made it on the fairy ahead of us and were able to take a picture of our fairy and our car, pretty cool.
Mainau is an island in Lake Constance (some call it Bodensee) near the city of Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is maintained as a garden island and a model of excellent environmental practices. Administratively, the island has been a part of Konstanz since December 1, 1971, when the municipality of Litzelstetten, of which Mainau was part, was incorporated into Konstanz.
The island belongs to the Lennart Bernadotte-Stiftung an entity created by Prince Lennart, Count Bernadotte of Wisborg, formerly a Prince of Sweden and Duke of Småland. It is one of the main tourist attractions of Lake Constance. Beside flowers there is a park landscape with views on the lake. There is also a greenhouse with tropical climate and thousands of butterflies. As well as a petting zoo and an amazing playground for the kids.
We spent an entire day at the island and I bet we haven’t seen half of it. The fun part, my friend and her family took half of the island and we took the other half and at the end of the day we put our pictures together and ended up with lots of pictures of the entire island. It was a lot of fun and soo many things to do. If you got tired just hang out at one of the many seating areas near the water under trees or just in the lushes green grass.
We were able to see many things like the tallest trees imported from the US to a miniature train station; it was a blast. The kids could ride pony’s hang out at one of the playgrounds or even try to be Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin at the water play area. So much fun for every age group.
Island Mainau, the lake is part of the Rhine River and is the third-largest-freshwater lake in Central Europe. Lake Constance is located in the northeast of Switzerland and in fact is bordered by three countries. The south side of the lake lies in Swiss territory, while the eastern end is bordered by Austria. Head around to the north side of the lake and you’ll find yourself in Germany. It’s an odd arrangement, particularly as there are border crossing points whenever you enter or leave Switzerland, as it’s not part of the European Union. However, you can drive freely between Germany and Austria, and in fact, you barely notice when you move from one country to the next, with just a simple sign to tell you that you’ve now crossed the border.
How cool is this. We took the picture in Konstanz, Germany and this is the border crossing into Switzerland. See the houses behind the border crossing, they are in Switzerland. Crazy how things are in Europe, but pretty cool, too. We were that close to Switzerland and almost headed “over” for dinner. However the mount fee that you have to pay in Switzerland to use their roads wasn’t worth it for me to jump in for an hour or two for dinner, so we ended up staying in Germany and found a beautiful little traditional German restaurant, which to my surprise were hard to find. None the less it was delicious.
What a beautiful place to visit and hang out, so if you ever get a chance to visit Europe, be sure to head to the Island Mainau, it’s stunning, beautiful and will offer something for all age groups.
If you like to check it out for yourself or want to get your travel plans ready, Island Mainau has their own website, be sure to check it out and start an amazing journey through flowers, animals, forest and many other things you will encounter along the way.
I will have many more of our Travel posts in the weeks to come, so be sure to check back often, pin your favorite travel posts and if you missed any, no worries you can find them all in my Germany folder.
One more thing I have to share.. this is our car ride after the island on our way back to our apartment… hang on and take the autobahn rider… enjoy it and yes… I wasn’t too excited about the speed, but hubby sure was excited. He went 180 kmh which is around 111/112 mph. YEAh.. only in Germany! Buckle up and check it out, is a short 30 second video.
I was not compensated nor asked to write this post; just merely our Family vacation that I’m sharing with you, hope you are enjoying our trip.
Tough Cookie Mommy says
This looks like a beautiful place to visit. I love all of its history and the beautiful sights. I’m sure you all made many beautiful memories there.
Chrissy says
What a gorgeous Country! This is def on my bucket list! 🙂
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Theresa says
My cousin is just coming home from being stationed in Germany this past year. It really is a very beautiful country! How cool that you were that close to Switzerland! I would have been tempted to hop over for dinner as well 🙂
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Bridgitte says
I think it is time for another trip! Your photographs are stunning!
Scott says
Oh gosh, I had forgotten all about those huge car ferries! I remember taking one all the way to England when we visited! Love this series of posts – bring so much back to me!
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Terry says
What great memories you have given your kids of you beloved Germany. I have never been, but who knows… I may get to go one day.
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Erika says
Ah I went to Germany briefly once upon a time. Would sure love to go back and explore the rest of Europe one of these days … thanks for the inspiration.
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Erica says
I have never traveled outside of the US except for a few brief trips to Canada. My husband was stationed in Germany for many years, though. This looks like a neat place to visit!
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Michele says
What a beautiful place that is. I love that you have to take a ferry to get there! I would love to be able to go there one day.
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valmg says
It looks beautiful! I’ve always wanted to go there. I didn’t know there was a “mount fee” to cross the border. We have some toll roads here in the US, is the amount similar to that?
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