Day 33 - Meersburg, Germany

We woke up to a rainy day in Strasbourg so we went at a leisurely pace to the train station.  We left France and headed to Germany.  The train ride was so beautiful as we wound through the Black Forest.  Everything was so lush and fresh.  It was extremely pleasant.  We arrived in Konstanz, another town on Lake Constance (Bodensee).   We needed to take a ferry to Meersburg and elected to take the passenger ferry since our traveling "light" has grown to 8 pieces of overstuffed baggage.  The passenger ferry is located at the train station; otherwise we would have needed to take a bus or taxi to the car ferry.  The ferry ride was about 20 minutes so it was short but fun to be on the water.  The lake borders Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.  Although it was overcast, we could see a little bit of the Swiss Alps.  We were pleasantly surprised that our hotel "Alte Post" was on the lake promenade.  We checked in and had dinner at the restaurant at the hotel.  The kids made friends with 2 German girls.  Jackson was determined to teach them baseball.  He became frustrated because they didn't know English.  Jack came to the rescue by recalling the only German phrase he had learned 20 years ago on his backpacking trip: "Ich will mein Tanzbien swingen."  The phrase translated in English is "I want to swing my dancing legs."  So Jackson taught them how to "swingen" the bat.